Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Project: Strategic Planning
LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired provides education, training, advocacy, and community in California and around the world. Founded in 1902 and headquartered in San Francisco, LightHouse promotes independence, community, and equity created by and with blind and low vision people. They seek to create a world where blind and low vision people flourish.
Why LightHouse partnered with Lyons-Newman Consulting:
LightHouse recently completed the implementation of its previous strategic plan. With a new CEO leading the way, the board and staff were eager to build on their success, review and renew LightHouse’s identity, chart a clear path forward, and craft a fresh strategic plan. Key strategic questions before them included:
How can we evolve and integrate our programs to provide a comprehensive and inclusive set of offerings for the community and all who can benefit from them? This includes families and people of various ages, ethnicities, cultures, languages, and disabilities (including deaf/blind), and marginalized people with low incomes (e.g., people who are undocumented or unhoused)?
How can we expand enrollment rates among those who do not currently know about our programs?
How does LightHouse differentiate itself? How should we position ourselves as leaders in the field, in California, nationally, and globally?
The process:
We supported LightHouse to form a diverse Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) that included blind, Deafblind, and sighted staff, board members, and community representatives. The SPC began its work with a discovery process that centered the voices of blind and Deafblind individuals with lived expertise and involved conducting interviews, focus groups, and surveys in accessible formats, as well as engaging dozens of community members in providing insights into LightHouse’s future. This important research grounded the SPC and LightHouse’s staff and board of directors in a shared understanding of LightHouse’s current state, unique niche, and constituent perspectives about its future. The research findings provided the foundation for decision-making and the development of LightHouse’s strategy.
We customized our design thinking processes for planning meetings and retreats, creating ideation sessions with universal design that were inclusive and accessible for all participants. These meetings generated rich discussions and supported all participants to engage meaningfully in shaping the strategic plan. After exploring a range of possibilities for paths forward, the SPC aligned on strategic priorities and developed the organization’s goals and strategies for the next five years.
LightHouse leaders and community members gather in front of its headquarters in San Francisco.
The results:
LightHouse’s new five-year strategic plan launches a fresh mission and vision and provides clarity on its unique identity. The plan commits the organization to strategic priorities and goals that the board and staff are aligned on and driven to implement together, including to:
Cultivate and innovate services and programs, including for Deafblind individuals
Reach and serve diverse communities, including a combined 25 percent annual increase in people who access LightHouse services who identify as AAPI, Latinx, Black, Indigenous, Deafblind, LGBTQ+, and people with multiple disabilities, brain-based blindness (CVI), and their families
Design, refine, and build training for people LightHouse serves, their support system, LightHouse’s staff, and the community so that blind and low vision community members are prepared for work and life
Optimize income streams to enhance financial flexibility and work toward financial self-sufficiency
What LightHouse says:
“Lyons-Newman Consulting’s expertise and hands-on approach ensured that our strategic vision was not only ambitious but also practical and actionable. Through meticulous analysis and thoughtful facilitation, they helped us identify key priorities and chart a clear course for the future. Belinda, Erica, and their team fostered an environment of trust, openness, and collaboration, enabling us to tackle complex issues with confidence and purpose. They are not merely consultants, but trusted partners who invested themselves fully in our success.” — Sharon Giovinazzo, CEO