The Goal of My Work is to Help You Build Capacity
Whether it’s the result of a consulting engagement or it’s through insights you may glean from the essays on this website, I want my work to help you, your organization, and your field build capacity to be more vibrant, more effective, and more beneficial to the communities you serve.
I see capacity existing in three primary dimensions.
revenue
Without the financial underpinning, you cannot fund your mission. Without sufficient patrons to invest in your mission, you cannot balance your budget. Engaging existing audiences and developing new ones builds your patron base to make philanthropy possible. To build capacity here, I work with your team to uncover insights about your existing patrons, develop a marketing and audience development plan, a vision for the customer experience, personalized donor stewardship plans, and the tools to make them successful.
infrastructure
Without people and resources aligned around a shared vision, you cannot execute your mission. Infrastructure is more than the right people and the right systems, it’s working to ensure that all of your key constituents (staff, board, volunteers, community) support those people and systems. Here, to build capacity, I provide facilitation, strategic planning, new program development, brand strategy, and succession planning.
community impact
Without programming and initiatives that authentically make your community a better place, you do not have a viable mission. Responsively (and responsibly) aligning programming to address community need is critical to long-term sustainability. That alignment requires equal parts listening and change In this area, I support your efforts to build community capacity in the role of strategist, community ambassador, equity and inclusion coach, researcher, and storyteller.
While I able to support each of these areas individually, experience proves that when organizations connect the dots between these different dimensions, each becomes stronger and long term sustainability is achievable more deeply and more quickly.
These principles are equally critical in the non-profit sector as they are in the corporate community, particularly as our community’s most responsive corporate citizens explore ways to better partner with their region’s arts, cultural, and educational institutions. Success in these areas only makes your organization more desirable to funders. And funders who develop a deep understanding of these drivers of success only build more sustainable and meaningful models for support.
need to start small?
You like the idea of building capacity across these dimensions, but you’re not sure where to start. I completely understand. It’s possible to begin with an engagement that’s simply a basis diagnostic assessment. Through that quick project, we can work together to identify potential priorities and see how I can support your organization at the best level possible to provide the most meaningful impact.
Or, all of this big picture sounds great, but in the short term you need to off set a project. Perhaps you are in the midst of searching for a great successor to someone who has left your team - or, your team’s responsibilities may be growing to outpace its available resources. Whatever the reason, you need a reliable expert who can quickly come in and help, be it coordinating event logistics, building a media plan, drafting press releases, or supporting content for your publications, website, or social media strategy. If there is a niche need that you have that falls within my experience set, I’m glad to have a conversation about how we can collaborate on that level as well.
Check out some of the highlights of my past work to consider how I can be a resource.
I look forward to working with you!
wHERE DO YOU NEED SUPPORT IN DEEPENING YOUR ORGANIZATION’s CAPACITY?
*
revenue & Patrons
Looking to increase admissions? Considering new programs, but need to develop a roadmap to make them financially viable? Trying to understand who you reach each year and who you lose? Needing to maximize your spend to deliver the most effective sales results? Exploring a major fundraising effort but need to reach the right people to make it a success?
Stable, consistent, and adaptable revenue streams are essential to organizational success. Changing market conditions, aging audiences, new facilities, alternative product lines, and much more can impact the balance of your revenue streams. Don’t let these changes interfere with your ability to execute your core mission. Through research, analysis, pricing and benefits structures, intelligent marketing and development strategy, and thoughtful relationship-building, you can allow revenue streams to give you the capacity to continue to dream big as your organization plans its future.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash.
*
INFRASTRUCTURE
Is your existing roadmap for the future not adaptable? Does it not exist at all? Is your staff stretched beyond its bandwidth? Trying to tell the story of your organization to build long-term engagement? Looking to build existing board engagement or involvement from new potential board members? Planning succession within your board or staff leadership?
The key to long-term success for any organization is in its infrastructure – ensuring that the right people are sitting in the right seats, with a common direction towards the future. Leadership turnover, program growth that outpaces human resources growth, and limited board engagement or acquisition can stand in the way of any organization’s success. Strategic planning, alongside a plan to report and communicate that planning, can help you chart your course forward. So can a multichannel communication or brand strategy. When you find yourself stuck in the weeds, sometimes it just takes a thoughtful outside eye to help align vision, staff, and board resources to ensure your organization can achieve the future it deserves.
Photo by Alvaro Reyes on Unsplash
*
Community impact
When you look at your patrons, do you see a reflection of the diversity of your community? If not, would you like to? Have you struggled to identify pathways to build relationships with members of your community who may not have seen themselves represented by your organization in the past? Are you exploring programs that could enable you to have a deeper impact but don’t know where to start?
Community is often the last area of capacity that organizations look at. Sometimes you simply can’t get past prioritizing the needs of revenue or strategic leadership to get there. And sometimes it’s not looked at as a source of organizational capacity at all. But, without relationships across the broader community, your organization will always be limited — relying exclusively on your existing networks.
As non-profits, we have a responsibility to serve the community in as full a manner as we are able – and not only serve the interests of a narrow subset of donors, members, or subscribers. By increasing the quality and impact of our service, we build trust – a kind of equity that no money can buy. That equity will pay your organization back in community profile, local and national attention, corporate and foundation support, and yes, donors, members, and ticket buyers. Ensuring that community engagement and civic impact are part of your vision for the future guarantees that there will be more people invested in making that future a success.
Photo by Joe Gfaller
Header photo by davide ragusa on Unsplash - Hamburg Germany arena