The first strategic plan ever created for the Jacksonville History Center was adopted by its board in October 2016. A normal planning cycle for nonprofits is around five years, meaning a fresh planning process was due in 2021. However, our calendar became disrupted by a few things. Beginning in March 2020, the pandemic created uncertainty about the future and made proactive planning especially challenging. Over the following year, we invested heavily in plans to commemorate Jacksonville’s 200th anniversary, which took place in June 2022. While that was ongoing, we were raising funds to renovate one of our historic buildings, the ca. 1920 Florida Casket Company plant at 318 Palmetto Street.
Those diversions are now behind us. The year-long restoration of the three-story “casket” building is nearly complete, thanks to many generous donors and to the City of Jacksonville for crucial support. The Jacksonville Historical Society now operates under its new identity as the Jacksonville History Center, to better reflect what we do. It’s time to plan our next steps, and how to accomplish them.
The History Center board, chaired this year by Kristanna Broward Barnes, has engaged one of Northeast Florida’s leading nonprofit planning consultants to help guide the process. Our Governance & Planning Committee, led by former board chair Fred Kent, is forming a planning team that includes stakeholders from within and outside the organization. One of the important ingredients in any strategic plan is fresh thinking. New perspectives help ensure that an organization’s leadership is in touch with what’s going on across its communities and constituencies. In the months ahead we will be looking outward, listening widely and benchmarking ourselves against others.
We remain guided by our core belief that history matters. Our mission is to strengthen citizenship through public history education. Knowing about the people and events that came before us makes us care about our place in the present, and about its future. Our job is to serve all of Jacksonville’s people as the only professional public history organization devoted to the city as a whole. This amazing, complicated city is overflowing with stories. Some are magical, and others are tragic, but they all have the power to teach and guide us. If you agree that Jacksonville’s history matters, tell us why you believe so. As we plan for the future, let us hear how the Jacksonville History Center can serve you in the years ahead. Click here to share your thoughts.
Alan J. Bliss, Ph.D.
CEO, Jacksonville History Center