We had the great privilege in 2021 of being one of six “emerging nonprofits” to be chosen to participate in the CULTIVATE program with Next Stage Consulting. The program is designed to help leaders of small but growing nonprofit leaders develop their ability to build effective nonprofits across six capacities – leadership & strategy, management, program development, human resources, financial resources, and operations & planning. Now that we are successful CULTIVATE graduates and our final business plan is developed, we will do a series of blog posts to share with you what came out of the program. We hope that you will be as proud of it as we are and that you will feel excited to engage with us to move ASA into the future we envision.
An organization’s values and guiding principles help to steer decision making at an organization. From the CULTIVATE program documents “If the mission is the ‘what’ of the organization, values define ‘how’- how the mission is carried out and how decisions are made.” As it turns out, the ASA board of long ago had a list of organizational values, but they were buried in our Google Drive collecting dust. CULTIVATE prompted us to dust them off and ensure they still apply to our work. So, take a look and as a member of our valued community, please let us know if you have concerns that our work is not aligned with our organizational values.
At Adoption Support Alliance, we are...
Collaborative
We don’t want to reinvent the wheel when it comes to adoption services
We desire to partner with other agencies/organizations in the adoption field in order to best serve adoptive families
Empathetic
We desire to meet families where they are and provide services in a non-judgmental way
We will offer families a listening ear and create a comfortable environment in which to really hear family’s experiences
People-Driven
Our mission is to serve families so their needs are a priority
We are connectors and community builders
We seek to be gracious, not overwhelm, not overburden and understand competing priorities
Professional
We stays up to date on adoption research and best practices
We are willing to learn, change and adjust our thinking as best practices continue to emerge
We are always learning and seeking new information
We hope these values are compelling to you and, if they are, we invite you to engage more deeply in our community. Reach out to Erin Bost [link to email], our operations manager, to find out more about our ASA Ambassadors program. Support us through time, talent or treasure. We’d love for you to become a part of our community.