Delivering Purpose‑Led Operational Alignment  From Local Growth to National Scale

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By:  Rio Callans

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Organization

‍A global nonprofit translating ancient wisdom into practical guidance for modern life. The organization hosts study groups, mentorship programs, and events worldwide to help individuals apply spiritual principles to personal growth and community impact.

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Stage

‍Grassroots Study Groups | Mission-Driven Nonprofit | Scaling from Local Volunteer-Led Groups to National Coordinated Network

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The Challenge

Phase 1 — Local Study Group Operations

‍A grassroots study group in St. Louis had strong potential but zero operational infrastructure:

• Classes hosted in student's home with no formal structure
• Senior teacher handling curriculum, mentorship, AND all logistics alone
• No systems for scheduling, donations, inventory, event management, or communications
• Teacher burnout limiting growth and creating inconsistent student experiences
• Needed foundational operations to stabilize and scale

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Phase 2 — National Operations Across 17 Locations

‍After proving local operational impact, promoted to national marketing and operations role supporting 17 U.S. study groups:

• Inconsistent execution across locations despite standardized curriculum
• Teachers were visionaries focused on content, lacking bandwidth for logistics and marketing
• No unified oversight, communications infrastructure, or scalable event systems
• Needed national alignment to serve thousands of students with consistency

The operational challenge: build infrastructure that freed teachers to teach while creating consistent, scalable operations across distributed volunteer-led locations.

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What I Built

Phase 1 — Local Study Group Infrastructure

Operational Systems & Processes

• Built foundational frameworks for scheduling, donations tracking, bookstore inventory management, and weekly event logistics
• Implemented CRM and financial processes for donation management and reporting
• Documented processes and established communication rhythms for consistency
• Created repeatable event operations workflows

Volunteer Management & Team Building

• Recruited and trained volunteer teams to create dependable operational support structure
• Established roles, responsibilities, and accountability systems
• Built volunteer onboarding and training programs

Marketing & Growth

• Developed simple marketing engine (flyers, email campaigns, social media) to increase awareness and attendance
• Created outreach strategies that grew local participation from 6 to 20+ students (150% growth)

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Phase 2 — National Marketing & Operations

Strategic Operations Leadership

• Led marketing and operations nationally, integrating senior teachers' vision into unified execution across 17 locations
• Combined marketing, logistics, and finance workflows into single cohesive operational strategy
• Acted as bridge between visionary leadership and execution teams

Scalable Systems & Infrastructure

• Designed and implemented CRM, standardized communications, and volunteer frameworks supporting 100+ annual events
• Standardized curriculum delivery and outreach strategies across all locations for cohesive student experience
• Created repeatable event operations playbooks and templates
• Documented processes and trained teams for continuity beyond direct oversight

Financial Management & Vendor Relations

• Managed budgets across 17 locations
• Centralized vendor contracts and optimized purchasing to reduce operational costs
• Created financial reporting and tracking systems

Marketing & Communications

• Executed coordinated national marketing campaigns (email, social media, landing pages) to unify messaging
• Created brand consistency across all locations while respecting local context
• Built marketing infrastructure that increased visibility and attendance by 40% nationally

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Key Results

• Built operational backbone supporting 17 study groups and 100+ annual events annually
• Achieved 150% local growth (6 to 20+ participants) through foundational systems
• Drove 40% national attendance growth through standardized outreach and repeatable frameworks
• Freed senior teachers from operational burdens to focus on curriculum and mentorship
• Created unified brand experience and consistent student journey across all locations
• Eliminated fragmented processes and built infrastructure enabling future expansion
• Documented and trained teams on repeatable processes ensuring scalability beyond direct oversight

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What This Demonstrates

‍A volunteer-led nonprofit transformed from informal, teacher-dependent gatherings into a cohesive, scale-ready education platform with consistent operations across 17 locations. By building foundational systems locally, then scaling infrastructure nationally, the organization could serve thousands of students with unified branding, logistics, and communications, while freeing executive leaders and teachers to focus on their core mission of education and mentorship.

This work, translating mission into scalable infrastructure for distributed, volunteer-led teams, became foundational to the approach now used at Soluna Partners: giving leaders clarity, freedom, and frameworks that endure beyond any single person's involvement.

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