Doyon Foundation held its annual strategic planning session on April 2 – 3, 2010 at the Doyon, Limited offices in Anchorage, Alaska. 
During the planning session, which was facilitated by Leadership Matters, the Foundation’s board of directors and senior staff reviewed the Foundation’s history; analyzed the Foundation’s strengths, problems, threats and opportunities; built upon the Foundation’s vision for the future, including values, mission and strategic focus areas; brainstormed and prioritized ideas to accomplish goals; and determined next steps.
Highlights from the meeting included:
- Refined the Foundation’s mission, which is “to provide educational, career and cultural opportunities to enhance the identity and quality of life for Doyon shareholders.”
- Built on the Foundation’s vision developed in 2008, which includes financial sustainability, effective collaborative strategic partnerships, organizational excellence, every shareholder’s dream is realized, and strong demonstration of Native traditional language and culture.
- Articulated Foundation values, which are community, integrity, identity, traditional Native values, and quality.
- Identified five strategic focus areas, including providing consistent and measureable results; diversifying and growing revenue streams; increasing shareholder educational opportunities; enhancing operations; and revitalizing Native languages and traditional values.
- Brainstormed initiatives related to each of the five strategic focus areas. For example, as part of providing consistent and measureable results, the Foundation plans to integrate statistics into processes and research shareholder demographics.
In terms of next steps, the Foundation board and staff will be working together to develop a detailed action plan to accomplish the initiatives outlined in the strategic planning session. Additional details on the process and progress will be shared in the coming months.
The Foundation wishes to thank past board members and staff for their hard work and dedication in developing previous planning materials. The existing documents served as a basis for the work accomplished in this year’s planning session, enabling the current board and staff to easily move forward in creating an action plan.