With multiple demands and many opportunities to serve people in need, wouldn’t you like to know who could help your organization? In the current economic and social climate, nonprofits are under increasing scrutiny for financial accountability. More and more nonprofits are competing for scarce resources, while leaders of nonprofits search for efficient and effective ways to continue to make a difference in the lives of people they serve.
Do you want to spend your money wisely with value-added results? Do you also want to hire consultants who can deliver those results?
Excellent nonprofit consultants are numerous here in the state of Georgia, but how do you know who is the right person for your organization? Below are ten characteristics of excellent nonprofit consultants, who can help you to develop, sustain or build greater capacity for your organization.
Has sector experience
Some consultants have broad experience in working with both for-profit and nonprofit organizations; some also have success with government agencies or educational institutions. Most important is that the consultant understands the nonprofit sector, and has worked with a variety of nonprofit organizations. Understanding the sector includes awareness of the needs of organizations and support for the charitable missions of nonprofits.
Many fine consultants have worked for numerous for-profit corporations for several years and have honed their specialties in executive suites or on management teams. Their experience is valuable and instructive for their sector populations and can produce transferable skills and knowledge for nonprofit consultations.
Although there are similarities operationally, there are also distinct differences between the sectors that must be acknowledged and respected. While for-profits make products and offer services, nonprofits make a difference.
Is responsive
Consultants realize that they cannot be all things to all people; so excellent consultants are part of an extensive network of colleagues who have various areas of expertise. Being able to respond quickly to a nonprofit leader’s request is critical. Delays can be costly for organizations that work within funding constraints and guidelines, and that may need results to ensure continued funding. An excellent consultant is sometimes able to match the organization’s needs with the best resources, and as such, can be an important broker as well as a provider of consulting services.
Engages in diagnostic listening
An excellent consultant engages in diagnostic listening. Clarity and agreement on where to start the work and what the intended results are for the organization are essential aspects of the relationship between the consultant and the client organization. Listening for possibilities allows the consultant to frame the issues or concerns into a coherent, mutually agreed-upon proposal for change.
An excellent consultant listens to the client and for indicators of where the organization is stuck. A major goal of consulting is to help the client to become aware of where it is stuck and to mobilize the client’s energy to take actions for change.
Is collaborative and facilitative
No one knows the organization better than the organization itself, but sometimes its view is clouded by day-to-day realities. Organizational intelligence or wisdom, however, guides the work of the consultant. Excellent consultants value the collaborative and facilitative roles that they must play in order to fully engage the client in the work.
Consulting is not something the consultant does to or for the client, but rather an approach to working with the client. The collaborative stance helps the client to make decisions about priorities and addressing opportunities for change.
Throughout the consulting engagement, the consultant collaborates with the client to frame the areas of concern, agree on intended results, set priorities, arrange a timeline for completion of the work and identify criteria for success.
Honors and acknowledges resistance
Consulting almost always involves managing change, and with change comes resistance. Since resistance is a natural component of the change process, much like getting older is a natural part of continuing to live, an excellent consultant honors and acknowledges resistance. Resistance can be useful to a change process because it alerts both the consultant and the organization that some aspect of the process may be ineffective or does not have broad agreement.
Listening for possibilities from resistant people within the organization can often help clients to avoid venturing down a difficult path. Indeed, the path of least resistance can be a more successful one.
Offers objectivity
Managing resistance requires objectivity. An objective consultant is able to listen to both board and staff, to value multiple perspectives, and to articulate the areas where there are both opportunities for change and resistance to change.
Excellent consultants avoid taking sides with either staff or board members in a change process, but rather maintain a clear boundary between the work of the consultant and the work of the client. Such boundary management is actually the management of relationships, where the consultants balance the internal emotion of empathy with their growing awareness of the organization.
Has access to extensive resource support
Excellent consultants keep abreast of nonprofit sector trends and continually expand their network and connections to human and information resources. Excellent consultants have access to the latest research on topics that nonprofits care about, and can provide data and information to guide an organization’s decisions or help to set priorities. Consultants have access to databases, studies and professional colleagues who keep them abreast of best practices among similar organizations in the sector and in other industries.
Values diversity
Excellent consultants not only respect the mission and values of the organizations they serve, but also the recipients of the services that the organizations provide. Valuing diversity requires a sensitivity to and awareness of the organization’s geographical environment, history and strategic directions. Not considering diversity in the change process can be detrimental to the success of the project. Racial, gender, language, geographical and socioeconomic differences, if discounted, can derail the change process and jeopardize results. The consultant has an ethical responsibility to include others and to provide feedback to organizations about considerations of diversity that have an impact on the work.
Thinks conceptually
From the initial meeting or telephone conversation with a client until the closure of the project, the consultant engages in the artistry of consulting—paying attention to where the organization is stuck; recognizing the tension in the organization between what is currently happening and what it wants to happen; and identifying what the organization has the energy, willingness and resources to change.
Excellent consultants develop an awareness of themes and patterns of thoughts or perspectives, expressed feelings and demonstrated behaviors that describe the complexity of the organization, but also isolate the elements that stand out. In short, excellent consultants are conceptual; they are able to articulate the themes and patterns in a way that raises organizational awareness and mobilizes the organization to shift its direction or change.
Is focused on results
Excellent consulting is an investment for the consultant and the organization. Just as most investors look for a return on their investments, nonprofits want to know that if they deliver a program or service, there will be a positive impact on the population they serve.
When a consultant plans to follow up within a specified period of time, it sets expectations for sustained impact, but also characterizes the seriousness of the relationship between the consultant and the client organization. Excellent consultants care about the quality and sustainability of their work.
Excellent consultants want positive results for both the organization and, ultimately, the organization’s clients. Consultants too make an investment; their return on the investment is…
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A stronger more vibrant organization with greater visibility and recognition through marketing and branding
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Better leadership and board governance
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Alignment of programs and mission
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Better organizational structures
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Financial accountability
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Efficient processes and systems
Improved technology planning and management
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Exemplary ethics
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Positioning for advocacy
Knowing when and how to seek outside expertise is critical to a nonprofit’s success. Knowing whom to hire for a project is just as important for successful results.
Eleanor Hooks, Ph.D., is a consulting fellow at the Georgia Center for Nonprofits.
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