On a Tuesday evening in April, a teenager named Jamari stood up in a room full of agency directors, nonprofit leaders, and community partners and said what a lot of adults in that room already knew but hadn't said out loud: teens in Lexington Park need more places to go. More mentors. More chances to lead — not just be led.

Due East was founded on a set of shared values that our team aspires to live every day, in everything we do. If we had a “secret sauce” or formula for making the world a better place, this would be it.

This Due East webinar delves into what you need to know about strategic planning, providing tools and tips for creating a bold, actionable strategic plan for your organization.

This brief video explains how Due East works with social, business, and environmental leaders to foster collective impact, creative community engagement programs, and more.

This brief video explains how Due East started out, got its name, and created its own strategic direction. Credit to The Hatcher Group.

I rarely watch movies twice except around the holidays, when rewatching the same movie for the 30th time somehow feels like tradition. I happened to catch the tail end of The Martian the other night, and was struck by how relevant that story is to our own “supernatural” experience of living in 2022.

When I first started as the executive director of a fledgling community foundation, I dreaded the idea of a strategic planning process. The word “process” sounded like a lot of time and money. Our small team was already stretched thinly, and financially, we were operating on barely more than a month-to-month budget.