It probably goes without saying that partnerships are central to the success of NeighborWorks America and other nonprofits. But Suzanne Letendre-Oakes, senior director of NeighborWorks' Organizational Assessment Division, wants it on the record. The partnership relationship between NeighborWorks and its network organizations is one of the reasons she joined the organization more than 30 years ago.
"In the early days our tag line was 'we're a partnership organization,'" says Letendre-Oakes. "That was the key attribute. We understood that without the network, NeighborWorks didn't exist."
Letendre-Oakes is retiring this month from a division that she says many – even those within the organization – don't fully understand. As she looks back on her time at NeighborWorks, she also looks back on a division that got its start 45 years ago (https://www.neighborworks.org/Media-Center/45th-Anniversary), when the enabling legislation that created NeighborWorks was signed into being. The division's name has changed many times over the decades since, but the goal – making sure organizations are healthy by identifying what's working and what's not – has remained."No matter what you called our division, be it Risk Assessment or Program Review, our goal was to respond to our Congressional mandate and enabling legislation and monitor the network unlike any other funder. Since NeighborWorks America was reliant on Congressional funding, our role was clear: We would monitor those funds, but we would do so in a way that also enhanced the performance of our network. That legislation and our vision for a tool to effectively monitor the network is our origin story."
Early days
Letendre-Oakes started working at NeighborWorks after a career at the Federal Reserve Bank, where she'd been a bank examiner. At NeighborWorks, she worked with network organizations to assess programs and performance in resource management, production and more.
"I've always continued to learn in this job," she says from her home office in Boston during one of her last weeks of work. "My job continues to be challenging and motivating because the organizations we assess are changing and evolving and essentially raising the bar on what can be achieved in the affordable housing arena. As they continued to change and take on more challenging programs, our role in assessing and evaluating has changed, too."
In the early days. NeighborWorks conducted reviews on location. Over the years, shifts in budget, technology and then a pandemic changed that dynamic. But OAD continues to conduct an average of 90 reviews a year. As director, Letendre-Oakes has her hands and eyes in every review of network members in the Northeast and Southern regions. All told, she's been involved with thousands of assessments, and engaging with network staff, executives and their partners "I think it is important to note that the key to any success OAD achieves is that we are not approaching the assessment with a stick," she explains. "It's approaching the assessment as a caring partner would and focusing on the goal to help organizations improve. In other words, we're not going in there with knives out."
She's seen network organizations go from struggling and vulnerable to exemplary, as OAD identifies issues and the region and network staff resolve them. "OAD's job is to help others," she says. "But the network and the region are also keys to the success. It takes a village. It takes a partnership."
Letendre-Oakes is quick to point out that the network members are the true experts at what they do; OAD is there to provide due diligence. It is that diligence that "gives evidence to Congress that the network and NeighborWorks are a good investment, that we are judicious, that we are good stewards," she says.
Andy Blomme, vice president of Legislative Affairs at NeighborWorks, agrees. "Members of Congress support NeighborWorks America for many reasons — our remarkable capacity to leverage resources, our 45-year record of excellence, our creativity in finding and testing new housing models, just to name a few," he says. "But one of the strongest pillars of our support is accountability. Every member wants to know that dollars appropriated to NeighborWorks America will be properly invested, tracked and assessed for effectiveness. None of that would be possible without the hard work and dedication of our Organizational Assessment Division."
Part of Letendre-Oakes' legacy is helping create the reporting program that the division usses to assess organizations. The system is known as PROMPT, an acronym for the areas the division assesses:
• Production
• Resource and Financial Management
• Organizational Management and Board Governance
• Management
• Planning
• Technical Operating and Compliance Systems
The system allows for questions and answers and offers a window into each organization. "We can see the risk," she says. "Despite the many changes over the years in OAD, PROMPT as a tool with specific performance objectives has not changed. The fact that it is trademarked and one product NeighborWorks America can claim as its own is a remarkable testament to the many people who were at the table when designing this tool. I think it's not an exaggeration to say that PROMPT has generated a great deal of good will with Congress, our network and our board as it has proven itself to be an effective organizational assessment tool."
Joanie Straussman Brandon, regional vice president of the Northeast Region, worked on the original PROMPT system with Letendre-Oakes. "Suzanne and I witnessed and participated in the evolution of the Program Review Department in its transition to the Organizational Assessment Division and all variations in between," she says. "We helped develop the PROMPT system, oftentimes challenging; but always invigorating."
What she admires most about Letendre-Oakes? "Suzanne has never lost sight of our initial intent: To assist network organizations to be as healthy and vibrant as possible so that they could have the greatest impact in communities and in peoples' lives."
Raising Native voices
Letendre-Oakes has been dedicated to that work for more than 30 years. At the same time she has been dedicated to the work of OAD, Letendre-Oakes, she has also worked to shine the spotlight on the need for more Native voices at NeighborWorks America. She is Metis Cree and an enrolled member of the Akwesasne nation, as are her three children and two grandsons. She has been outspoken about hiring more Indigenous staff and she practices what she preaches. At one time she led the only NeighborWorks team with Indigenous staff. Her goal was made more urgent when another position was eliminated last year.
In addition, Letendre-Oakes was one of a handful of staff members who worked to bring a focus on Native partnerships to NeighborWorks America, forming an advisory group known as Akwe:kon. The work resulted in a Native strategy at NeighborWorks, and in hiring Director of Native American Partnerships and Strategies Mel Willie.
"Native Americans bring value and more to the staff than just history," she says. "Unless we have this as a goal, increasing our staff who represent Indian Country is not going to happen. We have to have more awareness. We have to increase our reach in Indian Country."
Since the group's formation, NeighborWorks has added two more Native organizations to its network. "I'm very proud that a small group that we named Akwe:kon (meaning all of us in Mohawk) was able to get this started," she says. "Like Margaret Mead said: 'Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has.'"
As Letendre-Oakes retires, NeighborWorks will continue to center partnerships in both the work of Akwe:kon and in her division. Some things will stay the same. Some will change. But regardless, Letendre-Oakes says, "resolving issues takes partnership."
