Vibrant Emotional Health Case Study
How the CTO of a growing nonprofit used Vannin Chief of Staff to accelerate hiring, drive monthly board materials, and improve organizational cohesion
Overview
Vibrant Emotional Health is a nonprofit organization that’s been operating for over 50 years with the mission to promote emotional well-being for all. It has a 9-member executive team and over 40 board members. Vibrant’s leaders, advocates, educators, and innovators focus on raising awareness and offering support to anyone who is struggling with their mental health.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL), for which Vibrant was the initial administrator, debuted in 2005. In 2022, 988 launched as an evolution of the suicide prevention and crisis intervention service. As a result, Vibrant received a significant increase in federal funding, state funding, and public attention. After half a century of service, Vibrant is now growing exponentially.
Situation
Grant Riewe is the Chief Technology Officer of Vibrant. He started with a team of ~30 individuals, and is expanding that team to >120 in less than two years.
Between hiring ~80-90 people in a year, building and maintaining partnerships with external stakeholders, creating a strong team culture, and working on other projects, Riewe realized he would be over-extended. He needed someone who could help him meet growth goals, as well as maintain the culture and efficiency of his existing team along the way.
He needed a Chief of Staff.
Riewe didn’t have much first-hand experience with the Chief of Staff role, so he decided to engage an external firm to help him find the right person. He called several CoS organizations to get a sense of their capabilities.
“When I talked to the other Chief of Staff organizations,” Riewe says, “they were just looking for a personality fit with me, rather than trying to understand my goals.”
That was not the case with Vannin Chief of Staff.
Riewe approached CEO Keziah Wonstolen, whom he’d worked with at Accenture, and described his ideal candidate. Wonstolen pushed him for further details, directing his focus towards the most important competencies for his specific situation; she proceeded to define what he really needed in a Chief of Staff. Riewe knew he needed help with the nuts and bolts–for instance, with his monthly funding requests to his executive board.
“What I didn't understand–but what Keziah understood and has been of immense value to me–is the role that [a CoS] would play with my leadership team and connecting them to me in different ways,” Riewe says.
Riewe knew he had found his ideal CoS partner in Vannin Chief of Staff. He and Wonstolen then tapped veteran Chief of Staff Jamie Cole for the job.
Approach
Cole was an ideal fit for Vibrant Emotional Health during this transitional phase. She had prior experience heading growth-stage startups as the former COO of TaskRay. Cole intrinsically understood what Riewe and Vibrant were dealing with, and her actions reflected that understanding. Cole jumped right into advancing Riewe’s vision: Riewe gave her high-level plans and she filled in the structure, provided key details, and drove the projects to completion.
“[I needed] to give her the rough bones of the project, and I needed her to pick up my vision and advance it…That's exactly what Jamie can do,” Riewe says.
Cole had 3 major areas of impact:
Board materials
Cole partnered with the CFO and CEO of Vibrant to present expenditure requests to the executive committee of their board. This was a labor-intensive monthly process which ultimately allocated and approved the funds Riewe needed to drive growth. Cole defined steps to ensure the process ran smoothly, collating requests from the CFO and CEO and delivering them to the board.
Hiring
Cole prioritized the roles for which Vibrant needed to hire and drove the recruiting effort, while simultaneously navigating significant leadership transitions. She defined the process for each role - not only for a single hire, but at scale. She assigned roles and deadlines, measured cross-functional performance, and helped modernize people operations (HR). Her detailed work plan helped speed Vibrant’s hiring push along.
Improved interactions with his organization
This was one unexpected benefit that Cole provided. Because she coordinated Riewe’s time and made sure it went to the right places, Riewe was able to forge strong connections and relationships with his own leadership team. This sense of connection started within his own CoS relationship and grew from there.
In these three areas and beyond, Riewe leaned on Cole as an advisor. She served as a second set of eyes for him, and employed her breadth of experience to help Riewe capture the right opportunities.
“I needed an advisor I could talk to, someone who knows all of the things that are going on and is able to understand the context [for my organization]...I didn’t even know I needed that,” Riewe said.
Results
Vibrant’s engagement with Vannin Chief of Staff resulted in these positive outcomes:
They’ve hired 20 of 80 new hires. Cole built a process from scratch that sets up clear expectations and processes to hire the remaining open roles.
Board materials have been delivered 100% on-time since Cole’s arrival, and Riewe has gotten all of his requests for funding approved without modification.
Weekly operations of the technology leadership team are now standardized and structured, and the whole team is tied together for better collaboration.
Conclusion
Now that Cole has laid the groundwork for a smooth 10x growth experience, she is working on finding her replacement. This person will take the baton from Cole and continue to support Riewe as he navigates an exciting new chapter for his team and his organization.
Cole “is able to give me the counseling and advice that I need…That's the thing that I'm going to miss most once she graduates and goes on to her next role,” Riewe said.