View Printable VersionHow SAI Can Help You
Leadership Connection/Nonprofit Turnaround
What does it take to turn a moderately sized, ably run nonprofit into a financially sound, unwavering, mission-driven business?
SAI's Leadership Connection series, which consists of workshops, half and full-day seminars, and multi-day retreats, explores such business acumen as mission and values, leadership, human resource management, crisis management, strategy, budgeting, and growth that can help you turn around your non-profit organization.
SAI works with its clients to conduct comprehensive assessments of the organization. We examine all areas of the business including managerial, corporate governance, financial, programmatic, and fundraising. Following the assessment, we develop for the client a strategic course of action, which includes a focus on both short and long-term change. In order to assist in the implementation of the recommendations, a team of SAI consultants is assigned to the client for a specific period of time.
In conjunction with the Leadership Connection, SAI provides domestic and international non-profits, non-governmental organizations and faith-based groups with ongoing support in the areas of government relations, fund development, training and facilitation, strategic planning, and speaking engagements. Some of these groups include the following organizations:
- Nazarene Compassionate Ministries
- Grace Community Church
- Heart to Heart International
- CitiHope International
Government Relations
Strategic Applications International (SAI) offers a variety of services to its clients from strategic planning to government relations. Located in our nation’s capitol, and with a team of consultants with years of experience on Capitol Hill, SAI is in a unique position to represent the interests of local and state government, non-profits, and faith-based organizations. Currently SAI represents a variety of state and local government organizations, faith-based ministries, and several non-profits in their efforts to acquire Federal funding to support initiatives in law enforcement, housing, mentoring, drug courts, and work with those reentering our communities from incarceration.
SAI is providing a niche or unique service for faith-based organizations developing government relations strategies as they seek federal funding and resources to support their work and ministry. SAI consultants come from strong faith-based backgrounds, have extensive experience working with Congress, and have helped to craft the federal strategy to include the ministries and services of faith-based communities. SAI provides consulting services to faith-based communities in strategic planning, grant development, organizational infrastructure to build capacity to receive Federal funding, and provide consultation on strategies to acquire Federal earmarks to enhance their service. No other firm in Washington, DC works with the faith-based community in this type of government relations work.
SAI's government relations clients have included:
- King County Sheriff’s Office
- National Alliance of Faith and Justice
- Beaches Chapel Reentry Ministry
- National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice
- The Church of the Nazarene
- National Association of Drug Court Professionals.
Fund Development
Strategic Applications International (SAI) offers a variety of services to its clients from strategic planning to fund development. Its diverse team has years of experience raising money for non-profit ventures, having raised over $100 million in private sector funds in the last 12 years.
SAI is uniquely positioned to help non-profit and faith-based organizations in fund development planning, strategic corporate partnership development, grant writing, and corporate philanthropy. We not only assist our clients with traditional philanthropy, but we also help them form long-term strategic alliances with corporations that generate significant win-wins for the nonprofit and the corporate partner.
Currently SAI represents a variety of organizations in their efforts to secure private sector funding to support initiatives in law enforcement, historical preservation, and mentoring. SAI's fund development clients have included the following organizations:
- Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, Inc. -- New Partnership Initiative Grant through the United States Agency for International Development, Zambia & Ethiopia ($10 million project)
- Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Inc.- Mentoring Grant through the United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
- Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Inc.- Grant through The Coca-Cola Foundation for "Water for a Generation"
- Challenge Grant for Volunteerism for National and Community ($200,000 project)
- Challenge Grant for Response to Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf ($1.5 million project)
- The Beaches Chapel
- Custer Battlefield Museum
- Maple Springs Baptist Church
- National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice
- National Association of Drug Court Professionals
Training and Facilitation
The mission of Strategic Applications International (SAI) is to pursue great ideas, promote action, and effect change with demonstrated results.
The SAI consulting team has years of experience in facilitation and training. SAI consultants have facilitated 22 summits on Methamphetamine; conducted trainings and facilitation for school districts and other educational groups; facilitated community and state meetings focused on the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color; and brokered relationships and meetings between diverse and often conflicting groups and organizations working in the substance abuse field, particularly underage alcohol prevention.
SAI also has international experience in training and facilitation, working in a range of settings Africa and the Middle East.
SAI utilizes a win-win facilitation process that moves diverse interests into a common mission and strategy. Because of our backgrounds in education, international development, non-profit management, law enforcement, homeland security, and substance abuse prevention and treatment, SAI has developed a variety of training modules that can enhance an organization’s knowledge and performance. Our trainings run from single one-hour presentations to two- and three-day training experiences that utilize adult learning theory and seek to make the curriculum relevant and real to the participants.
SAI's Training and Facilitation clients have included:
- Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
- Greenville, South Carolina Public Schools
- Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
- The World Bank
More information regarding our training and facilitation services can be found on our website or upon request.
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning has become and over-utilized term for moving an organization into a specific direction. Most organizations have a keen sense of where they want to go – they simply need opportunities and experiences that focus their time and energy on developing tactics for moving in the right direction.
A plan is only as good as its execution. Therefore, we heavily stress action-planning as part of the strategic planning process. SAI advances the following formula for non-profit organizations:
- Strategic action-planning
- Quality execution of the plan
- Evaluation and feedback on execution
- Strong media and communications components to tell the story
Done well, these four components produce resource development and funding.
