Improving Internal Nonprofit Processes to Build Capacity

You know your nonprofit organization is doing great things for the community. Your staff and volunteers

are passionate and hard-working. You face increasing demand for the products and services you

provide. How might your nonprofit organization reduce overall operating costs and anxiety while

meeting your strategic goals?

Process improvement offers a way to grow internal capacity to meet mission and serve the community.

By improving existing processes and engineering new ones, nonprofit organizations can reduce

frustrations, reduce costs, and improve efficiencies. The Process Management Lab and Hot Rocks

Consulting have created an innovative partnership to bring affordable process improvement services to

nonprofit organizations.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe approaches for streamlining processes.

2. Describe a process improvement approach that provides support for implementation and

organizational change.

3. Identify internal challenges that process improvement can address.

Bios:

Co-founder of the Process Management Lab, Rob Anson is Emeritus Professor of Information Systems at

Boise State University, and currently owner of Hot Rocks Consulting. He has over 30 years consulting

experience facilitating meetings and Business Process Re-Engineering workshops,implementing

enterprise systems, and certifying electronic voting systems for the state of Idaho. Rob taught for thirty

years in the areas of Business Intelligence, Systems Analysis and Design, Project Management, and

Database Management. He also taught courses for the Executive MBA program in Strategic Information

Systems and Design Thinking. Currently, Rob has a product called PeerAssessment.Com used in a

number of universities to support student team peer assessment and team skills development.

Co-founder of the Process Management Lab, Steve Villachica has consulted and worked in business,

government, and non-profit settings for more than 25 years. He joined the faculty of the Department of

Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning in the College of Engineering at Boise State

University in 2007. Prior to joining Boise State, Steve collaborated with colleagues and clients at DLS

Group, Inc., to create large-scale performance support systems, e-learning, instructor-led training, job

aids, and a host of award-winning performance improvement solutions for pharmaceutical companies,

law enforcement agencies, securities companies and regulators, the Intelligence Community, and

others. At Boise State, Steve teaches courses in instructional design, needs assessment, and workplace

performance improvement. Dr. Villachica’s research interests focus on identifying and leveraging

exemplary performance throughout organizations.

Fran Caprai, MBA is an experienced business leader and IT Executive with in-depth understanding of

systems, data, and most importantly, people. Her inherent ability to see the big picture then break it

into manageable pieces has enabled her to build effective and cohesive IT organizations, manage

complex programs, lead and manage change and to serve as a mentor for people eager to grow in their

career. Fran’s life-long drive to continue learning has enabled her to move from Albertsons (grocery

retail, distribution & supply chain) to BMHC (building materials wholesale and home construction), to

ECCO (global manufacturing in the automotive industry), and most recently, to Amalgamated Sugar

Company (food manufacturing and agriculture). Each change in industry brought the opportunity to

learn about new business hurdles and new ways to apply process improvement and discipline to provide

improved solutions. Fran thrives on diversity, welcomes a good challenge, and appreciates variety as

critical to satisfaction and success.

Chantel Early (she/her) graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 2014 with a B.S. in Electrical

Engineering, and earned her graduate certificate in Instructional Design from Boise State in 2021. She is

a full-time OPWL Master’s program student and is a Coast Guard Veteran. Chantel resides in Atlantic

City, NJ with her husband Tim, and their two dogs, Rey and Maddy. Chantel led multiple projects,

training, on-boarded new members and published her work several times at a national conference, in a

technical report and has contributed to a peer reviewed journal article that is in preparation for review.