Categories of service:

Board Development
Capacity Building
Communication
Consultants
Development Audits/Assessments
Facilitators
Organization Development/Organization Assessments
Revenue Development
Strategic Planning
Sustainability
Writers/Writing Services

Description of services:

Would you like to be better at what you do?  Have a bigger impact on your community?

We can help you:
• Plan a future based on strategic thinking and acting.
• Build a stronger and more engaged Board of Directors.
• Listen and learn from research and the community around you.
• Develop a plan to enhance your revenues and state your case more effectively.
• Develop more powerful relationships with your constituents.

We offer a broad range of consulting services to secular and progressive nonprofits and public agencies. Our clients have included, among many others, House of the Seven Gables, JHC Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission, Massachusetts Ocean Partnership, PLAN PLAN International, Progreso Latino, Grassroots International, Rhode Island Foundation, WaterFire Providence, and Women’s Voices for the Earth.

We use Action Planning for greater impact

We model action planning in our work with you. Your project will include a combination of Assessment and Research, Analysis, Decision-making, Implementation, and Evaluation.

We put your mission at the center

If we don’t think our services can add value to your mission, we won’t take the job. Our clients tell us that they appreciate that we grasp their complex issues, that we understand their unique point of view. Our sensitivity comes from our extensive experience working with organizations from human rights to anti-poverty lending, from women’s health to environmental protection, from youth services to community development, or arts and culture.

We share nonprofit values. Like you, we have worked as staff, board members and volunteers for nonprofit organizations — from giant multi-national federations to tiny grassroots advocacy groups. Our work is guided by a philanthropic and ethical compass.

We adapt our approach to who you are and what you want to become

You don’t get a cookie-cutter approach. We tailor our work to your people, your culture and your stage of organizational growth.

We become your partners for designing the effects you’d like to see

Our projects are partnerships to which we both bring essential information and skills. We can help you set and meet your goals, but the change comes about by your action. We can provide you with quality expertise and link you to valuable resources, but the vision and the knowledge of your community comes from you.

We help you stage change

Change is a process of many steps, from imagining a new future to gaining needed skills, to practicing the new ways of doing things. Change requires your imagining and then committing to a future that is significantly better than the present.

We take a systems approach to our work with you

Your organization is not a set of isolated parts, but a holistic system that is also affected by and has an effect on the community at large. Whatever work we do with you, we always think about how our work integrates with the other aspects of your organizational life.

Background on you and/or your business:

Jon’s expertise includes research, interviewing, strategic and business planning, international project management, and production of all aspects of organizational communications including direct mail, collateral materials, videos, newsletters, manuals, and exhibits. Jon’s work has taken him around the world, including staging two major exhibits on habitat presented at the United Nations in New York City, Turkey and Japan.

Testimonials and/or references:

Our clients have said:

"The strategic plan was less typical, rethinking and restructuring the organization to change the conditions of the community. No other consultant would have taken that on.”

“They brought the voices of the team together. They helped to get the Board into the picture and take more ownership.”

“Their plan gave us credibility and put us on the map with a major funder. They gave us a plan to move forward with.”

We are happy to provide references and contact information on request.

Names of and/or links to your books, articles or blogs:

Our blog The Butterfly Effect http://www.ceffect.com/blog
Twitter @gaylegifford
"How are we doing? A 1-hr guide to evaluating the performance of your nonprofit board," "Meaningful Participation" at http://www.ceffect.com/tools-for-change/products/

Service area by country, state or zip code:

New England, United States, International