One Year with Jesse Tree

We are on an ongoing mission to learn at Idaho Partners for Good. December is a natural point of reflection as we review a full year of work with Jesse Tree. We’ve learned a ton about what works and what doesn’t when strengthening the operations and infrastructure of a nonprofit. We plan to pour more fuel on what’s working and change up what isn’t. We also plan to continue to learn from our grantees so we can better leverage this work to meet the needs of more nonprofits.

What Works Well

• Idaho Partners for Good co-leads: Eve Lacivita and Heather Gagliano have led the work with the team at Jesse Tree. There is a very healthy working relationship with Jesse Tree.  

• Capacity Builders: these are the experts that are needed to help for a shorter period of time on a specific project.  

• Respect: boundaries were respected and opportunities for growth were proactively addressed. 

• Conflict: it’s a natural/healthy part of the process. Jesse Tree staff felt very comfortable, confident in voicing and overcoming those barriers toward collaboration. 

• User-centered design: this approach can be used by Jesse Tree in the future.

• Continued partnership: Jesse Tree is excited about working with Idaho Partners for Good for another year! 

• Continuous learning: They’ve learned a ton from co-leads (eg. running effective meetings)

What Needs Improvement

• Scheduling: Nonprofit teams are super busy and the demand on their time slowed the process down significantly. 

• Scheduling: IP4G experts are also pretty busy which led to additional scheduling challenges. 

• Continuous Learning: IP4G needs our capacity builders to be trauma-informed for the work with Jesse Tree. 

• Knowledge: IP4G needs to understand the scope of our grantee’s work to be effective.

• Assessment: Keep the OCA Report central to the work. 

• Evaluation: Evaluate the relationship more than once per year and less than quarterly.

• Budget: We did not calculate the need for end-user incentives (eg. Walmart gift cards) in the budget. 

• Scheduling: Turnaround time from taking the OCA to the report on the results of this report was much longer than anticipated due to scheduling conflicts.