The Situation
A fast-growing nonprofit at the intersection of food, culture, and sustainability sought to chart its path for the future. What began as a research and teaching initiative had rapidly evolved into a multifaceted enterprise—offering classes, publishing books, operating a restaurant, leading international expeditions, and inspiring a global community around ancestral food traditions.
As the organization’s reach expanded, so did the complexity of its operations. The founders recognized that sustaining this momentum required a clear strategic framework—one that could bring alignment across their ventures, clarify priorities, and ensure growth without losing sight of their mission to preserve and teach ancestral foodways.
The Challenge
The organization’s evolution from an academic lab to an independent nonprofit had outpaced its internal structure. With overlapping brands, growing demand, and an expanding international audience, the leadership faced several key challenges:
- Defining a unified brand and messaging strategy across all ventures.
- Building a team to support long-term growth and reduce overreliance on founders.
- Developing a plan for facilities, programming, and research expansion.
- Creating financial strategies to sustain operations and fund future projects.
The organization needed a plan that not only clarified its mission but also set a disciplined course for managing growth strategically and sustainably.
The Approach
Rivers & Roads Consulting was engaged to facilitate a comprehensive strategic planning process designed to align vision, structure, and operations. Using a collaborative, data-driven approach grounded in stakeholder engagement, Rivers & Roads guided the organization through four phases—Discovery, Assessment, SWOT Analysis, and Strategic Issue Identification.
The process included:
- Surveys, interviews, and listening sessions with over 100 stakeholders, including board members, donors, and participants from around the world.
- Review and refinement of mission and values, resulting in a clearer articulation of the organization’s purpose and its three core pillars: Preserve, Teach, Empower.
- Brand analysis to address confusion among the nonprofit, restaurant, and broader brand ecosystem.
- Identification of eight strategic priorities, ranging from brand and digital strategy to team building, curriculum development, and fiscal sustainability.
This iterative, inclusive process ensured the final plan was grounded in real-world insights, community input, and operational feasibility.
The Results
The strategic planning process culminated in a five-year roadmap that brought clarity, focus, and renewed purpose to an organization in the midst of rapid evolution. What emerged was not just a document, but a shared vision—one that unified the organization’s many moving parts and reconnected its team to the heart of its mission.
Through months of collaboration, the planning process helped distill what made the organization unique: its ability to bridge tradition and innovation, to connect research and community, and to make ancient knowledge accessible in a modern world. The resulting plan provided structure without constraining creativity. It articulated a refined mission and set of values, anchored in the idea of Preserve, Teach, Empower, giving the organization a framework to guide both daily decision-making and long-term investment.
Equally transformative was the clarity gained around identity and growth. By defining how its nonprofit, educational, and culinary components intersected, the organization now had a cohesive story to tell—one capable of inspiring donors, partners, and participants alike. The plan also identified key areas for strengthening internal capacity, from building a sustainable team structure to developing diversified revenue streams that would sustain programming over time.
The Impact
Through this engagement, Rivers & Roads provided more than a plan—it offered clarity and direction during a pivotal moment of growth. The organization now operates with a stronger sense of identity and purpose, supported by a strategic roadmap that connects its research, teaching, and culinary ventures under a unified vision.
By grounding strategy in community engagement and operational insight, Rivers & Roads helped position the organization to expand its influence globally—transforming how people think about food, sustainability, and the traditions that connect us to our past and future.