When Bridge It, a Melbourne-based service supporting young women and gender diverse people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, reached a genuine turning point in its growth, it partnered with CoLab Strategy to find its way through. Working closely with the Founder, the Leadership Team and Board over three months, we helped Bridge It move from a wide, promising, slightly overwhelming set of options to one clear direction and built out the strategy and action plan. What came out the other end was a board-endorsed strategy and an investor-ready pitch pack, grounded in the reality of what Bridge It does best.
The Ask
Bridge It is small, but it’s known. Its Cocoon model, dignity-led, youth-centred housing and support for young women and gender diverse people experiencing homelessness, has built a reputation well beyond its size, and by the time CoLab came on board, that reputation had started opening doors Bridge It hadn’t necessarily planned for.
That’s a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem. Bridge It’s leadership had real ambition to grow, but ambition without a shared direction can pull an organisation in several directions at once. Different paths to growth carried different trade-offs between reach and control, and different paths to funding carried different trade-offs between financial sustainability and independence. The Board and Leadership Team knew this, and knew they needed to decide together, not separately.
So Bridge It came to CoLab Strategy looking for a process, not a document. Something that would help its leaders work through the real choices in front of them, test what was genuinely achievable with the Board, and land on a strategy, investor brief and action plan ready to take to funders.
The Challenge: Turning Ambition into a Fundable Pathway
Bridge It’s leadership knew the organisation was ready to grow. What they didn’t yet have was one shared answer to how.
- a range of possible pathways for growth, each with different implications for Bridge It’s reach and control
- a range of possible ways to fund that growth, each with different implications for Bridge It’s independence
- a real risk that, without a shared framework, good intentions would quietly turn into different people working toward different versions of success
- the need for a business case that could stand up in front of philanthropic and impact investors, not just Bridge It’s own leadership
- a determination to grow without losing the dignity-led, youth-centred care that had made the Cocoon model work in the first place.
Our Approach: Strategic Clarity and Investor Readiness
We worked closely with Bridge It’s Founder, Board and Leadership Team in stages, building understanding before narrowing toward one clear, agreed direction. Each stage fed the next, so nothing needed to be revisited.
1) Understanding the landscape
We began by getting properly close to Bridge It’s story, its history, its people, and the tensions sitting underneath its growth ambitions, so the decisions ahead were grounded in real context rather than assumption.
2) Building Shared Clarity
Working closely with the Leadership Team, we helped define what success would genuinely look like for Bridge It. This gave everyone a shared language for the harder conversations still to come.
3) Testing and Narrowing the Path
We worked through a wide field of growth and funding options with the Leadership Team, then brought the strongest of them to the Board to test, discuss and endorse. Some were strengthened, others deferred, until a single, agreed pathway came into view.
4) Building the Strategy and the Roadmap
With the direction endorsed, we developed Bridge It’s strategy and action plan in full, giving Bridge It a complete, board ready plan to guide delivery over the years ahead.
4) Crafting the investor pitch
The final phase turned the business case into a funder-ready investor pitch with real heart and rigour behind it. Together, we shaped a narrative that does justice to the program, the young women and gender diverse people Bridge It supports, the evidence behind the model and the case for investment. What emerged was a concise cohesive pitch pack, ready to be tailored for grants, philanthropy and impact investment conversations.
“Cherie and Vanessa are absolutely brilliant to work with. They care deeply about the work and about elevating social impact organisations. They’re deep listeners and some of the smartest people in the strategy world.“
— Carla Raynes, Founder and CEO, Bridge It
What We Delivered?
- a clear set of measures to define what success looks like for Bridge It
- an options analysis weighing the relative merits of Bridge It’s growth and funding pathways
- a strategic direction setting out Bridge It’s vision for the years ahead
- a growth strategy, endorsed by the Board, focused on deepening Bridge It’s existing model
- a funding strategy designed to protect Bridge It’s autonomy while resourcing growth.
The Outcome: A Strategy Bridge It Trusts
As a result of the engagement, Bridge It achieved:
- a leadership team and Board genuinely aligned on one growth direction
- a clear decision to deepen its existing model, rather than spreading thin through early expansion
- a funding approach built to protect Bridge It’s independence while still resourcing growth
- a complete strategy and action plan, rather than a set of options still to be worked through
- a business case ready to go straight into funding applications and investor conversations
- a leadership team that feels genuinely confident about how Bridge It will grow, not just hopeful about it. a clear set of measures to define what success looks like for Bridge It.
“We walked away with a strategy that I feel super confident in, and I am more confident than ever now in how we will grow and increase our impact.”
— Carla Raynes, Founder and CEO, Bridge It
Why This Work Mattered?
Organisations like Bridge It are often doing some of the most careful, quietly extraordinary work in the sector, and are usually the most stretched when it comes to stopping long enough to think strategically. Growth chased without clarity has a way of eroding the very thing that made an organisation good in the first place.
That’s really the heart of this work. Strategic clarity and social impact aren’t in tension, they feed each other. When a leadership team is aligned, when a funding approach genuinely protects an organisation’s independence, and when a growth pathway is grounded in what’s real rather than what’s hoped for, an organisation spends less energy managing its own uncertainty and more energy where it belongs, with the people who rely on it.
For CoLab Strategy, it was a genuine privilege to work alongside Bridge It’s team through this thinking, and to hand over a strategy, investor brief and action plan we knew they could pick up and run with.
Why This Matters for Organisations Like Yours?
Not-for-profit and purpose-driven organisations often reach a moment where ambition has outpaced the clarity needed to act on it. Growth, funding pressure and rising expectations from funders create real strategic choices, and those choices are best made with a clear process, not guesswork.
If your organisation is feeling the pull to grow, but isn’t yet sure which direction is right, a lot of this will feel familiar.
- your leadership has real ambition but different ideas about the best way forward
- funders keep asking for a business case, and you don’t quite have one yet
- you want to grow your impact without losing the culture that got you here
- you need a strategy and action plan that’s credible to funders and honest about your organisation’s reality
- you are ready to make deliberate choices, not just add more activity to an already full plate
If you are interested in how CoLab Strategy supports innovative not-for-profit organisations, visit our Strategic Planning and Not-for-Profit service pages to learn more about our approach.
How Can CoLab Strategy Help?
If your organisation is standing at a similar crossroads, weighing up growth options, funding pathways or leadership alignment, we’d love to help you find your way through it, and build the strategy and action plan to get you there.
Book a free 30-minute strategy session to get clarity about your next steps.
Let’s Chat!
Reach out to CoLab Strategy today to discuss how we can help you grow your organisation for greater impact.