Case Study: Strategic Planning and Theory of Change for a Community-Led Food Nonprofit
Big Green
How Big Green used a stakeholder-informed strategic planning process, anchored by a theory of change, to clarify what it exists to change, build a trusted brand, and create a plan its team manages every month.
The Challenge
For more than a decade, Big Green has worked closely with community leaders to transform local food systems. Through a growing network of grassroots nonprofits, it has built what it describes as the first community-led funding model in the nonprofit food sector, one that lets local leaders direct funding to the people and organizations that need it most, quickly and transparently.
That model had already shown real potential. Big Green saw that the next stage of growth would come from being clearer about its business model, the impact it can create, and how it works alongside traditional philanthropy. Its mission spans hunger, health, the environment, and community, and its work includes grantmaking, garden products, programs, and gatherings, which gave the team a lot to organize around. Big Green was also navigating a leadership transition, which made a shared, durable direction especially valuable.
Big Green partnered with Prosper Strategies to develop a three-year strategic plan and a theory of change that would give the whole organization one clear picture of what it exists to change and how.
People
Listening to funders, board members, and the network
Big Green's model is built on community decision-making, so its strategy needed to reflect the voices of the people who fund, govern, and carry out its work. Prosper's Shared Power™ approach, which puts the people closest to the work at the center of planning, was a natural fit.
A strategic planning committee of staff and board members guided the process. Prosper conducted stakeholder interviews with board members, funders, and network members, the grassroots nonprofits Big Green exists to serve, and surveyed staff.
Research that put Big Green in context
An Organization Assessment reviewed Big Green's programs, funding, and structure so the planning committee started from the same picture. An Ecosystem Assessment compared Big Green's community-led funding with other philanthropic models, including collaboratives, intermediary and catalytic funders, and traditional endowments, to clarify what sets it apart. A Stakeholder Assessment brought in the perspectives of the people closest to the work.
Together they surfaced several insights. Stakeholders valued Big Green's strong community relationships and how accessible it makes funding and resources for small, local organizations. Big Green's approach differs from traditional philanthropy because community members help make funding decisions, grants move quickly, and the process is open. And stakeholders wanted the organization to build its fundraising capacity and to strengthen how it measures and tells the story of its impact.
Strategy
Mapping the change Big Green exists to create
What made this engagement unique was the theory of change. Big Green's mission spans many outcomes, so Prosper worked with leadership to build a single visual map of how its work creates change.
The theory of change took five working sessions: meetings in the weeks leading up to the strategic planning retreat, focused work on day one of the retreat, and a final round of refinement afterward. The team started with a shared question: what are we trying to change, for whom, and over what time horizon?
The finished theory of change opens with a belief that is also a message: food insecurity is solvable, and communities hold the solution. It lays out the context Big Green exists to address at three levels:
- Individual: Millions of people lack consistent access to fresh, healthy, affordable food, and existing systems don't build lasting capacity or reflect local needs.
- Community: Community-led solutions and leaders struggle to access resources and to capture the benefits local food generates.
- Systems: Centralized food systems concentrate power and capital and block community-led alternatives from scaling.
It then connects Big Green's approach and strategies to outcomes at each of those levels, from people who gain the skills and access to grow and eat healthy food, to communities with resilient local food sources, to systems where community control becomes the norm. The result is a map the team, funders, and board can all use to explain what Big Green does and why.
The theory of change describes the full change Big Green is working toward. The strategic plan would answer a different question: where should Big Green focus over the next three years to move that change forward?
From a shared map to three priorities
With the theory of change as a shared foundation, Prosper facilitated a three-day strategic planning session with Big Green's leaders. The group developed new mission and vision statements, advanced the theory of change, crafted a three-year vision, identified three strategic plan pillars, and prioritized objectives:
- Build the most trusted brand in community-led food access: A transparent, credible platform that earns donor trust and elevates leaders in local food.
- Demonstrate the power of local food systems: Prove that local systems rival large-scale models and deliver unique advantages for communities.
- Build the financial engine for community-led food systems: A resilient, transparent financial foundation for Big Green's future.
The new vision is fresh, healthy food on every table. The mission is to end food insecurity, improve health and well-being, strengthen communities, and protect and restore the environment by growing more food.
After the session, Prosper gathered input on the initial pillars and objectives from board and staff members. The team refined them based on that feedback before setting measurable key results.
Progress
A plan that runs on a monthly rhythm
Prosper worked with Big Green's leadership team to set Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) for each pillar. Prosper also helped the team build an OKR dashboard and a regular rhythm for using it: monthly progress updates from leadership, quarterly reflection and planning with the full team, and an annual review.
The theory of change carries into the work itself. Key results such as the annual storytelling case studies are designed to show data and narrative side by side and to bring the theory of change to life.
The dashboard connects Big Green's pillars to the key results and activity plans that leaders manage day to day.
Results
In the first year of the plan, Big Green has made visible progress:
- Raising awareness: Speaking engagements and new brand partnerships are putting Big Green and its network in front of new audiences.
- A new website: The relaunched site explains Big Green's model in plain language and serves as a hub for evaluation results, case studies, and grantee profiles.
- Building sustainability: A new monthly giving program is helping Big Green build a more resilient base of support.
The plan runs through 2028, so its longest-term results are still ahead. But Big Green now has a shared map of the change it exists to create, three clear priorities, and a monthly rhythm for measuring progress.