Strategic Planning Assessment Program
Strategic Planning Assessments For Organizations
The Community Arts Development Program area supports cultural organizations, statewide partnerships, and provides resources to creative communities across Nevada. The Nevada Arts Council is committed to elevating the cultural landscape of Nevada by introducing strategic organizational assessments, designed to support the specific needs of cultural organizations.
The CAD Strategic Planning Assessments is a free service designed based on the needs of the organization. These assessments may involve an evaluation of organizational governance structure, risk management, and other operational systems. It may also include technical assistance, program support, and resources to enhance skills, knowledge, and overall infrastructure of the organization and its personnel. The Community Arts Development team will recommend and support organizations towards applying for grant opportunities as available and relevant.
ASSESSMENT OPPORTUNITIES – Pilot COMING in Summer 2025
The strategic assessments will be available (one per organization) in five areas: (1) organizational, (2) program, (3) venue, (4) community in focus, (5) cultural training.
Organizational: This assessment is designed to help nonprofit organizations improve their internal administrative support. The Community Arts Development team will provide technical assistance in areas such as board development, crisis management, nonprofit management, budgets, policy reviews and strategic planning.
Programming: This assessment focuses on evaluating the value and benefits of community programming. The Community Arts Development team will review organizational activities, assess community impact, and offer recommendations for programming improvement. The CAD staff will work to create an efficient timeline for and offer next steps in moving programmatic activities forward.
Venue: This assessment is designed to help improve the audience experience at a performance venue. The CAD staff will provide personalized facility walk-throughs, as well as inclusive ADA compliance resources, recommendations and overall organizational best practices.
Community in Focus: This assessment is focused on evaluating the cultural and equitable offerings of your community. Staff will provide a brief demographic assessment of your community, including distinct cultural assets to identify gaps in your programming, help improve the focus of mission driven statements and strengthen narratives for supporters, funders, and grant applications.
Cultural Training: This assessment includes an overview of how bias is developed, reinforced and practiced through cultural traditions, personal upbringing and professional experiences. Community Arts Development staff will lead organizational personnel through a series of team building activities to create a shared understanding of the complex aspects of implicit bias.
Strategic Planning Assessment Task Force
April Mastroluca has 20 years of experience working and volunteering in the nonprofit sector and is currently a nonprofit consultant specializing in nonprofit board development, organizational assessments, strategic planning, and advocacy education. Her organizational knowledge comes from working as a staff member for a number of Nevada nonprofits in numerous roles including program management, membership cultivation, board training, director of development, and executive director. In 2023, she became a licensed consultant for the Standards for Excellence, which is an ethics and accountability code for nonprofits. This knowledge gives her access to nationally recognized best practices in the area of organizational governance, operations, and management.
Laura Meyer has more than 20 years of experience in program development, implementation, and evaluation. Programmatic areas of interest include youth development, educational enhancements, arts education and outreach, social-emotional learning, and nonprofit/school district partnerships. Her evaluation experience uses a model of continuous program improvement to develop metrics for success that can also be applied to improve program impact year over year. Additionally, her program design and impact strategy complement each other to ensure that reporting impact metrics; metrics that consider nonprofit capacity and impact what funders expect to see from programs of similar scope. These evaluations eventually lead to scalable programming with a clear illustration of impact.
Jen Tune is the program director of Main Street Gardnerville, a 501 c(3) nonprofit corporation and the only accredited Main Street America program in the state of Nevada. Jen oversees board and committee development, budgeting, and executing work plans. She also manages donors, funding and surveys. In addition, she manages volunteers, develops transformation strategies (strategic planning) for programs and projects towards community development. She also creates policies and procedures, while conducting monthly committee and board of director’s meetings.
STAFF
- Community Arts Development Specialist (Northern Nevada), Lauren Frick
- Community Arts Development Specialist (Southern Nevada), Michelle Patrick