Vizionara announced a win-win for our team and the community with the 2025 launch of our Vizionara Gives Back program: an expansion of our long-standing tradition of supporting causes that matter to our team. As part of this initiative, we committed to providing in-kind consulting services to nonprofit organizations facing technical or operational challenges, to help them advance their mission. Our collaboration with SAFE Coalition marked our inaugural project under this program.
About SAFE Coalition
SAFE is a grassroots nonprofit educating and supporting individuals and families across southeastern Massachusetts affected by substance use disorder and mental health concerns. SAFE partnered with Vizionara to address a critical gap: the need to expand programming and services into underserved Massachusetts communities. Facing time, resource and funding constraints, Vizionara provided a team to build a robust business case for a potential expansion effort to further their mission to support communities facing severe gaps in critical health and family support services.
This project reflected our dedication to empowering local nonprofits throughout New England to deliver real, measurable impact where it’s needed most.
The Challenge
SAFE identified gaps in care and programming in other communities in Massachusetts. With limited resources and funding, SAFE needed Vizionara’s assistance to build a business case that included a needs analysis, confirmation of scope, a proposed timeline and a forecasted budget.
As a result of this initiative, SAFE is now able to:
- Validate the feasibility of expansion from a cost and timeline perspective
- Secure strategic partnerships to fuel community outreach
- Attract private donors, apply for available grants and leverage state abatement funds
- Build infrastructure for sustainable local programming
Our Approach
Vizionara developed a comprehensive business case that included:
- Data Analysis & Community Needs Assessment
- Evaluated gaps in current services and public health programming by analyzing demographic and public health data
- Strategic Planning & Phased Execution
- Defined a roadmap with clear milestones to support outreach expansion
- Developed an operational plan including staffing needs and technological requirements
- Created a multi-year budget with options for a range of start-up and ongoing costs
- Fundraising & Stakeholder Engagement
- Created targeted fundraising information for SAFE to leverage for marketing campaigns
- Analyzed state-wide abatement fund opportunities which provide community access to federal funds resulting from Opioid/Pharmaceutical legal settlements
- Partnership Development
- Provided local municipality information for SAFE to leverage when building community partnerships
The Results
- Furnished SAFE with a repeatable end-to-end program strategy and execution plan for expanding their mission to benefit additional communities in Massachusetts
- Saved SAFE 270 resource hours
- Provided collateral that can be leveraged to meet their fundraising goals by mid-Q2 2025
- Decreased time to market by 3 months for establishing community partnerships
- Provided a repeatable execution framework for implementing the expansion program
- Provided 4 budget options to assess start-up and ongoing operational costs
Vizionara delivered a comprehensive solution, including a data-driven needs assessment, phased strategic roadmap, multi-year forecasting, and targeted marketing plans. The project equipped SAFE Coalition with the tools to assess expansion feasibility, secure strategic partnerships to attract private donors, and build sustainable infrastructure for new local programming.
SAFE Coalition now has a clear, actionable plan for expanding its critical services to more Massachusetts communities outside of the 58 they currently serve, ensuring families and individuals in need receive timely, compassionate support.
Reflections
Jennifer Knight-Levine, CEO and Co-Founder, reflected on the program impact and outcome:
“The partnership with Vizionara has been nothing short of outstanding. Vizionara listened to the hopes and dreams of our organization and quickly got to work on creating an opportunity for those dreams to become reality. What was most amazing was how little our day-to-day work was impacted by the planning and prepping done by Vizionara. We are thrilled to launch our work through the strategic plan set forth by the team and we are incredibly grateful for all the time and talent that went into this project.”
Barbara DeLouriero, Founder of Vizionara, reflected on the partnership:
“Our goal for launching the Vizionara Gives Back program was to partner with organizations like SAFE Coalition that are working tirelessly every day to make a positive impact on the communities around us. This project has been the start to what we hope will be one of many important efforts for Vizionara to drive social change and we look forward to continuing to support SAFE as it proceeds with its program expansion.”
SAFE Coalition, a nonprofit founded to combat the rising threat of opioid addiction and overdose in southeastern Massachusetts, now supports over 58 towns across the state with recovery and support groups, referral services, one-on-one nonclinical recovery support, resource connection, community trainings, and educational programming for adolescents and schools. SAFE also voluntarily advises opioid abatement funding boards in municipalities across the state.
Those interested in SAFE’s services or wanting to collaborate with the organization can contact SAFE at (508) 488-8105 or info@safecoalitionma.org
— Denise Keller, Principal Consultant & Kim Rader, former Consultant at Vizionara
Click image to download PDF file of Case Study.
For more information about Vizionara’s Gives Back program or to explore partnership opportunities, visit Vizionara Gives Back.
