The Jefferson Avenue center Strategic plan | 2020-2025
Approved by The Jefferson Avenue Board of Trustees on July 30, 2020
About us
The Jefferson Avenue Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preservation with a purpose. We’re committed to empowering other nonprofits, preserving historic buildings, and advancing racial and social justice in the nonprofit sector. We believe that when charitable organizations save money on overhead costs like rent, they can spend more on their mission and focus on important values including diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Since our founding in 1975, The Jefferson Avenue Center has revitalized historic buildings in Columbus to provide affordable space to nonprofit organizations. Today, our historic community of nonprofits is home to more than 20 tenants, including social service agencies, arts and cultural organizations, and advocacy groups.
Mission
The Jefferson Avenue Center owns and operates historic and newly developed properties that support a community of nonprofit organizations in central Ohio.
Motto
Preservation with a purpose
Vision
With our legacy of historic preservation, The Jefferson Avenue Center will help promote a more just and equitable community of nonprofits in Columbus. We will provide affordable spaces to charitable organizations with the core values of diversity, equity and inclusion, and we will develop collaborations to create viable connections and programming with neighborhood organizations through the lens of racial justice.
About the plan
This 5-year strategic plan was developed by The Jefferson Avenue Center Board of Trustees in 2020. The plan is intended to guide the organization through the end of 2025, when The Jefferson Avenue Center will celebrate its 50th anniversary. This plan will serve as a living document and shall be used as a guide for operations, committee work, and quarterly board meeting discussions.
Our goals
Between 2020 and 2025, The Jefferson Avenue Center is prioritizing four goals: advancing racial and social justice, elevating our profile, beautifying our spaces, and planning for a sustainable future. Our strategies and tactics to accomplish those goals are outlined below.
1. Advance racial and social justice.
The Jefferson Avenue Center is committed to advancing racial and social justice both within our organization and in the world at large. We seek to become a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable organization in a number of ways, and we have woven some of them throughout this plan in our efforts to increase community engagement and plan for a more sustainable future. Other strategies and tactics to advance racial justice include:
a. Create a diversity and inclusion committee
i. The committee will guide the efforts of the board, other committees, and the executive director as well as ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are woven into all work by The Jefferson Avenue Center
b. Review the history of segregation in our neighborhood and develop a plan to acknowledge our past
c. Provide diversity training and resources for our staff and board
d. Consider ways to reflect the makeup of our community when we recruit new tenants
e. Explore ways we can utilize our property to advance racial justice
2. Elevate our profile.
The Jefferson Avenue Center was founded in 1975, and it is a valuable but not well known community resource in central Ohio. Elevating our profile will allow us to secure the resources, support, and visibility essential for providing our tenants with affordable spaces and strengthening the local nonprofit community. We seek to increase awareness of the organization in the following ways:
a. Build stronger marketing materials to showcase the strengths of The Jefferson Avenue Center
i. Evaluate existing messaging and create new messaging, including talking points and a strong elevator pitch that highlight our motto of “preservation with a purpose” and incorporate The Good Haus
ii. Evaluate what additional print and digital assets are needed to share with our stakeholders and potential donors; create and implement a plan to develop additional content for web, email, social, and PR, including pieces highlighting the success of our alumni organizations and how we cultivate effective nonprofits
iii. Evaluate a long-range timeline for an eventual brand refresh (if needed)
b. Increase and deepen community engagement through collaborative programming and events
i. Engage with our neighbors in the King-Lincoln Bronzeville neighborhood and work to erase the racial boundary that is written into our geographic history
1. Develop and implement a strategic and thoughtful plan for the future focused on engaging with neighboring businesses, residents, and organizations
ii. Engage community partners to explore how we can work together on developing collaborative events (e.g. a signature event)
1. Figure out how to engage with planned Bronzeville celebration
iii. Research tenant and community interest in recurring town halls and meetings with rotating topics and speakers
iv. Investigate speaking engagements to position our Executive Director as a thought leader in the areas of historic preservation and nonprofit leadership
3. Beautify our spaces.
The Jefferson Avenue Center is home to a number of beautiful historic buildings that have been painstakingly preserved. In the years ahead, we will continue to prioritize their upkeep in the following ways:
a. Develop and implement a plan to refresh the interior spaces of our campus buildings, in order of spaces with the most need and as logistics will allow (e.g. transition space)
b. Create a master plan for campus landscaping, signage and lighting, and prioritize implementation of changes to the east side of our campus, which will become more visible with the completion of ODOT work in 2022
c. Develop and implement plan to refresh the exterior of the building at 37 Jefferson Avenue
i. Investigate painting, art installation and other options, factoring in routine maintenance, long-term viability, and historic district appropriateness when selecting the right solution.
4. Plan for a sustainable future.
The Jefferson Avenue Center will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2025, and we want to ensure that the organization is set up for success for the next 50 years. To do that, we will:
a. Rework our board recruitment strategy to ensure that the makeup of our board is more diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, LGBTQ+ status, etc.
b. Review our contracts and vendor agreements to increase support for Black-owned and other minority-owned businesses, and add EEO and diversity language into all contracts
c. Develop a staffing and succession plan to ensure the continued success of the organization
i. Establish an annual review process for Executive Director
ii. Develop a succession plan for Executive Director and Director of Properties, who are invaluable to the organization
iii. Develop a board leadership succession plan
iv. Assess additional staffing needs
d. Develop a financial reserve policy
e. Investigate the feasibility of potential expansion plans
i. Explore acquisition of additional buildings or developing on existing parcels
f. Investigate the feasibility of adding a social enterprise initiative
g. Develop and implement a plan for the building at 50 Jefferson Avenue, which will be transferred to JAC in 2024
h. Develop and implement a plan to celebrate the organization's 50th anniversary in 2025