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December 15, 2025
FOND DU LAC – Heading into the second half of the 2020s, Sadie Howell – president/CEO of Envision Greater Fond du Lac – said the organization has identified three primary goals for the county:
- Unify stakeholders – Champion a shared vision for economic growth by aligning public and private partners, advocating for pro-growth policies and advancing county-wide development initiatives.
- Empower entrepreneurs and accelerate innovation – Fuel entrepreneurship and innovation by strengthening the start-up ecosystem and expanding access to resources, mentorship and capital opportunities that drive economic diversification.
- Develop and retain a future-ready workforce – Grow and retain a skilled workforce that meets the evolving needs of employers, sustaining long-term economic relevancy and regional prosperity.
Howell said these goals aren’t just mission statements but statistics to be measured, with each contributing to the organization’s greater strategic plan.
“We’re expanding upon our history of collaboration and economic accomplishments to set the course for the next chapter of our work,” she said.
Howell said Envision’s 2030 goals focus on regional growth, a shared community identity and securing partnerships to build the area for the next generation of business success.
“Our ultimate goal is that the Greater Fond du Lac region is known as a place where entrepreneurs launch, talent thrives and business leads,” she said.
Envisioning a prosperous county
Describing Envision as “the combined chamber of commerce and economic development organization that serves all of Fond du Lac County,” Howell said it brings the “right people to the right table to have the right conversations.”
“We’re ‘the convener’ – we convene the right people to make [an] impact,” she said. “Our mission is to grow economic vibrancy throughout the county, and we want all of our communities to thrive in Fond du Lac County… I’d like to say that our tagline would be: ‘We facilitate what makes Fond du Lac County a great place to live, work and play.’”
As part of Envision’s efforts to raise the proverbial tide of the whole county’s business community, Howell said the 13 team members work together to map out a strategic plan for a set time period – in this case, through 2030.
“We don’t just try something and do a million different things and hope they work out,” she said. “We are very much guided by our strategic plan – 100% we are. If [an initiative] is not on our strategic plan, we’re either not doing it, or we need to work with our board to adjust [the plan] so we can focus on [said initiative].”
According to envisiongreaterfdl.com, Envision has put forth strategic plans since 2020.
Howell, who joined the organization that year, said it’s her responsibility to ensure the plan is being abided “within budget, ethically and strategically.”
She said the plans are published in a way that clearly defines the strategy for everyone, internally and externally.
“A layperson could read it and see, ‘They want to attract talent, what does that mean? – they are doing X, Y, Z and they want to bring this many people,’” she said. “We put it in plain language but also with measurables, so our members can visually see our success.”
The following examples, Howell said, are from the soon-to-be-published 2025-30 plan for Goal 1 – Unify stakeholders:
- Strategy 1: Grow [Envision’s] role as the region’s premier advocate on local, state and federal issues that impact the businesses and stakeholders in the region.
- Objective: Increase advocacy efforts by 30% by December 2026 through participation in events, legislative outreach and launching an annual policy survey.
- Strategy 2: Strengthen and align public and private stakeholders to accept a shared vision for county-wide economic development.
- Objective: Facilitate the adoption of a unified county-wide economic development vision by June 2027 through convening at least four stakeholder collaboration sessions; securing formal commitment from a minimum of 15 public and private partners; and launching a shared economic development framework, measured by stakeholder endorsements and implementation progress.
Howell said the full plan – which will be published on Envision’s website imminently – ultimately comes down to “three really big goals.”
“One is facilitating the adoption of a county-wide vision for community and economic development growth,” she said. “Second is to continue building up our entrepreneurship ecosystem; we’ve done a great job of laying the foundation, and we’re really ahead – particularly in Wisconsin – for how we support entrepreneurs here. And then third is growing and retaining talent.”
Howell said the plan touches on housing, child care, business retention, business expansion, entrepreneurship, workforce programming, young professional engagement and and other issues the county is currently facing.
Momentum for growth
Howell said Envision always publishes the outcomes of each of its strategic plans, a step meant to ensure the organization remains accountable.
“People have entrusted their money to us in order to achieve all of these goals, which in turn, will help them succeed and be a better business and drive success,” she said. “We want to make sure that not only our membership and our board, but our municipalities are holding us accountable for success.”
