Great nonprofits never do it alone and for most missions, the rule is the more the merrier. While you work with great people, with a facilitator, you can accomplish more– often 50 percent more per meeting. A facilitator will help you increase focus on the task at hand and help your groups succeed. A strong facilitator will help you clarify goals and find effective routes to them and, if needed, help you get you unstuck.

After mission and revenues, nonprofit success is based on how well people work together. We can help you and your team members create consistent decision-making, improve your board’s leadership, and gain clarity whether the group at hand is your staff, your board, your volunteers or other members of the community or a mixture of the above.

These following examples will give you an idea of the possibilities:

• Practical Useful Strategic Planning

During a half-day retreat with the Early Learning Coalition of Sarasota County’s Board explored future directions for the organization, reviewed an anticipated new center rating system and grew their relationships with each other. Since that time, as a results of the retreat and other work, the Coalition has been able to create a much needed substitute pool program for local centers and establish a rating system that provides objective data on child care center quality for parents plus continued to enhance the educational services it provides to local children.

• Increase Cohesive, Thoughtful Board Leadership

St. Margaret of Scotland faced an opportunity to expand. It found capital funds relatively easy to raise. Raising ongoing operating funds was a long-term challenge. The Board needed to decide to pursue or not pursue an expansion. We helped by providing two kinds of decision information: data from other groups who successfully made similar decisions and a process where the Board collected and examined knowledge about the options and weighed the most important factors. As a result, in an afternoon retreat, the Board of St. Margaret of Scotland moved from confusion to a firm decision. It set forth to develop a practical plan to work on the expansion, while simultaneously shoring up operating resources thus taking one important step forward.

“Thank you very much for your professional facilitation of our visioning and planning retreat. Your ability to create an open, non-threatening forum helped the group identify growth opportunities and successfully grapple with staff, programming and physical facilities issues. Your excellent facilitation directed us to a clear path and a successful team effort.” Drew Clearie, Senior Warden, St. Margaret of Scotland Episcopal Church

• Gain clarity and common vision to improve organizational results

Newly elected leaders in the Florida Bahamas Synod, ELCA, sought to redesign their 21-year-old standard in-the-hotel-assembly. Karen Eber Davis Consulting helped them create a leadership development event, in a retreat setting, that served 700 people and offered a keynote speaker and 40 workshop opportunities. The response was enthusiastic and contagious. One participant said, “I didn’t know assemblies could be this much fun.”