Green Heart Blog

GHP Strategic Plan 2030: Deepening Our Roots

From 2009-2019, The Green Heart Project built and supported school garden projects in Charleston to educate students, connect people, and cultivate community. In 2020, we built the ½ acre Urban Farm at Enston Home as a headquarters for outdoor learning, youth development, food production, and community building. 

Since our founding, we grew from a $0 annual budget and all-volunteer team on one school garden project, to a $1 million annual budget with professional staffing at our farm headquarters and 8 additional school garden sites. With an extensive infrastructure, a great collection of partners, a supportive community of funders, and an experienced and talented team, The Green Heart Project is well positioned to strategically deepen our roots in Charleston over the next 3-5 years.

Mission, Vision, and Values

We have adopted an updated mission and vision statement, with clearer language to describe Green Heart’s aims and to reflect new opportunities unlocked by the Urban Farm at Enston Home.

Mission

The Green Heart Project uses school gardens and urban farms to educate students through hands-on learning experiences and to cultivate community through the shared joy of growing and eating food.

Vision

A future where we are all empowered to grow, learn, and thrive—cultivating healthy communities and lifelong connections to food, nature, and one another.

Values (adopted in 2024)

Community: We engage the community in our work.

Education: We are here to teach and learn.

Respect: We respect ourselves. We respect our buddies. We respect the Earth.

Strategic Pillars, Goals, and Initiatives 

We have adopted three strategic pillars, each representing an equally important aspect of The Green Heart Project’s mission.

1. School Gardens
2. Urban Farm; and
3. Organizational Sustainability

Each pillar has its own overarching goal, and set of initiatives to drive the goal forward. This set of goals and initiatives will guide our annual planning efforts over the next 3-5 years, as each year we will gauge our progress and chart a course of action that gets us closer towards our Goals.

Pillar 1 – School Gardens

Goal: Engage more deeply with school partners.

Summary: We believe we have a greater impact on students when we are more deeply rooted in a school community. This means working with multiple age groups of students, coordinating with various school staff, and making connections with parents and family members. 

Initiatives:

1A – Refine, package, and share curriculum

Green Heart has built and used a collection of original and effective school garden lessons for grades pre-K-6. Learning objectives range across the subjects of nutrition, academic learning, environmental education, character education, and technical skills. We know that our curriculum is effective at advancing nutrition and character education, and supportive of other areas of learning, such as academics, environmental education, and technical gardening and culinary skills. In the next 1-2 years, we will focus on organizing, refining, and packaging the curriculum, to communicate our learning approach to employees, volunteers, partners and funders. With a clear educational focus and message, we will be able to more effectively train our educators, measure our impact, and communicate the value of Green Heart to stakeholders.

1B – Launch Whole School partnership at 1 school

In the past, Green Heart has provided school garden programs at select schools which have reached every student at the school, called our STEAM program. These programs are staff intensive, and in recent years, we have significantly scaled back this type of partnership. However, we still believe a Whole School model, reaching every student at a school through garden-based learning, has the potential to have a big positive impact on the student population. In such a program, students can grow from year to year, at different grade levels, through their experiences in the garden. This type of engagement will require a dedicated staff person responsible for the garden program. We envision placing a full-time Garden Educator at one school to pilot this model. The Garden Educator would teach several Green Heart lessons each week, and coordinate with teachers and staff at the school to incorporate the school garden into everyday student learning across subject areas. Over the course of the next 3 years, we intend to identify and invest in 1 pilot Whole School partnership.

1C – Strengthen partnerships at schools

Over the course of its history, Green Heart has built a network of school garden partners throughout the Charleston area. Currently, we have 10 partner schools, receiving different levels of service including garden upkeep as well as direct student instruction. As resources allow, we will consider increasing the level of partnership for each of our partners, to strengthen and re-establish our network of school partners across Charleston County. Growing into the schools where we already have a garden in place, where we have strong relationships already in place, and who have expressed interest in partnership, is a promising formula for increased program impact. Additionally, 3 of our 4 Affiliate schools are Title 1 schools, serving mostly low-income families, which ensures that our resources are being directed to populations who don’t otherwise have them.

Pillar 2 – Urban Farm

Goal: Grow the Urban Farm as a gathering place.

Summary: The Urban Farm at Enston Home provides many opportunities for community engagement, such as youth employment, volunteer work, produce sales, field trips, and fundraising events. Yet, there is untapped potential in the Urban Farm as a venue for workshops, performances, and food-centered gatherings such as cookouts and oyster roasts. These activities can advance our mission of education and community building, while attracting resources through fees for services, sponsorships, and donor engagement.