Based on the recently published outcomes from Envision’s 2022-25 strategic plan, Howell said there’s measurable momentum heading into the organization’s new five-year plan and, by extension, for the county’s business community.
The expected progress, she said, is already under way – citing an early jump on one of Envision’s future goals: fostering “a culture of innovation.”
This goal, Howell said, entailed “connecting entrepreneurs with cutting-edge technologies, facilitating collaborations between businesses and academic institutions and establishing a business accelerator.”
Earlier this year, she said the latter part of this initiative – “a five-week business accelerator program” called Ignite Rural – was assigned a target completion date of December 2027.
Howell said the ambitious accelerator project would be the first of its kind for Envision – one that “supports at least 10 start-ups annually, in manufacturing, Main Street [and] agribusiness.”
As part of this goal, she said the organization also sought to “establish seven education-industry-formalized collaborations and host eight technology-focused workshops.”
The full project – resulting in the Ignite Rural accelerator – Howell said, was completed well ahead of schedule.
“This was a two-year goal,” she said, “and we achieved it in the first six months of launching this strategic plan, which is amazing.”
Having now been with Envision for more than five years – during which she has accrued gained additional experience and certifications – Howell also said she’s feeling a sense of momentum both personally and on behalf of the organization.
She said that as of late, with unprecedented speed, long-standing plans and goals are beginning to materialize.
“The last three [Envision] board meetings – September, October and November – all had big presentations to the board, asking them for either approval or a vote of confidence toward some really big initiatives and strategies around this five-year strategic plan – and they’ve all been approved unanimously,” she said. “There’s excitement around it.”
Perhaps greater still, Howell said, has been the momentum resulting from the county’s municipalities working together like never before.
For example, she said until Envision arranged a meeting several years ago to discuss the housing shortage across Ripon, Waupun, North Fond du Lac and Campbellsport – four municipalities whose leaders previously “had never met – there was no trust, there was no relationship.”
Ever playing the role of “convener,” Howell said fostering such meetings between leaders will continue to unlock the county’s economic potential.
“What started as coming together to talk about housing morphed into this beautiful relationship amongst these four, where they started to call and text each other, and they started to have meetings together,” she said. “All of a sudden, they found they had a lot more in common and could support each other, more than they were in competition.”
Optimism for 2030
With a tight, communicative team at Envision, Howell said she’s confident the organization will meet the goals of the new strategic plan – which spans the longest timeframe of any previous plan.
Howell said the duration received some reasonable feedback – e.g., “the world changes so fast” – however, she said one of her team’s top traits is “the ability to be nimble.”
“That’s something this organization is incredible at – being able to pivot when needed,” she said. “And we rethink. If we’re going after one goal and it’s not working after a number of months, then we’ll reassess it or change how we’re going to do it. We’ll be nimble enough so that how we achieve some of these big goals might change.”
The loftiest of those goals, Howell said, addresses some of the biggest challenges facing Fond du Lac County – challenges that do not appear likely to change, such as talent attraction and housing.
Howell said a recent change to Envision’s membership model – which is tied to the development of the new strategic plan – replaces the approach the organization had used since its founding in 2017.
The updated model, she said, provides a new way for the county’s business community to tackle shared challenges.
Joe Venhuizen, Envision’s vice president of membership and resource development, said beginning in 2026, the organization will offer updated membership levels “that allow companies to select the services needed to build their business and define their community impact.”
“The new model redefines what it means to belong to Envision,” he said. “The economic development work we do isn’t an add-on to chamber membership – it’s a foundational pillar of how Envision drives impact for members, the community and the region.”
Howell said the new model better communicates Envision’s scope and to which initiatives members’ investments are being applied.
“Our pitch is: ‘Your investment funds, our strategic plan’ – and we move the funding where the funding is needed,” she said. “Right now, we are all in on talent attraction and housing. We don’t view that as a chamber or an economic development [issue] – it’s just the Envision strategy.”
With the strategic plan set to be published and the Envision Greater Fond du Lac team already working full-steam on meeting its 2030 goals, Howell said she enjoys thinking about not if, but when the county achieves these measurable benchmarks.
“In five years, Fond du Lac County will be known as a place where businesses grow, talent chooses to live and collaboration drives a strong, vibrant economy,” she said.
