Our Services
Optimal Solutions provides comprehensive services to strengthen nonprofit and public organizations. You bring your ideas, inspiration, and open minds to the table, and we’ll bring our experience, innovation and practical tools. Together, we’ll develop solutions that fit your team’s culture, needs and goals.
Services
Strategy & Impact
Work through a collaborative planning process with us to clarify your vision for the future and determine how to ‘get from here to there.’ By the end, you’ll have shared agreements about goals, outcomes, and actions, so that everyone, at all levels of your organization, are working together to achieve sustainable results.
We specialize in:
Needs assessments
Strategic plans
Implementation plans for programs or initiatives
Results you can expect:
Ability to make long-term decisions with clarity and focus, AND respond to emerging issues with the confidence that you’re staying true to your organization’s mission, vision and priorities.
Enhanced outreach and fund development efforts, with compelling, data-driven stories that you can tell about the critical issues your organization addresses.
Empowered teams at all levels, with deep understanding of their roles in achieving your agency’s goals.
Contact us to learn more about planning services.
Training & Capacity Building
Learn new skills or continuously enhance existing skills. Tailored to individuals, teams, or entire organizations, our trainings blend theory, best practices, and real-world experience to ease the transition from “classroom” to workplace.
Our training topics include the following, and more:
Essential Facilitation Skills
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
Skills for Working With Difficult People in Challenging Situations
Developing the Next Generation of Leaders
Using Data for Action
Custom training: You choose the topic, length and location, and we’ll develop the training that fits your needs and budget.
Results you can expect:
High performance teams that work together effectively to achieve common goals.
Improved processes and daily operations that run smoothly because everyone knows what is expected and has the skills needed to perform their jobs.
Next-generation leaders that have the knowledge, attitudes, and skillsets they need to make the transition to management and supervisory positions when the time comes.
Contact us to learn about the right training for your organization.
Facilitation
We offer support in convening interactive and results-oriented meetings, retreats and events of all sizes—from design and promotion, to facilitation and leadership. Tell us what kind of event you’re planning, and we’ll discuss whether you need:
An “extra pair of hands” to handle logistics (scheduling, facilities, registration, etc.)
Assistance with planning the agenda and developing supporting materials
A neutral facilitator, so that your participants can focus on brainstorming, networking, discussing, listening and problem-solving
All of the above!
We specialize in:
Planning sessions
Collaborative or coalition meetings
Board retreats
Staff retreats
Team meetings
Presentations for stakeholders
Results you can expect:
Shared clarity and focus around the purpose and goals of the event, keeping participant attention centered on the important issues.
Increased engagement that is respectful and solution-oriented, allowing participants to reach agreement on how to move forward.
Participants leave with a plan of action and a commitment to take steps to improve individual or organizational performance.
Contact us to discuss your event needs.
Custom Solutions
Do you have a need that doesn’t fit neatly in any one category? Know that you want some type of assistance, but it’s hard to describe? Just want some guidance from a seasoned professional that you can take and run with?
If this sounds like you, let’s connect. We offer a free half-hour consultation to every prospective client. At the end of the consultation, you can decide whether you have enough information to move forward on your own, or would like to contract with us for further assistance.
We specialize in:
Organizational development
Individualized professional development
Coaching for supervisors, managers and leaders
Targeted advice and resources
Business or strategy development
Social media and marketing
Results you can expect:
Effective leaders that get real-time assistance applying skills and strategies to their everyday work.
Engaged leaders that utilize their skills to make high-impact, effective decisions.
A culture of continuous learning, in which supervisors, managers and leaders set the example as “lifelong learners” and model ongoing improvement.
A social organization that leverages social media effectively to build networks of supporters and donors at every level of the organization.
Contact us to schedule your free 30-minute consultation.
Your organization has many strengths, and you know that it has the potential to achieve greater success.
We understand how difficult it is to be an effective leader in the midst of constant change and shrinking resources, especially in nonprofit and public sectors. We also know that even the most talented, committed professionals sometimes need an extra mind or pair of hands to accomplish their desired results.
We make the most impact with clients who are forward-thinking, action-oriented, open to new ideas and committed to building high-performance practices into their organizations. If this sounds like you, we’d love to work with you.
