Knowledge is power you can give to your people
A nonprofit envisions a learning and development playbook that could grow its scale and impact.
The situation
As nonprofits evolve and scale up, they often face challenges scaling knowledge transfer and learning experiences for a growing organization. Delivering on their mission is paramount and can result in limited time and resources that can be allocated for employee professional development. But leaders of Braven believe that developing their staff, many of whom are at the beginning of their own career journeys, is in service of its mission.
Since 2013, Braven has empowered promising, low-income and first-generation college students by empowering them with the skills, confidence, experiences, and networks necessary to transition from college to strong first jobs. Working with higher education organizations and employers, the nonprofit delivers a career acceleration experience that can be life-changing for participants, known as Braven Fellows. Now, Braven is exploring its long-held wish to help its own employees pursue their goals as well.
Leaders always intended for learning and development (L&D) to be part of Braven’s employee experience. As the organization grew, they established a learning leadership council and philosophy to bring shape to their L&D journey. And yet, Braven’s leadership team still felt that more dedicated time and space was needed to develop and prioritize L&D, understand training gaps, and build a capability that could meet the needs of their diverse and growing organization.
Braven’s mission aligns closely with Deloitte’s purpose and social impact efforts, and the nonprofit was included in Deloitte’s 10-year, $1.5 billion social impact commitment announced in 2022. The relationship between Deloitte and Braven, which began in 2017, has been multifaceted—ranging from volunteerism, to financial support, to pro bono projects and more. Helping forge a clear path for an L&D journey was an opportunity to continue the collaboration.
Grow a more powerful organization by cultivating learning & development
The solve
Braven’s leadership turned to Deloitte for advice and support. Braven designed an L&D experience that worked for its Fellows. Next, professionals from Deloitte’s Human Capital practice were excited to co-create a more robust L&D playbook for Braven’s own people. They approached the project through a human-centered design lens, alongside the Braven team, led by its recently hired director of Learning & Culture.
The Deloitte team set out to assess the current state of Braven’s L&D journey, identifying ongoing challenges and potential opportunities. They studied Braven’s organizational charts, strategic plan, competency models, trainings, and onboarding process. Next, to help identify skills that could enhance the relative maturity of Braven’s L&D playbook, the combined team leveraged subject matter knowledge across Deloitte, including experienced learning and leadership professionals, L&D and practitioner milestone programming at Deloitte University, and previous learning strategy that had been implemented successfully with other nonprofits. Finally, the Deloitte team conducted focus groups and leadership interviews with Braven staff for firsthand accounts to further inform their recommendations.
The goal was to create a playbook for continued development that Braven could sustain and scale. It could include tailored content and existing online content that wouldn’t require additional resources or people to source. Together, Deloitte and Braven asked what a year of learning could look like for an employee who’s onboarding versus a seasoned director. The team used learner personas and journey maps to inform a strategic roadmap and cataloged existing Braven virtual and live trainings alongside new offerings to help Braven employees grow leadership skills, harness their potential, and acquire new technical and mission-related skills. Many could be accessed independently, enabling Braven employees to explore new and unique paths for advancing their growth journeys.
An investment in L&D infrastructure is an investment in people
The impact
Deloitte’s Human Capital professionals were invited to deliver a live training on giving and receiving feedback during a Braven offsite to mark the organization’s 10-year anniversary. They drew on the deep knowledge they’d gained of the nonprofit to tailor the learning objectives and activities. Through a variety of scenarios, Braven employees could use the skills and tools they’d gained, including a common language and framework, to tackle these difficult conversations and discuss their challenges collectively.
Deloitte’s investment in Braven’s human potential and capacity building is intended to help grow Braven’s greatest asset: its people.
- The L&D playbook better positions Braven to attract, retain, and upskill talent, who now have access to tailored learning solutions that help further individualize and activate L&D at all levels. The future-state strategic roadmap can help leaders communicate Braven’s L&D vision and receive input from the workforce.
- Employees may focus on developing their skills in the social impact journey as individuals, while the team continues to create impact collectively. Greater clarity around L&D infrastructure has helped remove barriers to growth within the organization.
- Braven Fellows also benefit: As Braven grows as an organization, so does its capacity to deliver on its commitment to empower the next generation of leaders.
A strategic L&D roadmap helps an organization stay the course
