Having shared with us what she wishes she knew when she started, Sofia S Crisp tells us today what she sees in Housing Consultants Group’s future. Having told us why she started the Greensboro NC non-profit, having Crisp tell us where it’s going now seemed fitting.
- Crisp is the Executive Director/Founder of Housing Consultants Group (HCG).
- This blog post will explore: The future of HCG (Through the eyes of it’s Founder)
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Sofia Crisp
I hope you’ve gained some knowledge and insight as I’ve chronicled my non-profit journey. Frankly, It’s been cathartic for me and has made me realize that time flies and change is constant and necessary.
What started as an idea of mine, after a conversation with a friend, has turned into my passion and hopefully my legacy. So let me tell you our vision for the future.
Through partnerships and collaborations, HCG envisions several things in the years ahead.
- Taking part in the redevelopment of the local community, with a local municipality, to rehabilitate existing homes and build new homes. This effort will engage area employers, churches and area youth as Volunteers. We have become a nonprofit real estate firm that supports housing needs in our community.
- In serving our area’s unemployment and underemployment, HCG will be partnering with another non-profit. Our 2 key aims in this collaboration: Develop training and certification for underemployed and underemployed participants; launch a Learning Center for new homeowners, to learn how to maintain their homes through hands-on education.
- The next wave of financial crisis, our research shows, is student loan debt. We hope to partner with an area college. We envision beginning discussions with students, before graduation, about their financial future and planning for repayment of their debt.
- We plan to engage clients to come in for tax assistance and financial coaching. Using our Volunteer Income Tax Assistance status, we envision enhancing their knowledge and skills, as it relates to budgeting and planning for the client’s financial decisions.
Learn
- It’s not what you start, it’s what you finish. With Crisp, It began with an idea, a conversation shared with a friend, and some ten years later her non-profit, Housing Consultants Group, is still evolving. They’re thankful to have received numerous rewards and accolades along the way. More importantly, they’re fulfilling their Mission to impact lives.
- Peter Drucker said: “The enterprise that does not innovate inevitably ages and declines. And in a period of rapid change such as the present, an entrepreneurial period, the decline will be fast”. Drucker is right. The environment and the circumstances will continue to change. How will you change to meet the market today?
- Read the tea leaves. Don’t get stuck in simply doing what is comfortable. Watch the trends, to know when adapting is simply inevitable.
Grow
How will you build your organization? Here’s an idea for consideration from a business book titled Beyond Entrepreneurship: Turning your Business into an Enduring Great Company (Prentice Hall Press, 1992). The authors, James Collins and William C. Lazier, speak about the paradigm necessary to be an enduring great company or organization. They refer to it as Time Telling or Clock Building.
Here’s an analogy they share:
Think of it this way. Imagine you met a person who could look at the sun or stars at any time of day or night and state the exact time and date. It’s April 23, 1401, 2:36 AM and 12 seconds, she’d say. This person would be an amazing time teller, and we’d probably revere her for the ability to tell time. But wouldn’t she be even more amazing if, instead of telling the time, she built a clock that could tell the time forever, even after she’s dead and gone.
Now consider how this might relate to your non-profit organization. So many organizations start based on an idea, a perceived need. That is real and that is great, but here’s some food for thought: Building an ‘enduring great’ non-profit organization implies that you want to be a Clock Builder, not a Time Teller.
What is an example of a Time Teller in our world today? Angry Birds comes to mind. Just a few years ago it was so incredibly popular it was ridiculous. Where is the manufacturer, Rovio, today? Massive layoffs are occurring. They appear to be a Time Teller, built on a great idea.
In comparison, Walt Disney’s greatest creation was not Fantasia or Snow White or even Disney World, it was the Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney is a Clock Builder, in that he, as an entrepreneur, built an enduring company and culture which will generate many great ideas and transcend the limitations of the current era or circumstance.
- In a nutshell, enduring great companies and non-profit organizations stand as Clock Builders, not just Time Tellers.
In this Series, we’ve followed the non-profit journey of Sofia Crisp. We’ve shared. We’ve learned. We’ve grown. Crisp’s housing non-profit is not where it was at the outset in 2004. She and her staff have persevered, overcome, and transformed to meet the needs of the market, while still holding true to their Mission. In essence, by learning from her transgressions, building the right Board, and having the right people doing the right work, the Executive Director of Housing Consultants Group appears to be well on her way to leading a Clock Builder.
Enduring non-profit organizations, those which continue to recreate, evolve, and operate as a non-profit of excellence, are not simply Time Tellers. So, has your non-profit achieved ‘enduring greatness’ yet? If it has, it’s a Clock Builder.
The Future of Crisp’s Non-profit
The non-profit journey of Sofia Crisp has been chronicled in this Series, which concludes with this post on the housing organization’s future. Thanks Sofia for sharing your great story! Whether you are a current or aspiring Non-profit Leader, we welcome your comments; feel free also to follow this blog.
- The journeys of other visionary non-profit leaders will be showcased on Your Outcomes Well. The next series, on another great leader of a non-profit organization, will be starting soon.
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