What is the “secret sauce” of our organization, and can it be replicated?

Context

Denver, Colorado is home to a nonprofit organization, Mile High Ministries whose mission is to “seek God’s peace through the creative, compassionate, and prayerful development of people and communities.” For over two decades, they have provided long-term transitional housing to individuals experiencing homelessness and have created a true sense of community where residents flourish. After many years of planning, Mile High prepared to open a new facility in 2024, one that offered permanent low-income housing, and wanted to center that same culture of residents’ belonging and well-being.

Read more about Mile High Ministries.

Research

Although Mile High Ministries could describe the key values of their organizational culture, they asked Beyond Data to help them understand why and how those values were cultivated, communicated, and sustained. Was it the programming? Their staff and its practices? The organizational structure and leadership? Underlying principles that gave rise to this culture? On the basis of resident surveys as well as staff and resident interviews, we were able to pinpoint key features of the organization’s functioning that gave rise to their distinctive, supportive, and healing culture.

Deliverable

As this project unfolded over the course of a year, Beyond Data provided mid-project reports that offered both insights and next-step questions for Mile High leadership to consider together. We used these to tailor the next phases of the project so that the final report was able to narrow in on specific organizational practices, leadership qualities, and creatively held tensions that were not apparent at the beginning of the research. Together with their staff and Board, Mile High leadership was able to extrapolate these learnings and begin discerning how to implement them at the new facility.