Projects. For people, with people.
We believe in a team approach to consulting. Often functioning as an extension of staff, Due East assists clients to develop the right plan and put it into action.
Due East has been working with clients across the U.S. since 2014. Our results speak for themselves.
On this page, we share a sample of the hundreds of projects that we have co-led with our clients. These efforts demonstrate the breadth of work we do, issues we specialize in, skills we bring to the table, and what we are passionate about.
Strategic Planning
Waterkeeper Alliance
Due East Partners is excited to continue our partnership with Waterkeeper Alliance (WKA) to support their organizational alignment and implementation of a new 5-year Strategic Plan.
We provide strategic guidance and additional support to engage staff, Board, Waterkeeper Council, and Trustees in aligning the organization's governance model with the new Plan. Our trusted partnership with WKA allows us to streamline the global governance model, facilitate communication, and deliver a refined Governance structure with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and decision-making authority.
Specifically, Due east is surveying the Board, Trustees, Council, staff, and all Waterkeeper organizations, leading small-group discussions, and conducting interviews with key representatives.
We also assist in the roll-out of the new governance structure through transition sessions with the Board, Council, and Trustees.
Lancaster Clean Water Partners
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania boasts an eclectic mix of landscapes, with urban, suburban, and rural areas home to over 5,000 farms, bustling college towns, and diverse artists. However, the community received a wake-up call over a decade ago when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put Lancaster County on notice for nutrient and sediment pollution.
This made over half of the streams unsafe for drinking and recreation while damaging critical insect and fish populations. To reduce nitrogen and phosphorus loads by 2025, the EPA set expectations for Pennsylvania, with Lancaster responsible for 21% and 23% of the state's required nitrogen and phosphorus reductions, respectively. While various groups were engaged in conservation efforts, there was no organized entity providing sustainable change.
In 2018, the Lancaster Clean Water Partners emerged as a public-private collaboration to address deteriorating water quality throughout the county and avoid increased regulations from the EPA. With the help of local leaders serving as connectors and ambassadors, a working group of 45 stakeholders convened in Fall 2016 to develop a strategic framework for improving water quality in Lancaster County. Due East was hired in Spring 2017 to facilitate creation of a draft Common Agenda and strategic roadmap with the goal of establishing a multi-sector collaborative and a strong "backbone" organization to achieve clean and clear water in Lancaster within a generation.
In June 2018, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection invited the County to develop a countywide action plan (CAP) to address the state’s Watershed Implementation Plan goals. The completed CAP outlines Lancaster’s path for reducing 11.7 million pounds of nitrogen and 524,000 pounds of phosphorus by the 2025 deadline. Multiple, interwoven strategies fuel progress, all led by the Partners/action teams.
Since that time, the community has put in over 5,000 volunteer hours to replant trees and buffers. Partners have conducted outreach to 300 farmers. Best management practices such as manure storage, precision grazing management, barnyard runoff, and riparian restoration have been implemented.
In total, the 70 practices implemented by partners will result in estimated load reductions of over 21,000 pounds of nitrogen, 2,000 pounds of phosphorus, and almost 4 million pounds of total suspended solids annually.
Read our in-depth case study about this comprehensive, innovative approach to achieving clean water.
Cross-Sector Collaboration
Collective Impact to End Relational Violence
Due East helped design and launch the Maryland Safe Futures Collaborative — a statewide initiative in Maryland to address relational violence by bringing together service providers to build a stronger network of services for prevention, crisis response, healing and empowerment.
Using the Collective Impact model, Due East worked with the YWCA of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County to establish a Design Team and Guiding Coalition made up of leaders from multiple sectors - nonprofit, government, business, academia and community - from across the state including people with lived experience as survivors.
We conducted interviews and focus groups to identify issues and gaps in services. The Design Team developed a Theory of Change (at right) and Common Agenda: a vision for enduring, equitable and long-term impact shared by all participants that includes a joint approach to solving this complex problem and agreed-upon actions.
The result was significant learning about how to leverage resources, strengthen relationships, and build leadership for greater efficiency and effectiveness. The initiative resulted in the launch of regional Learning Centers, a shared measurement framework, Local Collaboratives, and a Continuum of Care for victims of relational violence.
Partnership for Children Youth & Families
Due East has served as the lead planning partner for the Anne Arundel County Partnership for Children, Youth and Families to engage neighborhood leaders in four under-resourced communities to address the needs of low-income families and their children living in their community.
Due East has facilitated community conversations and planning, bringing people with lived experience to the decision table alongside service providers, agency directors, funders and elected officials.
This has provided the resulting Community Plan, Guiding Principles and Action Plans to guide and coordinate the efforts of government, faith, school, civic and nonprofit partners and help local leaders navigate changing needs and opportunities.
Currently the Partnership is helping to build a tighter safety net by closing gaps in systems as it works with community members and partners to address root causes.
Corporate Community Engagement
The Wills Group
Due East works with The Wills Group, a family-owned holding company that runs a variety of businesses, including a large chain of convenience stores, to create and implement a strategic corporate community engagement program centered in authentic employee engagement, long-term and balanced relationships with nonprofit and community partners, and community voice.
Due East has worked closely with the Wills Group to build and deepen partnerships to create equitable and enduring impact through its innovative community engagement program focused on Nourishing Children and Families and Reimagining Outdoor Spaces. Over the past two years, our team helped the Wills Group meaningfully invest time and resources in a neglected park, Phoenix Park, in a traditionally under-resourced community near its La Plata, MD headquarters.
The successful transformation of the park was due to the partnerships we established with the Neighborhood Design Center, the town, local nonprofit and community organizations, a local artist, and most importantly Phoenix Run community members, including youth and adult leaders in the neighborhood.
The result is based on the community’s vision and aspirations for the future and a collaborative effort to reimagine what the space could offer a neighborhood, families, and the town. The park now symbolizes transformation and possibility, and includes vibrant, art-inspired basketball courts, walking paths, landscaping and seating areas that create a place of healing following a tragic event and a community destination for families.
Chaney Enterprises and the Chaney Foundation
Chaney Enterprises and the Chaney Foundation partnered with Due East to develop a refreshed framework for its charitable giving. A multi-generational family business, Chaney has supported the communities in which it operates through philanthropic leadership, charitable contributions, and sound stewardship of natural resources for decades.
While Chaney Enterprises has a great reputation for involvement in the local community, President and CEO Hall Chaney led the push to focus the foundation’s impact and better engage employees.
Due East consultants conducted interviews at every level of the organization, from the top leaders to frontline staff across its locations, to capture the company’s mission and unique assets.
Due East helped the Chaney Team create a fresh look and approach for its giving, rebranding its philanthropy as ChaneyCares, and establishing three new pillars: education, employment, and homeownership. The new tagline, “Foundations for Family Success,” demonstrates the connection between the three pillars and the company’s core services and history as a family-led company.
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