Our Approach
We tell it like it is.
Over the years, we’ve seen more than our share of magical thinking in philanthropy-–from leaders not seeing things as they really are, to teams pursuing flawed strategies, to organizations trying to achieve unattainable goals. All too often, this gets in the way of achieving aspirations and delivering optimal impact.
We pride ourselves on being reality-based partners who are adept at both grasping constraints, and pushing boundaries to challenge convention. This means letting you know what we really think, deeply interrogating and understanding limits—real and perceived—and activating growth mindsets to develop creative, effective solutions that move you beyond the status quo.
We create with you.
We see every client as unique, deserving of radical listening, deep analysis, and careful customization to understand particular needs, address unique challenges, and achieve desired objectives.
We reject templated, cookie-cutter approaches. Instead, we curate each client engagement as a co-creative, problem-solving journey to align philanthropic needs, aspirations, people, and systems, and unlock new opportunities.
We draw on our team’s deep experience advancing hundreds of initiatives for leading nonprofits, donors, and foundations, large and small, across a wide range of social and environmental issue areas. Leveraging what we’ve learned, we help our clients overcome blind spots, avoid failure, and reapply proven approaches.
We drive success.
When nonprofits struggle to achieve their true potential, failing to reach awareness, engagement, and revenue objectives, it is often because they are not taking full advantage of existing resources and assets: People and systems in organizations can be disconnected. Work can happen in siloes. Isolation and anonymity can prevail over the potential for cohesion, belonging, and ownership that exists within communities.
To address this, we’ve developed an Integrated Model for Effective Philanthropy that draws on our decades of experience and that is centered around leveraging proven, values-led, drivers of success:
1) Creating Connections
2) Fostering Collaboration
3) Building Community
