When Alexandria Hodgkins began her inquiry for the National Institute on Out-of-School Time's Afterschool Matters Practitioner Research Fellowship, she wanted to investigate afterschool programs that had been rated "excellent" by funders. Wanting to understand what excellent programs look like and how they get that way, she writes that she had a hidden assumption: that success rests solely--or maybe just mostly--on the shoulders of the person on the ground running the show: the program director. However, as the year of inquiry wore on, an unforeseen theme kept popping up. It became more and more clear that, if you want to run an excellent program, you need support from your agency or organization, which in turn needs support from program funders. In other words, "systems trump programs" (Fixsen, Naoom, Blase, Friedman, & Wallace, 2005). This essay explores what she learned during that year. Ideas to help program directors maintain their sanity and make their program successful are shared. Steps that agencies might consider to support their programs in serving the greater good are also presented.