Support Help Collaborate Community Together ConceptGovernment and nonprofit agencies often find it necessary to collaborate with their stakeholders on matters of importance to the communities they serve. In some instances, they may wish to actively engage stakeholders in planning for the future. We offer a variety of services that can add value to the public participation process.

Public Participation Design and Facilitation

Events and programs that convene citizens or other stakeholders to solicit their perceptions and ideas are many and varied – town meetings, forums, summits, task forces, study groups, etc. All of these types of group processes need careful design as well as skilled, neutral facilitation to accomplish their purposes. Let our skilled facilitators help you most effectively harness this form of community power.

Community Visioning and Strategic Planning

What do we wish our community to be in our preferred future? How will we get there? Finding consensus on these questions is at the heart of community planning. Our team can assist communities through designing and facilitating a process that leads to a shared vision and agreement on strategic goals to reach it.

Community and Stakeholder Surveys

Public and nonprofit agencies that serve their communities with distinction continually ask questions such as: “What do the people we serve think about the issues? What are their highest priorities? What do they think of the job we’re doing?” Let our firm develop and administer an objective, scientific survey that helps your organization get accurate answers to these and other questions.

Focus Groups

Community agencies need sound qualitative information from the people they serve. Our trained professionals can develop and lead your focus groups. The results uncover answers to your questions with a detailed written analysis and personal debriefing of the results. Focus groups are useful in identifying community needs and preferences, and in evaluating the results of a program.

Nonprofit Board Governance Training

Excellence in the provision of community services begins in the boardroom. We offer learning opportunities for nonprofit board members to learn the distinct responsibilities of the board, especially as they differ from that of the chief executive officer. Our training offers board members have the opportunity to explore best practices in four areas:

  • Direction Setting
  • Decision Processes
  • Relationship Building and Management
  • Resource Stewardship and Development
  • We can also function as facilitators to help a board of directors determine changes it wishes to make in governance practices and policies.

Nonprofit Board Assessment

A high-performing board of directors is committed to continuous improvement through periodically taking “time out” to evaluate the effectiveness of its practices. Our team has developed a written board assessment survey for this purpose. The assessment begins with individual board members completing a survey, the results of which are communicated in aggregate form to the full board. Survey results serve to springboard discussion among board members about the board’s strengths and limitations, and ideas for enhancing effectiveness. Our team can contribute ideas to this discussion and also serve as facilitators for the board’s decision-making.