Authenticity Consulting, LLC

Foundations of Consulting and Organizational Development With Nonprofits
(for external and internal change agents)

Peer Coaching Training | One-to-One Coaching | Consultant Development | Nonprofits
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"All involved in the three-day Mentor Orientation [consulting training] have expressed how well the program was developed and executed. The Capacity Building Toolkit and the Consulting Guide Book developed by you are very user-friendly and provide a wealth of useful self-help materials, which I believe will prove to become invaluable for
both the 20 not-for-profit participating organizations and their mentors."
-- Elke Lange, Not-For-Profit Sector Mentorship Program Co-ordinator,
Kelowna, British Columbia

Description

As a result of participating in this training, you will be able to:

  1. See the "big picture" of a nonprofit organization in order to clearly understand its major functions and processes and how those are integrated. This is a critical skill when working with nonprofit clients to improve their organizations.
  2. Understand each of the phases in a successful consulting process and how to work with the client to progress through each phase.
  3. Understand the "hard" and "soft" skills required for effective consulting.
  4. Customize the consulting process to suit the unique nature and needs of the client.
  5. Detect and address each of the most common types of problems that occur in nonprofit organizations and each of its major functions and processes.
  6. Maintain a highly collaborative, working relationship between the consultant and client, whether working to improve the overall organization or one of its major functions.
  7. Ensure the consulting project is always focused on the most important priorities for the client.
  8. Evaluate the project to ensure high-quality during and near the end of the project.

Here's Who Will Benefit

  • External consultants and internal consultants.who want to learn how to work with othres to identify and solve problems or achieve major goals in the nonprofit organization.
  • Staff of consulting companies that provide guidance and support to clients to improve their nonprofit organizations.
  • Training centers that want to train their people how to effectively consult to nonprofit organizations.
  • Nonprofit organizations that want to hire the most effective consultants and ensure those consultants continue to meet the needs of the organization.
  • Leaders, managers, supervisors and employees who require skills in detecting the real causes of issues in their nonprofit organizations and how to address each of those causes.

Features of This Training

  1. Focused on the most important activities to accomplish successful consulting.
  2. Instruction from national experts on nonprofit consulting.
  3. Comprehensive, well-organized and substantive training materials.
  4. Six-month, follow-on support and feedback in a confidential co-consulting group with other participants to share support and accountabilities to continue to improve nonprofit consulting skills.
  5. As much as possible, we customize the training to suit the nature and needs of the attendees.

Extensive Range of Materials Provided to Attendees

Each attendee receives a complete, step-by-step, nonprofit capacity building kit and consulting guide, including:

Here's What We'll Cover:

Foundations for Effective Consulting to Nonprofits

  • Roles, goals and types of consultants for nonprofits
  • Maintaining collaborative, working relationships with clients
  • Ensuring complete professionalism in consultants
  • Critical intra-personal and interpersonal skills for consultants
  • Core administrative skills for consultants
  • Understanding unique nature and needs of nonprofit organizations
  • Common challenges when consulting to nonprofits

Contracting Phase of Consulting

  • Purpose and goals of this phase
  • How to arrange a successful contract meeting with client
  • Understanding client's "presenting" problem (symptoms)
  • Explaining to client how you work and your style
  • Scoping project, including goals, roles, start and stop time, etc.
  • Assessing client readiness for a consulting project
  • Consultant and client deciding whether to proceed with project
  • Getting right materials to learn about client's organization

Discovery Phase of Consulting

  • Purpose and goals of this phase
  • Problem solving philosophies
  • Discovery process and role of assessments in nonprofits
  • Customizing assessments to suit nature and needs of nonprofit client
  • Conducting realistic and relevant assessments
  • Quick and focused analysis of assessments results
  • Comparing results to nonprofit "best practices"
  • Identifying most critical issues for client to address in their nonprofit
  • Generating most useful recommendations for client
  • Providing useful and understandable feedback to client
  • Effectively address client resistance to feedback
  • Getting client buy-in and engagement in action plans and implementation

Action Planning Phase of Consulting

  • Purpose and goals of this phase
  • Understanding how to achieve successful organizational change in nonprofits
  • Guiding client to identify most relevant, realistic and flexible action plans to address most critical issues
  • Knowing when to seek additional help

Implementation Phase of Consulting

  • Purpose and goals of this phase
  • Guidelines to ensure successful implementation of action plans in nonprofits
  • Common barriers to implementation in nonprofits
  • What to do when project seems stuck
  • How to coach nonprofit clients for ongoing accountability, support, actions and learning during implementation
  • How to detect if more expertise is needed and how to work with other consultants

Adoption Phase of Consulting

  • Purpose and goals of this phase
  • How to detect if adoption has occurred
  • Most common barriers to project adoption in nonprofits
  • What to do if there' s a lull in project
  • How to accomplish a successful project "hand-off" to client

Evaluation Phase of Consulting

  • Purpose and goals of this phase
  • How to ensure continuous improvement toward project results in nonprofit
  • How to identify and capture most important learning for consultant and client
  • Key evaluations to consider at end of a consulting project in a nonprofit

Separation Phase of Consulting

  • Purpose and goals of this phase
  • Typical reasons that projects terminate in nonprofits
  • Critical role of project celebration
  • Possible next steps for consultant and client
  • How to carry out suitable and seamless separation between consultant and client

Common Problems in Nonprofits and How To Resolve Each Problem

Including description of best practices, common problems, guidelines for effective Board oversight, and useful action plans to address problems in:

  • Boards of Directors *
  • Strategic Planning *
  • Human Resource Management *
  • Marketing (Inbound and Outbound) *
  • Financial Management
  • Fundraising
  • Evaluations *
  • Founder's Syndrome *

* Participants' guidebooks also include complete, step-by-step guidelines and materials to understand and carry out each of these major functions in nonprofits -- in addition to detecting and addressing issues in all of the above-listed areas. See the above section, "Materials Provided to Attendees".

We Customize This For You and Your Organization

Contact us to tell us about whom you wish to train, when and where.

We'll work with you to accommodate your budget and schedule and to customize the training according to your needs.

Contact Authenticity Consulting, LLC, by calling 1-800-971-2250 or e-mailing us.
Contact Us

Our Consultation and Publications

We provide consultation in the areas of nonprofit Board development, business development, strategic planning, leadership and supervision, and program development. To learn about our consultation services, click
here.

We also provide publications in the areas of nonprofit Board development, strategic planning, leadership and supervision, and program marketing and evaluation. To learn about our publications, click
here.

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