Successful nonprofits navigate complicated internal and external environments.  They must be focused yet nimble, use every resource to its best advantage, deeply understand their value to their communities and supporters, and be able to articulate that value every day to a broad audience.   Most nonprofits never have all the resources, expertise and consistency they need to solve the challenges they face everyday.  Anne understands these realities. 

Here’s where I can help you solve organizational problems you’re struggling right now to solve yourself:

Governance & Leadership

> Board Development.  Struggling to stay focused on mission and strategy?  Unclear who and how to recruit new board and committee members?  Need some focused issues or information discussions? 

I offer tools and techniques to build your board’s understanding of its roles, responsibilities and skills.  We can take a timely topic and build a discussion around it.

> Executive Search Preparation.  Looking to hire your first staff leader or replace an incumbent?  What do you need to think about first in order to make the search process productive and respectful? 

I coach you through a process of deep thinking about the skills and attributes your organization needs in a staff leader and help you strengthen your internal infrastructure so that you can conduct a positive, proactive search.  I can also help you prepare to hire an executive search firm.

> Meeting Facilitation.  Stuck on an issue?  Can’t seem to make it all the way through a meeting agenda?  Would an objective meeting moderator free others up to fully participate? 

After working with you to assess your meeting needs, I design meeting formats that can get your group to connect with the issues at hand, collaborate on solutions and move forward.

 

Organizational Assessment & Development

> Benchmarking: Need to have a better sense of how your organization stacks up in relation to similar organizations?  Looking to get a better feel for how other organizations do what they do?

Benchmarking zeroes in on comparable data across a number of related organizations to gauge where yours excels or could do better. 

> Organizational Assessment.  Want to look critically at your organization’s strengths and weaknesses?  Assess external opportunities and challenges?  Need to retool staffing structures or revitalize your development activities? 

After reviewing all or specific areas of your organization against current standards of practice, I provide tangible solutions that can be adopted immediately or built into strategic planning.

> Policy and Procedure Review/Development/Update.  Has it been a while since you last looked at your organization's Bylaws?  Not feeling quite up to speed on best practice for developing a policy manual? 

I work with you to develop governing documents, policies and procedures that not only meet accepted standards, but are tailored to and reflect your mission and institutional values.

> Stakeholder Engagement and Communications.  Having trouble identifying audience needs or seeking audience input?   Unclear about when and how to communicate with stakeholders? 

I help you formulate strategies and messages to encourage stakeholder participation at the center of your organization’s work.  Surveys, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and communications planning all help you broaden and deepen your relationships.

> Writing.  Need to rejuvenate tired membership or annual giving appeals, fundraising case statements, newsletters, websites or e-blasts?  Thinking of revamping member benefits to tie into social trends and changing demographics? 

Let’s analyze your needs and develop effective, economical options that showcase your organization at its best.

Planning

> Planning Tune-ups.  Time to update your strategic plan or create your next annual work plan?  Looking to add some new metrics to an existing plan or figure out ways to track and report success? 

You've invested a lot of time and energy in creating your strategic plan, do don't let it sit on the shelf gathering dust.  I work with you to develop the steps you need to keep your plan working for you.

> Strategic Planning.  Going in a million directions at once?  Dissipating the energies of your board, staff and volunteers on low priority (or no priority) tasks?  Burned out?

I work closely with your entire organization to refocus your attention on the mission and its impact, and develop goals, strategies and work plans that move you forward.

> Visioning.  Lost sight of the big picture?  Need to re-energize board and staff?  

I design hands-on, participatory conversations that help you rediscover or reveal for the first time the impact your mission can have on your community.  I help you bring focus to why your organization's work is important, then drill down into identifying ways to make it a reality.