People & Culture

Managing Exponential Growth: Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation

The Challenge

30 Years of Growth

Founded in 1991, the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDCo) builds sustainable, affordable housing in the South Bronx. The team serves more than 15,000 each year, with a staff of over 100 after starting with just 2 co-founders more than 30 years ago.

With that growth has come tremendous community impact, but WHEDCo had also struggled to scale and work collaboratively across multiple departments. The goal: reconnect WHEDCo’s disparate departments and unite the vision of the organization.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t use anybody else. There are other consultants who work with nonprofits in New York but CRE is far and away the best. Working with CRE I am confident that I’m getting the most expert and informed advice. They don’t tell you what to do but they lay out an array of possibilities that inevitably lead you in the best direction.”

Nancy Biberman

Executive Director, Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation

Uniting an Organization

Our team facilitated a team-building retreat for WHEDCo’s 20+ senior managers, focusing on cross-department discussion and providing a platform for managers to learn from each other. We put managers through small-group vision exercises, and brought everyone back together to compare where they saw the organization heading in the future. This enabled managers to think expansively about their own departments, and work together to see how those visions fit together.

Working Better Together

Through the retreat, WHEDCo managers were able to see the similarities and differences between the departments and understand why there were varying viewpoints — a dialogue that would never have happened in the workspace. Managers left the session feeling more connected and committed to closer collaboration across departments, and went back to work with thoughtful, aligned plans to achieve their joint goals.