Lumina Foundation has set an audacious goal for itself and for the nation—to increase the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by the year 2025. The Foundation developed a strategic plan for 2013-2016 that laid out priorities in four strategic areas, each of which would contribute to measurable progress toward the 2025 goal.

Before the final plan was approved, Lumina staff developed detailed strategies, including measurable objectives and performance measures. Working groups were organized for each strategic area and to work intensively on development of the plans.

Impact Catalysts (through its predecessor firm, Root Cause) supported Lumina’s Director of Organizational Performance & Evaluation and Director of Organizational Learning and Alignment in guiding the working groups through the planning process. In order to produce a detailed strategy for the board, we facilitated each working group in defining the social problem, what constituted success for the strategy, how the foundation would organize itself, what specific interventions would be pursued, and how the strategy could be measured and adjusted based on interim results.