We partner with clients to craft engagements that address their specific needs. Consequently, these projects take many forms: strategic plans, market research projects, impact analyses, organizational and governance assessments, and organizational design recommendations. We make sure to incorporate the client’s larger organizational or change management objectives in whatever work we do on their behalf. A well-executed strategic planning process, for example, can serve the multiple purposes of aligning the staff and board, exciting funders, and engaging partners.
Organizational Strategy
A strong strategy sets high-performing organizations apart from the rest. No organization can afford to just “make do.”
Although every strategic planning process is different, most share common elements. By evaluating relative strengths and weaknesses, trends in the sector, competitive context and the client’s unique value proposition, we define a common-sense vision for the organization and develop strategic options. We place particular emphasis on helping our clients include all key stakeholders in developing strategy.
- Stakeholder research and analysis
- Competitor benchmarking
- Strategic option development
- Facilitated planning processes
- Board engagement
- Sustainability planning
Implementation & Change Management
Having articulated a vision and strategic plan, many nonprofits struggle with the “execution gap” – how does the plan become reality?
Our clients seek guidance in refining and quantifying objectives so they can look at performance in a strategic, three-to-five year context – as well as from budget to budget. Implementation planning must be followed by intentional management of change. It is a new day in the workplace: Managing and communicating change thoughtfully is not just good practice, it is vital to building strong organizational culture that reflects and respects a diverse, multi-generational workforce.
- Three-to-five year implementation/action plans
- Management reporting & information systems
- Financial projection models
- Change-management roadmaps
- Revenue diversification strategies
- New venture plans
Organizational Assessment
How does an organization that is moving forward make sure it stays on track? How does it respond to changing internal or external factors?
An organizational assessment may be just the right thing. Assembling a team with the right types of expertise, we evaluate how your organization’s structures, systems and staff are working together to advance your mission.
We use a diagnostic tool for aligning nonprofit capacity that was originally pioneered by a team from McKinsey & Co.’s nonprofit practice that included B&W managing director David Williamson.
- Research and analysis
- Function-by-function assessments
- Pragmatic recommendations
- Gap analysis
- Structures, staff and systems alignment
- Implementation roadmaps
Governance & Board Development
Effective, engaged governing boards are critical to the success of every nonprofit. Unfortunately, truly high-performing boards are rare, and the risks of having an under-performing board are high.
Members of governing boards provide oversight and accountability, establish a sound strategic direction, contribute to effective decision making, and assume fiduciary responsibility for the organization. The board is expected to model good practice for the organization, and the risks of failing to uphold these duties are high — both for the organization and the individual board members. Even more important: In a nonprofit, if the mission is not achieved, everyone loses.
- Board composition
- Governance processes
- Board assessments
Brand Strengthening
Now more than ever, an organization has to understand and manage its brand.
We begin by developing an understanding of audiences and stakeholders along with organizational goals, ultimately building out a brand strategy with our clients. Effective brands position the organization to break through the noise, clarify an organization’s purpose and commitment to the world, and tell stories that lift up constituent voices and experiences to make the case for change. A cohesive brand offers clarity and consistency across all aspects of the organization – everything from major gift and planned giving programs to digital marketing, membership or supporter programs, media relations, publications, merchandise and social media initiatives.
- Brand assessment and strategy
- Communications and marketing audits
- Integrated marketing and communications strategies
- Organizational positioning and concepts
- Facilitated planning processes
- Campaign strategy
Monitoring & Evaluation
Our clients – be they the funders or their grantees – come to us to assess the long-term impact of programs, policies and organizations.
Organizations have to both show and tell impact. Funders at all levels want to know what their dollars have done. And yet monitoring and evaluation can often seem like an end in itself, overly complex and not linked to mission outcomes. We help organizations focus on measuring the right things, and then developing simple, clear systems for tracking progress against those goals across the entire institution. In other cases, we have conducted retrospective analyses of programs to document lessons and inform future decisions.
- Benchmark development
- Initial assessments
- Year-over-year review and analysis
- Stakeholder review and analysis
- Grant evaluations
- Theory of change development
Executive Coaching
It’s lonely at the top, but nonprofit leaders face particularly complex challenges in transforming their enterprises.
They have to be equally adept at managing up (to work effectively with a volunteer board of directors) and at managing down (to handle the demands of passionate and sometimes challenging staff.) They are expected to be tireless fundraisers, upbeat and energetic colleagues, eloquent advocates for the mission, subject matter experts, visionary leaders, and strong managers. For individuals in these positions, an engagement with a trusted executive coach can make an enormous difference.
B&W’s executive coaches work with clients in weekly or bi-weekly sessions over a period of months to navigate such thorny issues as onboarding or succession planning for chief executives; enhancing personal, team, and organizational performance; and change management, including restructuring.
- Leadership and management coaching
- Onboarding support
- Transition planning
- Change management counsel
- CEO learning cohort
Strategic Communications
High-performing organizations, especially those working in public policy or advocacy, strive constantly to position themselves relative to other groups working in the same sector or issue area.
The more sharply a nonprofit can draw these definitions and differences, the better it is for fundraising, for asserting thought leadership, for recruiting effective board members, for influencing policy and the public, and for attracting partners. Strategic communications straddles the gap between an organization’s long-term goals and strategy and the day-to-day marketing and communications activities like updating the website and social media feed.
B&W focuses on identifying the priority audiences that the client needs to advance its overall goals, and then working to develop thoughtful approaches for meeting those audiences where they really are, and not where the organization would like them to be. Committed to evidence-based decision-making, we believe in collecting enough data — often in the form of confidential 1-on-1 or small group conversations — to inform choices about how best to reach and engage those audiences.
- Audience identification and prioritization
- Perception research
- Landscape/competitor analysis
- Communications assessment
- Message development and testing
- Digital surveys
