Case Study Strategic Planning

A Plan For Sustainable Growth

February 3, 2021
“TLC is doing critical and lifesaving work, and because they’re advocating for and defending communities who were historically marginalized and have recently been in the crosshairs of a hostile administration, their work had to be responsive to a point where their strategy could be grounded in staff capacity and community need as well as their unique skill set.”
—Marion Johnson, Consultant

Our Role

Frontline was proud to partner with the Transgender Law Center (TLC), the nation’s largest trans-led organization advocating for self-determination of all individuals. TLC employs a variety of community-driven strategies to keep transgender and gender-nonconforming people alive, thriving, and fighting for liberation. We supported the staff and board in developing a three-to-five-year strategic plan that responded to TLC’s dramatic growth over the previous five years, which had included doubling the staff and budget and expanding program reach from California to nationwide. Our planning process focused on strengthening TLC’s organizational culture, and this included leading staff conversations about priorities of the organization. We conducted a number of interviews with staff and external partners to understand how staff perceived their work to be impacting communities and how those communities experienced the work. Then we helped the organization to bridge that gap. During a full-day retreat, we facilitated conversations about where TLC fit in the transgender community and what specific activities best suited them. We also advised TLC on how to sustain growth, integrate perspectives stemming from intersectionality, and continue to build national collaborations and partnerships.