Gulfcoast Legal Services, Inc.

Our organization goals can be split up into several categories.

In terms of impact, our goals for the next 2-5 years are to expand our reach in the community, helping more people in a more meaningful and long-lasting way. We also hope to work with our community to better understand their needs, and ensure we are working to meet those needs.

Within the organization, we are seeking sustainability and long-term stability. We are working to expand our board in terms of history and background, adding non-lawyers like businesspeople, those working in the finance field, and former clients, to help us better inform our work. With staff, we are working to create a succession plan to ensure the organization can continue to exist in the hands of many rather than just in the hands of one.

Our long term goals are to grow our sustainability in funding, developing several strong funding sources, not just grants. Over the next few years, we hope to grow our funding base to include individual donors, foundations, and more.

To help expand our reach in the community, we have added a new marketing and resource development staff position, and have begun encouraging program staff to do community lawyering, the act of meeting clients in their communities. To help ensure we are aware of our community's needs, we recently developed an online needs assessment which will be accessed through our website. This assessment will cover the full range of civil legal topics and help inform us about our community's true needs.

To improve our board diversity, we have recently updated our board packet and are actively recruiting in the community. Our succession plan has recently been put into play by promoting staff members to managing positions, helping them gain the knowledge, insight, and experience they need to grow their responsibilities within the organization.

Our long term growth is being worked on slowly. We have begun friendraising within the community, working to expand our marketing so more people know we exist, what we do, and how they can help. A consultant for fundraising will be brought on within the next year.

Our organization is now uniquely poised to meet our goals. With a new executive director with over thirty years experience working in the nonprofit field, we have leadership that is best suited to guide us and move us forward. With a group of managing staff that has been with the organization for decades in combined experience, we have the history and knowledge to learn from our mistakes, and continue to use our former best practices. Our new staff brings fresh ideas, new energy, and support to existing staff.

GLS is also supported by many other community organizations, including CASA, AAAPP, the Florida Bar Foundation, and many others who have provided long term support, partnership, and feedback.

So far, we have been successful in planting the foundation for meeting our goals. We have set the ground rules - we know what we want to do, and have implemented plans to meet our goals. Already, we have created new board member packets and begun planning to conduct outreach for new members. We have begun sending out more press releases, adding blogs to our website, and upped our social media activity. Our two new management members have taken on new responsibilities, including additional leadership, and will continue to obtain the training they need to be successful. Although individual donations are slow to come, we will continue to work to improve this facet of our fundraising until we have a stable base.