Services for nonprofits & coalitions.
Start where your program stands.
Programs need different kinds of work at different points: testing whether an idea will work, designing it in enough detail to fund and run, and finding out how it's going once it's serving people. I offer each one as its own service, so you can start at the stage you're in.
You bring what you know about your community and your program. I add fresh input from the community itself and handle the research, design, and analysis.
Community need & feasibility.
Before you commit to a new program or partnership, find out whether there's real demand, what similar programs have learned, and whether the idea fits your community.
New programs usually start with a strong idea and the experience of people who see the need every day. That's a good place to start. But funding timelines are short, so there's rarely time to check the idea with the people it's meant to serve or to learn from programs that have tried something similar.
A feasibility study does that checking before you put staff time into a proposal or sign onto a partnership. I talk with the community and the partners the program would depend on, review comparable programs, and test the assumptions your plan rests on.
You come away with a clear answer about need and fit, and evidence you can cite when you apply.
What it covers: Community need and demand, stakeholder input, comparable programs, and program fit.
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We agree on what the study needs to answer for your leadership, partners, and funders. I choose the methods and build the interview guides and surveys.
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I look at similar programs in your region and nationally: how they work, what they've learned, and where your idea fits or adds something new.
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I interview the people the program would serve and the partners it would rely on, in person or by video, and run surveys where they fit. Asking people directly is usually where the most useful findings come from.
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You receive a feasibility report with the stakeholder findings, the comparable-program review, and practical recommendations. If you move ahead, the findings become the starting point for Program Development.
Program development.
Before you write the proposal, or when a funded program needs more structure, decide exactly what you'll do, who does it, and how you'll know it's working.
Develop backwards. Implement forward.
Design starts from the outcomes you want. Delivery starts from the first activity.
Proposals are written against deadlines, so the program they describe is often still taking shape. The goals are set, but the details get worked out after the award: who does what, in what order, and how success will be measured. By then, the team is already delivering services.
Program Development does that work first. Through a few working sessions with your team, I build a Program Framework: your theory of change, logic model, implementation timeline, evaluation plan, and budget, all connected to each other.
Every activity is numbered and traced from its goal and objective through the logic model, then into the timeline, the evaluation plan, and the budget justification. The same document that makes your proposal competitive tells your team what to do in the first months after the award, and what to measure.
What it covers: Program design, partner roles, implementation planning, budget justification, and evaluation planning.
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I review your goals, community resources, any feasibility findings, and the data you already collect, including how you collect it. Where that data fits the plan, we build on it instead of starting over. Then I compare your approach with similar programs to find the gaps worth closing before you apply.
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We work through how your activities lead to the outcomes you want. I turn that into a theory of change and a logic model, with each activity tied to a goal and objective.
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I build the implementation timeline with milestones, owners, and quarters, and define each partner's role. The budget justification traces every cost back to an activity.
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I define the measures and outcome indicators, then design data collection tools and a reporting schedule your staff can keep up with. If you bring in an outside evaluator later, they start with clear, well-defined measures.
Independent program evaluation.
While a program is running, or at the end of a grant period, find out whether it's being delivered as planned and whether it's producing the outcomes you intended.
Most teams track their own outcomes, and that work matters. Still, findings from an outside evaluator tend to carry more weight with funders. That says nothing about your team's honesty. It's simply how evaluation works. For the same reason, I evaluate only programs I didn't design.
An independent evaluation also shows you why a program is or isn't working, which is what you need to improve it or grow it.
Depending on your questions, I design an implementation evaluation (is the program being delivered as planned?), an outcome evaluation (are participants better off in the ways you intended?), or a combination of the two.
What it covers: Implementation evaluation, outcome evaluation, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
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We agree on the questions the evaluation needs to answer, both for your funders and for your own decisions. I choose the evaluation type and methods and build the data collection tools.
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I start with the data and records you already have, so nothing gets collected twice. Then I fill the gaps with interviews (in person or by video), surveys, and site visits, scheduled around service delivery.
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I analyze the qualitative and quantitative data and report what I find. You receive a full evaluation report and an executive summary your board, partners, and funders can use.
What working together looks like.
Context only your team has: background documents, existing data, and introductions to partners. You make the key decisions at a few checkpoints along the way.
What you bring
What I handle
The research, fieldwork, design, and analysis, from the first draft to the final version.
Finished documents that go straight into proposals, board packets, and funder reports, and that your team can use to run the program.
What you receive
Each project is priced to its scope. After our first call, you receive a written scope of work and budget. If the project calls for travel, those costs are listed in the budget. Consulting and evaluation costs can often be built into a grant budget.
Start with a conversation.
Not sure which service fits? That's what the first call is for.
A free 30-minute video call. No pitch. I'd like to hear what you're working on, where you're stuck, and whether we're a good fit.