Consulting
Embolden offers consulting services that are very different from what’s available through other vendors. Here’s what sets us apart:
Unparalleled experience. Our team has decades of experience working with, in, and for community foundations. We understand community foundations’ missions, goals, and operating structures. At least one “playbook” is a deliverable of every engagement.
Getting things done. Embolden’s dual approach to consulting includes not only traditional planning and analysis, but also moving actual work forward even while we build strategies and plans. This ensures a strong return on investment in the consulting resources; practical, accelerated progress; identification and implementation of work flow efficiencies; and a final plan that is already in motion and will never sit on a shelf. (In other words, we don’t just deliver a blueprint; we deliver a blueprint and a house you can start living in right away.)
Peer learning. Embolden constantly seeks out opportunities within its 200+ community foundation client base to introduce clients to each other for peer learning and connections. Consulting packages include formal and informal peer-learning forums. Similarly, every Embolden engagement includes a strong element of executive coaching and training for specific members of the client’s team.
Stakeholder-focused approach. Every Embolden consulting engagement includes working sessions to review and strategize about actual stakeholders, avoiding the trap of generalizing about audiences and categories of lists. We will spend quality time discussing specific fund holders and advisors, for example, and determine concrete and actionable next steps to further stewardship efforts.
Please reach out to learn more about our consulting packages:
Campaign consulting. Our campaign consulting includes campaign development, communications strategies, messaging, materials development, and audience activation, especially for campaigns to grow unrestricted assets or grow a donor-advised fund program.
“Meaningful Conversations” consulting. Embolden’s “Meaningful Conversations” methodology for audience engagement and tracking is a powerful approach to level up stewardship efforts. This methodology also drives efficiencies with tracking and reporting development activity.
Strategic planning consulting. Embolden’s strategic plan development services include stakeholder perspectives and a competitive scan, facilitating board discussions, and getting actual work done to ensure that the plan is actionable and practical.
Professional advisor consulting. Embolden offers professional advisor “intensive” programs, which heavily incorporate peer learning, specific advisor engagement, and materials development. The goal of the intensive program is to level up and formalize strategies to drive referrals from attorneys, accountants, and financial advisors.