| Plexus Consulting Group | Success Stories | ||
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The Alliance for Information & Referral Systems |
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The Alliance for Information and Referral Systems is a 501(c)3 nonprofit association serving nearly 1,000 members in the United States, Canada, and other regions. AIRS is a leading partner in the "211 Collaborative" which has successfully petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to approve the use of abbreviated dialing code (211) for community information and referral services. AIRS will be taking the lead, along with the United Way of America, to implement the use of the 211 number throughout the nation. Specifically, Plexus was retained to develop an organizational development study to help AIRS increase its capacity as an organization to continue with "its creative development of information and referral services and to successfully implement the programs and services that have already been initiated." Plexus followed a three-phase approach: Quantitative research, qualitative research and strategic consensus building among the Alliance's leadership. Plexus' Market, Research & Statistics Division conducted a member needs assessment survey. The response was very positive: 36% of the 986 members of AIRS responded to the survey, providing the Plexus team with invaluable quantitative research data. The Strategy Division team engaged in conducting qualitative research. The Plexus consultants interviewed 25 Alliance Opinion Leaders, facilitated three focus group sessions in New York City, Delaware, OH and Seattle, WA respectively and provided benchmarking against three similar non-profit organizations. The results of both quantitative and qualitative research were then fed into a two-day strategic planning retreat. The first two phases of the project revealed that the organization is reactive than proactive and that it is perceived to be as just another player and not the leader in the field. Brand identity, communications, visibility were all issues listed under the "Weaknesses" category of AIRS environmental scan. Lack (or misallocation) of both fiscal and human resources partly accounted for this reactive mode. The quantitative and qualitative research also revealed high member satisfaction with the products and services offered by AIRS and a significant demand for continuing development, improvement and expansion of the existing products and services. The third phase of the project focused on the future directions of the organization; the AIRS Board reviewed the research results and identified three major areas of activity for the next 3-5 years:
The refocusing of the AIRS human and fiscal resources on these three areas of activity is expected to give the organization the necessary impetus to achieve its goals in major initiatives like 2-1-1. Along with the re-allocation of resources, this organizational restructuring study revealed the need for a greater integration between the National AIRS entity and the Regional Affiliates. The opportunities are great, both AIRS National and the Regional Affiliates can only benefit from increased coordination and integration. |
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