Capacity Building for the Betterment of All: How Wintergreen Arts Center Forged a Stronger Operational Foundation

Building the capacity of Maine’s arts sector is one of the key strategies of our Arts Program, and advancing this strategy involves understanding our grantees’ organizational health. In some cases, we offer technical assistance, learning opportunities, and assessments to support their operational growth — an approach we used to help the Wintergreen Arts Center in its capacity-building efforts.

Located in Presque Isle, the Wintergreen Arts Center is an inclusive community space that strives to cultivate a collective appreciation for the arts. And since its inception in 2006, it’s made considerable strides toward achieving that mission. In 2023 alone, for example, more than 4,000 of the roughly 8,500 residents in Presque Isle participated in the center’s programming.

Offering arts education, workshops, and field trips for kids, as well as programming and art therapy for all ages, the Wintergreen Arts Center is actively fostering creativity and advocacy in northern Maine.

Establishing Long-Term Sustainability

While Wintergreen has become a staple in the Presque Isle community, it’s historically struggled to create a stable and resilient operational foundation upon which it can grow. Like many nonprofits, it’s lacked a clear strategic plan and roadmap, and without that internal structure, the team has faced financial difficulties and has been unable to put a leadership succession plan in place.

Wintergreen’s success over the past nearly two decades has been supported by the generosity of donors and supportive community members who’ve continuously shown up for the center. “There were some people who just did amazing things to keep Wintergreen going,” says Dottie Hutchins, Wintergreen’s executive director. “They had sheer strength and a desire to keep this thing together.”

After experiencing financial instability that caused the center to move locations multiple times, Hutchins and her team knew they needed to operate more strategically if they wanted to sustain their community impact long-term. “We’ve had good people step up at the right times, but it only takes one miss for the organization to be gone,” says Hutchins. “We’ve got to do a better job at being sustainable.”

But driving change required in-depth reflection, and after looking inward, Hutchins knew that Wintergreen needed outside capacity-building assistance — so she and her team turned to our technical assistance program for help.

Capacity Building Starts With Analysis

Having spoken with many grantees about their work, our Arts Program staff identified a common need for an analysis of these organizations’ current capacities. What’s working and what’s not? What processes are in place to ensure long-term sustainability? What operational systems are hindering their ability to make an impact?

To help provide answers to these critical questions, we contracted with the TCC Group to offer its Core Capacity Assessment Tool (CCAT) to grantees like the Wintergreen Arts Center. The CCAT enables teams to assess the current state of their organization’s operations, come to a shared understanding of its needs, and align on priorities, processes, and timelines for addressing those needs. Hutchins and her team were one of the first groups to use the tool.

“With the Onion Foundation, it felt really touchable,” Hutchins remarks. “They didn’t just say ‘here’s some money. Hope you do something good with it.’ They also provided resources that helped us succeed.”

The capacity assessment work also introduced Hutchins and her team to Samantha Hackney from Marigold Strategy, a two-person, nonprofit-oriented consulting team. Hackney helped the Wintergreen team interpret their assessment results, which showed the organization’s strengths and areas in need of improvement via four key categories of evaluation:

• Adaptive: This section focuses on helping leaders assess the needs of their teams and communities. While the CCAT identified Wintergreen’s strength in learning through collaboration, it also found that the team struggled to assess their partner needs and adapt to changes in the types and amounts of resources they receive.

• Leadership: This section assesses the team’s ability to refine and communicate a strategic leadership vision. The assessment found that the center had strong leadership and a clear vision for what the team needs, but lacked the sustainability required for smooth leadership succession.

• Management: This section looks at leaders’ abilities to recruit and support the right people for implementing their strategic plan. Wintergreen management successfully communicated with and equipped their staff with the right resources, the CCAT found, but had some difficulty managing finances and detailing clear roles and responsibilities.

• Technical: This section evaluates leaders’ abilities to access the right skills, tools, and systems for success. The CCAT found that the Wintergreen team provided exceptional service, but could use help strengthening their skills in legal, fundraising, marketing, and technology areas.

“[The CCAT] was a great resource to tell us where we were,” says Hutchins. “But [Marigold] also helped us through the strategic planning process.” Hutchins and her team found such value in the assessment process that they contracted Marigold Strategy for consulting beyond this first engagement.

In this additional consultative phase, Hackney not only offered guidance for building capacity in key categories, but also used the CCAT results to facilitate a strategic planning process to help Wintergreen map out financial and operational goals, priorities, and action steps.

Equipped with an in-depth assessment of its current state and actionable insights for improving operationally, Wintergreen is well on its way toward building its capacity to do more good for the Presque Isle community.

On the Path to a Stronger Future

Hutchins credits Wintergreen’s capacity-building improvements to the open relationships she’s been able to make with the Marigold and Onion Foundation teams. “We feel very confident that we’re on a better path, and we don’t feel like we’re alone,” Hutchins says. “We have a great relationship with the Onion Foundation and with Marigold.”

The Wintergreen team is currently working hard to develop their strategic thinking and continue planning for a better, more sustainable future. Because the CCAT identified a need to put systems in place for creating financial stability and a leadership succession plan, the team is currently focused on:

• Staying on track with important organizational and capacity-building milestones to achieve their goals — as outlined in the Marigold-provided roadmap — and scaling their efforts where they can

• Developing plans for leadership transitions to ensure the organization provides consistent programming without any disruptions to community engagement

• Working with the Marigold consultants to develop and implement a long-term financial sustainability plan

Community has always been at the heart of Wintergreen’s work. Community members, donors, consultants, and friends have continuously lent time and resources to keep the center going.

Why so much generosity? Hutchins believes it’s because of the fundamental human need for creativity and connection: “Communities want art. They want a place and an organization. So it’s powerful that, in times of need, you pick up the phone and people are there to help create that space.”

With a clear set of operational priorities revealed by the CCAT and a strategic plan for future growth, Wintergreen is on course to continue providing enriching art programming to the community for years to come.