NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, vol. 16, no. 1, Fall 2005 © Jodi Sandfort 2004. 101 Originally published at http://www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/wpp/case_studies.html Reprinted with permission of Jodi Sandfort. All rights reserved. C ASE S TUDY Casa de Esperanza [Part C] Jodi Sandfort The challenges of nonprofit management and leadership often lie in balancing the constant demands of internal issues and the rapidly changing external context. As the third and final segment of the Casa de Esperanza case illustrates, there is no point of perfect balance. Part C documents the various mechanisms used to institutionalize the organization’s identity as a community- based Latina organization, including new structures, planning processes, and human resource management. In all, leaders strive to make the organization truly bicultural, allowing it to participate in mainstream circles while remaining grounded in core community values and practices. When faced by a new mandate from state funders, leaders use these internal changes as a new filter when considering the most appropriate action. As such, the case illustrates how proactive structural change can propel an organization to recognize realities. A S Lupe Serrano reflected upon the heated conversation of the morning’s management team meeting, she felt a sense of relief about Casa’s organizational identity. By early 2003, she felt certain that she knew how to respond to the letter from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety—the agency’s major public funder—mandating participation in the statewide data-base, Day One, that tracked shelter occupancy throughout Minnesota. That clarity had certainly not always been present. From the agency’s founding in the early 1980s to the late 1990s, Case de Esperanza struggled with ambiguity of mission. Although the organization was founded out of the domestic violence move- ment to provide culturally appropriate services to Latinas, for many years these women were not the main recipients of services. As a result of a strategic planning process conducted in 1997–1998, the Note: Jodi Sandfort, Associate Professor, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, wrote this case for the Center on Women and Public Policy as part of its 2003 Case Writing Summer Institute. The Center on Women and Public Policy and the Otto Bremer Foundation provided support- ing funds. © Jodi Sandfort 2004. Please direct comments and questions to her at jsandfort@hhh.umn.edu or jsandfort@mcknight.org.