Three years ago, when I stepped away from my executive director role, I described what I was bringing to consulting as an “inside understanding” of how nonprofits work. It was a way to name where I had spent most of my time—across programs, fundraising, and organizational leadership—rather than within a single function. At the time, that framing felt right.

Consulting Makes Organizational Challenges Visible

Funding levels matter, but the harder constraint for many of my clients is that the coordination that fundraising requires across programs, leadership, and revenue work isn’t well structured or funded, or even always recognized.  Working across multiple organizations, I see the same situations over and over:

• A small team working to complete a grant report is also trying to respond to a new funding opportunity.
• Program staff are brought into fundraising work when their input is needed, often alongside their primary responsibilities and on timelines set by external deadlines.
• Executive directors are the points of integration—holding relationships, shaping strategy, and filling operational gaps.

These situations are familiar. In consulting, it becomes clear how often they occur simultaneously and how rarely they are addressed as part of a single system. 

Where “Inside Understanding” Actually Helps

 Most small and mid-sized nonprofits manage three interdependent systems:

• Program delivery
• Organizational capacity 
• Revenue generation

Within an organization, each of these has its own logic and urgency. From a consulting vantage point—close enough to understand constraints but not embedded in any single function—the points where these systems pull against each other are easier to see.  For example, A team is considering a grant that requires detailed quarterly reporting.  The program is a strong fit, and the proposal is competitive. Looking across the organization:

• The reporting will require consistent input from program staff who are already at capacity
• There is no clearly defined role to manage that process
• The timeline overlaps with an existing major deliverable

The decision is not just about whether to pursue the grant, but also about how the associated work will be absorbed.

What the Work Actually Involves

A significant portion of my consulting work involves producing materials in partnership with staff:

• Fundraising strategies
• Cases for support  
• Grant narratives 
• Major donor research
• Customized AI tools

In practice, the work is both strategic and concrete—developing materials while collaborating with teams to clarify the trade-offs those materials represent.

What’s Changed in the Last Three Years

The broader context  of the non-profit landscape has significantly shifted:

• Funding is less predictable
• Staffing is thinner
• Expectations around data and reporting are higher
• AI tools are now part of day-to-day workflows 

In practice, this shows up in a few ways.

• Teams can produce more material, more quickly.
• A grant narrative that might have taken days can now be drafted in an afternoon.

AI is showing up in a new way

AI tools are now part of that process. Tasks that previously required dedicated staff time can often be completed more quickly. At the same time, the need for clear direction and decision-making becomes more pronounced. A team can generate several strong versions of a proposal in a short period.

The constraint shifts from producing content to deciding which version reflects what the organization is actually positioned to deliver. So the question becomes less about how to produce better materials and more about:

• What decisions do those materials reflect?
• Whether those decisions are coordinated across the organization
• How AI tools are being used within existing workflows

In my consulting practice, this increasingly involves working with teams to use these tools to support their processes—structuring prompts, refining outputs, and integrating AI into writing and planning without adding complexity.

Ways I can support your work

If you are interested in learning more about building AI tools and agents for your work, developing AI governance and acceptable-use policies, or receiving coaching on using AI in your workflow, get in touch.