Advancing Equity and Community Advocacy - Friends of the Parks
How Najera Consulting helped Friends of the Parks clarify its mission, center equity, and amplify impact across Chicago's park system.
Client Overview
Established in 1975, Friends of the Parks (FOTP) has a longstanding commitment to preserving and promoting Chicago’s public parkland and advocating for good governance within the Chicago Park District. The organization is renowned for fiercely protecting Chicago’s iconic, publicly accessible lakefront.
The Challenge
In 2016, FOTP) won a high-profile battle to block George Lucas from building his proposed Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts on Chicago’s lakefront—a project strongly supported by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. However, this victory led to significant reputational damage, fueled by negative publicity from city leadership who portrayed FOTP as prioritizing elite interests over local job creation. At the same time, the organization faced internal capacity challenges following the retirement of its long-time executive director, resulting in stretched resources and competing stakeholder demands.
Najera Consulting's Approach
Najera Consulting applied a collaborative, equity-centered strategic planning approach grounded in its Nonprofit Model for Social Impact, guiding Friends of the Parks through a process that clarified its mission, strengthened alignment, and embedded equity across its strategy and governance.
Facilitated Mission Clarity and Theory of Change
Led Friends of the Parks through a mission-clarity process to define its primary customer—Chicago residents rather than tourists—and refine its mission and vision to explicitly center equity and inclusivity. Building on this foundation, facilitated the development of a Theory of Change to connect the organization’s strategies and advocacy efforts to measurable outcomes and long-term social impact.
Strengthened Strategic Alignment for Collective Impact
Applied elements of the Nonprofit Model for Social Impact to help Friends of the Parks clarify its organizational role within Chicago’s broader park and environmental ecosystem, strengthening its capacity to engage and align effectively with Park Advisory Councils, community partners, and environmental justice advocates around shared goals.
Embedded Equity into Strategy and Governance
Integrated equity as a guiding principle throughout the strategic planning process—ensuring that community voice, inclusive decision-making, and measurable impact were embedded in Friends of the Parks’ strategy, governance, and advocacy priorities.
Results and Impact
By explicitly centering equity, Friends of the Parks strengthened its advocacy and redirected resources toward Chicago’s most marginalized communities, resulting in greater park investments in historically under-resourced neighborhoods. Internally, the organization’s board underwent a significant transformation, achieving broader geographic, racial, and generational representation that aligned its leadership with its equity-focused mission.
A key outcome of this renewed direction was the influential 2018 State of the Parks report, which exposed systemic inequities in park district investments. The report became a vital advocacy tool, helping drive increased investment in parks serving Latine and African American communities. In partnership with environmental justice organizations, FOTP also achieved a pivotal victory halting the Army Corps of Engineers’ plans for the lakefront Confined Disposal Facility pollution dump near Calumet Park. This success now positions the site to be closed, remediated, and eventually transformed into additional parkland—a long-term commitment secured by the Chicago Park District.
“Najera Consulting helped Friends of the Parks clarify our primary customer and emphasize equity, enabling us to punch way above our weight to mitigate threats to Chicago’s parkland. This clarity led us to closely partner with community coalitions, amplifying local park needs and strategically using our resources for maximum impact. This approach was fundamental to our advocacy on major projects like the creation of DuSable Park and the successful campaign to halt the pollution dump on the Southeast Side lakefront, now positioned to become future parkland.”
Ready to Transform Your Impact?
Contact Najera Consulting Group today to discover how our tailored strategies can help your organization overcome challenges and accelerate your impact. Let’s work together to create meaningful change.
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