Case Study: Kentucky Humanities
From Data Disconnect to Statewide Storytelling: Building Evaluation & Strategic Capacity for Kentucky Humanities
The Challenge: Demonstrating Value in a Shifting Landscape
Following structural and funding changes in 2025, Kentucky Humanities recognized a pivotal moment in their organizational trajectory. While their statewide programs serve all 120 Kentucky counties, demonstrating value to new audiences (including elected officials, corporate sponsors, donors, and state legislators) required moving beyond basic headcount numbers. They needed reliable data quality, a unified strategic plan across board and staff, and a compelling way to translate program activity into undeniable impact stories.
(Context Note: Midway through this engagement, the agency was also navigating a leadership shift from Interim to permanent Executive Director role, adding a layer of executive change management to the strategic process.)
The Solution: A Strategic Planning & Change Management Partnership
Sagebird Consulting partnered with Kentucky Humanities to deliver a comprehensive strategic planning and executive support framework:
Inclusive Strategic Planning: Guiding a 6-month, stakeholder-informed strategic planning process. Conducting digital surveys, SWOT analyses, and facilitated retreat sessions to align staff and board around 3 to 5 clear strategic priorities and actionable implementation roadmaps.
Executive Coaching & Sounding Board: Serving as an impartial sounding board for the Executive Director during her role transition. Equipping leadership with practical people-management tools to navigate organizational change, address historical bottlenecks, and foster team buy-in.
Wraparound Ecosystem Support: Helping the leadership team identify operational gaps and connecting them with specialized ecosystem partners (such as Fieldtrip for marketing strategy) to ensure the agency has full operational support.
Preparing for Long-Term Impact Evaluation: Establishing the foundation for future evaluation work, outlining frameworks for auditing data collection tools, and connecting hard metrics (reach-per-dollar, repeat participation) with qualitative community stories.
"Sagebird was the exact partner we needed during a pivotal moment of growth. They helped us transform big ideas into an actionable strategic roadmap that our entire board and staff are excited to stand behind."
- Kay Maddrick, Executive Director, Kentucky Humanities
The Results: Strategic Alignment & Data Confidence
Unified Board & Staff Vision: Transitioned from siloed program activities to a cohesive 3-to-5-year strategic plan with clear SMART goals, accountability measures, and shared expectations.
Practical Leadership Execution: Provided actionable tools that executive leadership actively implemented day-to-day to manage staff culture and build sustainable internal capacity.
Donor & Funder Confidence: Established a repeatable, evidence-based storytelling roadmap that lays the groundwork for long-term sustainability, future legislative asks, and ongoing evaluation partnerships.
