Consulting
What are you looking for from a consultant? A strategic plan? A development plan? Or something else . . .
I love working with mission focused, nonprofit leaders to create strategies that help you meet the unique needs of your organization.
No two projects are ever the same. But, all projects have the following three components:
1. Listen & Observe, 2. Offer & Prioritize and 3. Edit & Implement.
Phase One:
Listen & Observe
The first step of any project is an audit. I call this phase of the project “my listening tour.”
First, I listen to you. Then I conduct interviews with your staff and board members.
What’s the best way for me to get to know your organization? How can I observe your mission in action?
Can I tour your facilities? Attend staff meetings, board meetings, and events?
I will definitely be checking out your website, social media activity and reading everything I can about your organization from financial statements to marketing materials.
Phase Two:
Offer & Prioritize
As I am gathering information, we will be talking and meeting so I can start to understand the unique needs of your organization. I will ask a lot of questions. Together, we will assess your organization's capacity and discuss best practices that your organization might want to consider.
Some of the questions you may hear me ask include . . .
How will the organization fund these activities?
Who will have ownership of the strategies and goals?
How can your board help?
If we are working on a development plan, a strategic plan, a case statement or any other written deliverable, someone on your team will be assigned the responsibility of writing. I highly recommend that the person who writes the plan is someone on staff who will be responsible for ensuring the implementation.
Phase Three:
Edit & Implement
I will be your editor throughout the project.
In my experience, the writing and editing can take several weeks. We will set very clear expectations regarding who is the final decision maker.
You can count on me to give you direct feedback, offer best practices and share my own experiences working with nonprofits over the last twenty years.
If time permits, it is often helpful for me to continue meeting with the team during the early phases of implementation. This is an excellent time for me to provide one-to-one coaching for staff as well as training for both staff and the board of directors.