SAI strategic planning processes include structured interviews with key stakeholders; information gathering from staff and board; data collection and analysis; skill mapping to assess strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in staff and board capacity; environmental scan to assess allies and competitors in an organization's mission; internal and external threat assessment to an organization; and thorough exploration of funding resources and capacity to implement the plan. SAI planning models are a collaborative process between SAI, and client's board and staff.
SAI’s Strategic Planning clients have included:
- Arizona Governor's Office for Children, Youth and Families- Division for Substance Abuse Policy
- National Alliance of Faith and Justice, an affiliate of the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice (NABCJ)
- National Association of Drug Court Professionals
- Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, Inc.
Speaking Engagements
SAI is fortunate to have a number of nationally recognized and talented speakers in the fields of HIV/AIDS, international development, education, substance abuse, mental health, crime prevention, organizational development, homeland security, underage drinking, community capacity building, faith-based service provision, and comprehensive community responses to methamphetamine. In addition, the SAI team has expertise speaking on leadership development, the change process, and organizational change and motivation. These represent only a few of the topics in which SAI’s principals have expertise.
Since 2004, SAI principals have spoken to over 60,000 individuals at plenary sessions of state and national conferences; keynote addresses; commencements; faith-based environments; corporate banquets and meetings and non-profit gatherings.
Comprehensive Facilitation
The goal of our comprehensive facilitation training is to assist groups, organizations, and individuals in developing a results-oriented action plan. By participating in the SAI facilitation process, people identify concrete steps necessary to achieve their mission.
SAI uses the Social Reconnaissance model as its primary facilitation tool. The Social Reconnaissance model is a community assessment approach designed to create grassroots involvement and ownership of the community assessment and change process by engaging community members in a results-oriented process. A variety of community stakeholders are brought together in a tightly timed series of community meetings and focus groups, and surveys are completed to identify resources, share information, and broaden engagement in a community-wide coalition.
The approach has three components: identifying problems, identifying barriers to solving problems, and identifying solutions to barriers (a fourth component related to resource development may be added). Each component of the community assessment creates greater grassroots involvement in the coalition through information sharing, collaborative planning, outreach, and feedback to the community. With increased community ownership and expansion of the coalition, the community assessment process yields significant concrete results.
SAI consultants are highly skilled at using this model to facilitate comprehensive strategic planning sessions. This model has been tailored for use on issues such as methamphetamine, homeland security, school violence, and educational reform. Over the past few years, SAI has successfully used this facilitation process with thousands of people with documented results.
Leadership Connection/Nonprofit Turnaround
What does it take to turn a moderately sized, ably run nonprofit into a financially sound, unwavering, mission-driven business?
SAI’s Leadership Connection series, which consists of workshops, half and full-day seminars, and multi-day retreats, explores such business acumen as mission and values, leadership, human resource management, crisis management, strategy, budgeting, and growth that can help you turn around your non-profit organization.
SAI works with its clients to conduct comprehensive assessments of the organization. We examine all areas of the business including managerial, corporate governance, financial, programmatic, and fundraising. Following the assessment, we develop for the client a strategic course of action, which includes a focus on both short and long-term change. In order to assist in the implementation of the recommendations, a team of SAI consultants is assigned to the client for a specific period of time.
In conjunction with the Leadership Connection, SAI provides non-profit and faith-based groups with ongoing support in the areas of government relations, fund development, training and facilitation, strategic planning, and speaking engagements.
View Detailed information about Leadership Connection/Nonprofit Turnaround
Meth Training Center
The production, distribution, and use of methamphetamine have created a major crisis in health and safety for our country. Meth activity is a primary cause in the rapid increase of crime and violence in rural and urban areas. Meth is the most compelling and complicated of the drug issues facing this generation. The United Nations expects it to be the #1 drug problem internationally over the next five years.
Because of the nature of clandestine meth labs, an effective response to meth requires a comprehensive and coordinated effort across an unusual array of sectors: public officials, first responders/fire/EMS/HazMat, law enforcement, courts, prosecutors, corrections, prevention, treatment, environmental clean up, public health, child protection, education, media, and community organizations. Meth labs are not defined or restricted to specific neighborhoods in communities. They are mobile and they are highly toxic.
Many of the problems associated with meth are new and require new relationships and new protocols for local, state, and federal agencies. Communities and states need access to cutting-edge information, training, and effective practices about strategies to fight this many-headed monster. Currently there is no centralized coordinated center to provide cutting-edge information or facilitate training for the public and private organizations seeking to confront this new challenge.
SAI is participating in the launch of a National Meth Training and Technical Assistance Center along with Terree Schmidt-Whelan, Ph.D. and Priscilla Lisicich, Ph.D with regional training sites located throughout the United States. The Center will:
- Serve as a national repository and dissemination vehicle on all topics related to meth.
- Convene state and local planning processes, replicating the current Meth Summit design that facilitates the coordinated and integrated response to meth across sectors (i.e. Lab Cleanup, Law Enforcement Safety, Environmental Contamination, Drug Endangered Children, Treatment, Prevention, and Community Mobilization) and across jurisdictions.
- Collect, analyze, and disseminate best practices across the many sectors of the problem.
- Develop a web-based information sharing system to speed dissemination of effective practices.
- Facilitate “communities of practice” within and between the various sectors involved in responding to the meth issue to promote innovation and change.
- Publish policy briefs, newsletters, and tool kits to support the capacity of agencies, communities, and states to respond to the meth issue effectively.
- Facilitate “Policy to Practice Forums” at the State and Local level to identify and promote effective implementation of policies and strategies that demonstrate results in reducing meth production, distribution, and use.
