Cultivating leadership unlocks breakthrough growth

Overview

Thompson Child and Family Focus transformed from a legacy organization into one of the largest human services nonprofits in the Southern U.S. How? An unwavering commitment to leadership development. It built a long-term partnership with Wipfli to deliver proven leadership strategies designed to scale and accelerate the organization’s success. The results speak for themselves. Revenue has increased to $60 million, allowing Thompson to expand its mission impact from 710 to 5,690 children and their families.

The challenge

When Will Jones became Thompson’s CEO, he saw that leadership development was the key the nonprofit needed to unlock exponential growth in mission-impact and move beyond its legacy status quo. By embedding leadership into strategic goals, operations and culture, Thompson could activate its ability to scale. Will Jones explained, “Leadership is the number one thing we look at to scale our impact. I want a partner to frame out and develop leadership. There’s no reason to recreate something that’s out there that works well.”  Thompson needed a skilled, committed partner to guide the way.

The solution

Wipfli provided future-facing solutions and deep experience to turn leadership focus into results. The Wipfli team examined the status quo and created a long-term, cohesive framework built to scale. The work included:

• Implementing proven tools, including the AI-empowered leader training, Leadership Essentials program, Predictive Index (PI) assessment and 20+ leadership trainings.
• Integrating leadership expectations, development training, executive coaching and progress assessments into Thompson’s culture and operations models.
• Supporting Thompson’s data-driven operations model with data to actively spot leadership gaps; match leaders to initiatives; and inform hiring, promotions and development decisions.

The results

With intentional leadership focus and investment, Thompson gained:

• Revenue growth: $8 million to $60 million.
• Increased mission impact: 710 to 5,687 children and families served.
• Geographical expansion: Single-market legacy nonprofit grew to a multistate human services leader.
• Profit: $5 million/year for reinvestment, reversing its historical loss of $5 million/year.
• Headcount growth: 185 to 600+ employees.
• Elevated key measures: NET employee promoter, financial performance, increased client impact, leadership tenure, internal promotions and client satisfaction.

As Thompson pursues its five-year goal of doubling its mission impact, Wipfli will be by its side, providing scalable, future-focused support and guidance.