Large demographic shifts are occurring in the United States and one of the largest growing groups is Latinos. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinos are expected to account for 28% of the population by 2060.  An annual report done by the Outdoor Foundation shows that Latinos tend to recreate at lower rates than their white counterparts and are often underrepresented in outdoor recreation, conservation, and environmental organizations. In this paper, I look at a young nonprofit organization, Latino Outdoors, that is addressing issues of underrepresentation and lack of access to the outdoors among American Latinos.

Latino Outdoors (LO) was established in 2014 and is going through a strategic master planning process. I undertook this study with the intent to provide essential information that may help to guide them in their decision making process. In this presentation, I will share my textual analysis of the LO mission statement to assess strengths and weaknesses. Then I will offer my evaluation of LO’s organizational performance using a multiple constituency approach. This approach is used to understand how an organization is performing based on stakeholder perspectives of success. Last, I will analyze the relationship between the mission and organizational performance by comparing emergent themes in mission analysis with stakeholder perspectives (as reported in a survey I am currently conducting).

The hope is that Latino Outdoors will be able to use the results of my study to create a stronger mission and make strategic decisions informed by constituent perspectives. This study is ongoing and due to conclude in May of 2017. I propose to present my results at the AESS conference.