WHAT WE DO
The challenges facing today’s families, communities, and ecosystems are substantial, and they cannot be solved without a healthy, thriving nonprofit sector. However, running an effective nonprofit has never been more difficult.
It’s not a lack of drive or dedication that holds nonprofits back from overcoming all the challenges they face. Usually, it’s one or more of the following factors:
Lack of focus
Poor brand awareness
Unstable or poorly diversified funding streams
Insufficient strategy
Programs or services that are no longer relevant
Failure to leverage their people
Confusion about what success looks like and how to track it
We help nonprofits overcome these challenges with the following services:
FOCUS
Differentiate, collaborate, establish your mission, vision, and values and build your brand.
With a seemingly endless list of social and environmental problems to tackle, and countless ways to go about tackling them, finding Focus can feel next to impossible for many nonprofit organizations. But it’s also essential to your nonprofit’s ability to be effective. We help organizations find Focus internally and communicate it externally through:
Differentiation (Reason for Being)
Your organization should only exist if it is uniquely positioned to make a needed impact that no other organization can make in quite the same way — if it has a valid Reason For Being. We’ll help you discover yours.
Mergers, Acquisition, and Collaboration
Many organizations can become more effective when they work together, through a merger, acquisition, or informal collaboration. We’ll help you find the right partners and structure mutually beneficial relationships.
Mission, Vision, and Values
Your mission, vision, and values are more than just statements – they’re the filter through which all of your organization’s decision-making must pass, and getting them right is critical to your success. We’ll help you shape yours.
Messaging, Brand Strategy, and Identity
Think of your brand as your organization’s all-important first impression. We’ll help you develop a name, visual identity, and messaging that will position your nonprofit organization to achieve its goals.
STRATEGY
Strategic Planning
Every organization needs a strategic plan to guide its work, but not all strategic plans are created equal. We’ll help you build one that is agile, actionable, and tuned in to the most important things your nonprofit needs to do right now to advance its mission and achieve its goals.
In particular, strategic planning is one of those government functions that is widely misunderstood. Should the plan be a three-year plan or a five-year plan? Do you need a consultant or can the process be facilitated internally? How will you gather input from stakeholders?
After years of experience, research, and practice Charity Guru use a comprehensive process that goes beyond an operational plan to a stakeholder-informed process. We combine various models to leverage the best resources that meet your organizational needs. The process and tools make all the difference in strategic planning. Using an innovative approach, we go beyond a one or two-day retreat to a credible six to 12-month long investment that will set you and your organization up for long-term success.
We steer away from providing quick-fix strategic planning into a more reliable way of identifying and executing your priorities, goals, and objectives. Read more about our unique approach to strategic planning here.
Program Design
Each of your nonprofit’s programs and services must tie directly to your mission and strategic plan. We’ll help you analyze the viability of new and existing programs, and then build a plan for how the program or service will advance your nonprofit’s goals.
Fundraising Strategy
Maintaining or growing existing funding sources and developing new ones is critical to your organization’s sustainability. We’ll help you build a fundraising strategy focused on retention, stewardship, acquisition, growth, and advocacy.
Marketing Strategy
Marketing and communications play a role in advancing every one of your organization’s goals, from recruiting staff, to earning revenue, to advancing your advocacy agenda. We’ll help you build a marketing and communications strategy that moves the needle.
PEOPLE
Leadership Development
Your organization is only as strong as its leadership. We’ll help your CEO, President, or Executive Director and other executives build their capacity for effective management and leadership.
Talent Development
Is everyone on your team in the right role, doing the right things, at the right time to move your mission and goals forward? If not, we’ll help you get there. We’ll also help you develop and move toward an organization chart for your nonprofit’s future.
Board Optimization
An effective board advances a nonprofit’s mission by supporting its staff as they carry out the strategic plan. We’ll help you clarify board roles, build an inclusive board, foster healthy relationships between your board and staff, and more.
Stakeholder Engagement
We’ll help you strengthen collaboration with your program participants, community members, and other stakeholders through the development of an advisory board, a more inclusive governing board, focus groups, and more.
GROWTH
Systems and Processes
Even with strong plans and an optimized team, most organizations will fall apart without sound systems and processes. We’ll help you build and document yours with an emphasis on our signature weekly work sessions, monthly mission meetings, quarterly checkups, and annual planning processes.
Program Design
Change is hard. We’ll help you through the process of managing the change that comes along with strategic planning, rebranding, system and process implementation, and all of the other areas in which we work. Our change management work happens at every level, from the front-line staff to the board.
Measurement and Evaluation
Without sound measurement, there is no way to know if your organization’s hard work is paying off. We’ll help you identify the metrics that matter most based on your organization’s strategic plan. Then, we’ll help you build a shared Nonprofit Footprint that everyone on your team will use to track results.