Initiatives:

2A – Engage youth and volunteers in farm work

Our first 5 years of food production at the Urban Farm at Enston Home have prioritized food production for sale at a weekly Farm Stand, led mostly by Green Heart staff and supported by youth employees and volunteers. Through weekly volunteer workdays and the summer Youth Internship Program, we have incorporated youth employees and volunteers into the growing process. The feedback we have received from volunteers and youth employees reminds us that hands-on farm work is valuable for increasing engagement with youth and volunteers. We will continue to refine our work processes, volunteer schedule, and Youth Internship Program, to prioritize volunteer and youth employee experiences as we involve them in the urban farming process. The results will be a higher level of learning and development in our youth employees and a satisfied volunteer base.

2B – Host inclusive community and educational events

The Urban Farm is an inspiring outdoor gathering space. We have proven this through educational field trips for students of all ages, community events such as the 2021 Annual Harvest Dinner, and successful fundraising dinners. We want to take more advantage of the farm as an event space, to broaden our exposure in the community and bring in resources to advance our mission. An ongoing challenge is that the Urban Farm is in a quiet residential neighborhood. A mindful and inclusive approach to events such as farm tours, educational workshops, performances, cookouts, oyster roasts, etc. could benefit residents by bringing in valuable resources, such as food, art, and social connections, while also engaging a broader audience in Green Heart’s activities. With such an approach, the Urban Farm can continue developing into a gathering place for all people. 

2C – Restore Memorial Hall

Memorial Hall is a 140 year old structure, built in the style of a chapel, in the center of the William Enston Home property and adjacent to the Urban Farm. As part of our 100-year lease with the City of Charleston Housing Authority, we have a license to use the first floor for storage. We use it to store farm tools and supplies, and it contains the walk-in cooler where we keep fresh produce between harvest and distribution. The second floor, built with hardwood and stained glass in the style of a religious sanctuary, is in disrepair. We see a great opportunity to restore this building to use as an indoor program facility to complement the Urban Farm space. The second floor could serve as a multi-purpose classroom, an event space (such as farm-fresh dinners), or a community meeting space. The first floor would need renovated restrooms and could hold a kitchen for meal preparation using produce harvested from the farm. Restoration of this building will require partnership from the Housing Authority, who own the building and who are supportive of the effort, as well as partnership from historic preservation groups, architecture firms, construction firms, etc. 

We are still in the early stages of exploration. Two different students from the Clemson Architecture school over the past 5 years have studied the project, so we have a rough idea of the requirements. The Housing Authority has commissioned a preliminary study to see what kind of funding sources might be available. Feasibility of the project needs to be tested, and a conceptual plan needs to be developed before proceeding. We plan to continue along this path of exploration and gather more information, before we engage in robust discussion about what it would mean for us to launch a campaign to restore the Hall.

Pillar 3 – Organizational Sustainability

Goal: Measure, communicate, and grow impact.

Summary: We know that Green Heart works, and we have a plan to grow purposefully. Continued growth will require increased investment of funds and a robust evaluation system. Clearly measured and articulated program results, backed by data, will unlock opportunities for partnerships with institutions (ex: school districts, health systems, government), and build trust and commitment from our current stakeholders. 

Initiatives:

3A – Grow Budget to $1.5M by FY28

The achievement of our 3-year goals of this strategic plan hinges upon increased annual funding for the organization to sustain our program impact. To achieve our objectives, we need to increase our annual budget by 20-25% each year over the next 2 years, from our current budget of $1 million per year, to $1.5 million per year. Increased operational funding will allow us to invest in program staff (+4 FTE) to drive impact on the ground, and to invest in measurement and in communications by retaining professional partners. Increasing annual income will require a creative and coherent fundraising effort by our Board and staff across various sources. Currently, the biggest opportunities for funding are estimated to be in individual giving, and continued growth in net income from fundraising events.

3B – Measure and Communicate Success

Measurement and evaluation (M&E) is the key to strengthening every part of our organization – from programs to people, funding to strategy. It’s not about reporting, it’s about learning, improving, and growing with purpose. A good M&E system clarifies what is working, and what’s not. It drives program improvement and staff development. It builds trust with funders, partners, and community, it powers data-informed decisions and long-term planning, and it is essential for telling a compelling story of impact. The process begins with defining key outcomes and indicators. The next steps are collecting and using quantitative and qualitative data, and training our staff to reflect, learn, and adapt based on our results. Lastly, we will share our findings outside of the organization to build trust and greater investment. Building and sustaining an effective M&E system will take staff time and focus, proper tools, training and ideally, support from an outside M&E partner with expertise.