We support individuals, families, collectives, and institutions to design, grow, evolve, and sustain high-impact philanthropic strategies and charitable giving programs, from aspiring and first-time donors to established private and community foundations.
We provide philanthropic strategy consulting for individuals, families, and foundations seeking clarity and focus in their giving. From mission statement development and theory of change design to multi-year grantmaking strategy and portfolio construction, we help align your values, priorities, and risk appetite into a coherent funding approach.
Through rigorous philanthropic research and landscape analysis, we identify emerging issue areas, under-the-radar nonprofits, and evolving risks across fields. Our ecosystem mapping and field intelligence briefs equip donors and foundations with the insight needed to make informed, forward-looking grantmaking decisions.
We support foundations and individual donors in articulating the purpose and impact of their giving. From website messaging and grantmaking narratives to op-eds, public speaking briefs, and thought leadership strategy, we ensure your philanthropic communications reflect the depth and intention behind your funding decisions.
For a community foundation, we authored a landscape analysis on the intersection of emerging digital technologies and community finance. The anslysis focused on demystifying Web3 architecture by translating abstract technical concepts into actionable intelligence for the foundation and its partners and establishing a strategic framework aligned with the foundation’s core convictions to evaluate the potential risks and opportunities of applying decentralized protocols to community financing.
Finally, we provided recommendations for new program design, the development of Requests for Proposals, and convening on the topic, ensuring the foundation and its partners could be positioned as active architects of technological solutions rather than passive subjects of their outcomes.
We worked with aspiring philanthropists to support the transition of the young couple's passion for the visual arts into a roadmap for developing a public art collection and charitable foundation. While the clients brought a deep understanding of the art world, we helped translate that knowledge into a blueprint for how their acquisitions could directly bolster the careers of living artists and the growth of emerging galleries.
This work laid the groundwork for the clients' philanthropic legacy and provided a clear trajectory for refining their mission, broadening their institutional networks, identifying prospects for their board, and establishing their philanthropic identity well in advance of a formal launch.
Partnering with an alliance of the world’s leading philanthropic institutions, we guided a funder collaborative to engage in a shifting landscape where new financial models are increasingly being used to complement traditional grantmaking. We developed a bespoke learning journey comprised of virtual education sessions, peer discussion, tailored resource libraries, actionable tools, and a menu of strategies for integrating impact investing and social finance into existing grantmaking initiatives without overwhelming programmatic staff.
The engagement supported the funders and their partners to move from skepticism to agency and gain the confidence to co-design financial interventions used to address global challenges.
Insights from our work have been shared with international policy forums and platforms for philanthropy, impact investing, and social innovation, including European Development Days, United States Military Academy at West Point, Global Impact Investing Network Investor Forum, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, Women’s Funding Network, The British Embassy in Washington, and the Arizona State University Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation.
Whether you’re shaping a long-term vision for your philanthropy or working against an immediate deadline, we help you move forward and meet your goals with clarity and ease.
To get started, please share a bit about what you’re looking for in our brief inquiry form. Your responses will provide the context we need to begin a meaningful engagement.