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(Alliance News Service) —
Strong Vision Leads to a
More Powerful Organization
Interview with Linda Yankoski

Through 10 years’ service chairing the boards of Families International and the Alliance for Children and Families, Sister Linda Yankoski has helped shepherd both organizations through an array of accomplishments that have strengthened not only the Alliance, but the entire group of Families International, Inc. companies.

Yankoski, executive director of Holy Family Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, recalls both the efforts and the successes that have aligned the organization to meet the future with greater power than ever before.

During her tenure of leadership on both boards, Yankoski helped guide the process of collaboration among the executives of the Families International affiliated companies (Alliance, Ways to Work, UNCA and FEI Behavioral Health) to examine and implement changes in policies and practices that are already beginning to show benefits in more powerful, effective, and coordinated operations, including shared services.

After joining the Alliance board in 1998, Yankoski served on various committees—and co-chaired the vital strategic planning committee. She chaired the Alliance board in 2003 and 2004, and the Families International board in 2005 and 2006; as past chair, she retains a seat on the Families International board until 2008. Meanwhile, she was directing Holy Family Institute, chairing numerous committees locally, and winning a number of service awards—and finishing her dissertation, which means she could be called Dr. Sister Linda Yankoski.

Yankoski recalls the transition from the Alliance board to the Families International board and the evolution of these dramatic changes as she moved from one board to the other. “Of course,” she observes, “the strategic approaches of the two companies differ, so there is a different focus of ongoing priorities and activities.

“The Alliance focuses on members, on specific practices, policies and strategies—tools that help members advocate on behalf of children and families throughout the nonprofit sector. By comparison, Families International’s role is to oversee the group of affiliated corporations to help them work together in fulfilling their respective missions.”

Yankoski says that trying to maintain those separate identities, the individual formalities and the overall corporation integrity—key responsibilities of the board chair’s role—is challenging and complex from both perspectives. While chairing the Alliance board, she says, she began to meet with the chairs of each of the affiliated organizations, thus setting the groundwork, “for where we’re going now. It was the first time that we focused, in a sustained way, on truly pulling together.

“It also created the exciting opportunity for better strategic planning, leveraging the capabilities among the various entities to energize this complex organization from the governance point of view. For me, from a board perspective, that began to provide a stronger foundation for planning opportunities, for developing the resources and talent among the various corporations in ways that we might not have tapped before.”

Initial efforts of the Alliance board toward greater collaboration opened the road for the dynamic work that was to follow. “Helping to ground the organization with talented leaders and providing them with direction and support was especially meaningful,” she explains. “That includes supporting our president and CEO in his role vis-a-vis all the various corporations.

“The result is that Families International provides support functions to all the corporations by centralizing core activities,” Sr. Linda notes. “That is happening at a staff level and doesn’t really affect governance, though the benefits will surely be appreciated at all levels. At the governance level, the opportunity is to set the direction and tone for collaboration, cooperation, and taking advantage of relationships in order to build a stronger organization, while at the same time recognizing the resources and independence of each of the corporations to do what they need to do.”

Challenges Were Plentiful
While the benefits of the years of work by both boards looks promising, the pathway to the new, more synergistic structure and operation did not come easily.

“We went through some ups and downs with FEI in the past couple of years, which led us into a significant study of the company,” Yankoski explains. “We examined its relationship to the whole and came away with a stronger vision toward the future as well as a stronger management plan to get us there. It was challenging for us as well as for FEI. We had to apply some extensive strategic thinking to discover how we could best benefit the individual corporation as well as the entire group.”

The process itself delivered some more human-scale benefits as well. “Through our work, I believe that board members got to know one another better and our new perspective enabled us all to think about planning in a different way. I don’t think there had been as much planning going on for Families International before that challenge. It had been more common just to gather everyone’s plans and sign off on them. Examining FEI boosted our role in helping to lead planning efforts while, at the same time, honoring the independence and individuality of each of the corporations. I feel good about that. There are genuine opportunities for us through working together to help each other achieve our common objective.

“Another exciting achievement has been creation of the space and legal structure to bring United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA) into the Families International holding company structure. The bulk of that work was done by staff, which I recognize and respect. We were able to create a position on the Families International board for UNCA, through highly collaborative and positive action.

“While some observers may harbor concerns, the ability to join our public policy efforts together and to provide potential funders and supporters with a way to reach that broader community is important. We’re already seeing some of those benefits now.”

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