Issue 28
August 3, 2004

NEWSNOTES is a monthly email newsletter published by Nonprofit Enterprise at Work. It includes items of interest to the nonprofit community in Washtenaw County and the surrounding areas, as well as resources available at NEW. Encourage your friends and colleagues to join over 310 other NEWSNOTES subscribers!

NEW would like to recognize the generous support of its Community Partners:

Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation DTE Energy Foundation
Ford Motor Company Fund The James A. & Faith Knight Foundation
Pfizer Global Research and Development The Power Foundation

IN THIS ISSUE

LEAD STORY
FEATURED ITEMS
REGULAR FEATURES

LEAD STORY

The Organization - Consultant Relationship: A Guide for Making it Work

By Carol Lukas,* Director of National Services, Wilder Center for Communities http://www.wilder.org/training/index.html

Ask any group of nonprofit executives about using consultants or trainers and you will probably get a handful of horror stories about problems they confronted. “Their style didn’t fit with our organization.” “They never understood what we are all about.” “We’d rather do it ourselves, it is too much trouble.” Like any relationship, the nonprofit – consultant relationship will encounter problems. The most common reasons why these relationships fail are:

  • The consultant has the wrong skills for the project.
  • Expectations aren’t clear.
  • The consultant addresses symptoms instead of core issues.
  • The consultant isn’t managed or held accountable for either the process or the results.

But far more common are the success stories --those of consultants who have helped organizations move to new levels by crafting new strategies, solving persistent problems, discovering efficiencies, or facilitating partnership relationships that transform the organization and result in greater impact. Another group of nonprofit executives might report: “Our consultant focused on our most important programs and helped us eliminate those not contributing to our mission.” “We got beyond years of circular discussions that never went anywhere.” “We dramatically improved program outcomes thanks to our consultant’s expertise.”

A productive nonprofit – consultant relationship requires mutual respect, influence, and accountability. Hiring a consultant and building this relationship is an investment of your organization’s scarce resources. If you are clear about your needs, take the time to find the right consultant, carefully negotiate roles and expectations, and then monitor the consultant’s results, you are more likely to see a return on your investment.

Know when to hire a consultant
There are several situations in which hiring a consultant makes sense. Your organization may lack the expertise to solve a problem. In this era of tight budgets, nonprofits can round out slim staffs and save money in the long run by hiring specialists in such areas as technology, event planning, or marketing. You may need to move beyond where you are. A consultant can bring new perspectives and skills to do big picture, strategy, or creative thinking. Some consultants can bring access to research, program models, or promising practices from around the country. Your organization may be having difficulty achieving a specific goal. A consultant can challenge your thinking, help your organization approach the problem in a new way, help identify roadblocks hindering full participation, or help shift unproductive decision making or communication norms. You may need an objective point of view. A consultant can give you a fresh look at what you are doing or how you do it, making breakthrough improvements possible.

Find the right consultant
Once you’ve decided to invest in consulting assistance, you will benefit by paying attention to some of the following search and selection practices that experienced nonprofits have learned.

  • Plan ahead. It may take time to locate a consultant to fit your needs, and consultants’ schedules are often booked far in advance.
  • Write a Request for Proposal (RFP) that outlines what you want done, the qualifications and experience you’d like, the project budget, and the procedure and deadline for submitting a proposal. Even if the project is small, the discipline of writing even a one-page RFP will be worth your effort.
  • Assemble a pool of candidates. Ask other nonprofits. The most promising candidates are those who’ve worked successfully with other nonprofits in your field or community. You can also request names of candidates from funders, nonprofit management support organizations, intermediaries, corporations, for profit consulting firms, and colleges and universities .
  • Interview consultants using a prepared set of questions that probe their experience, industry and process knowledge, skills, style, and values. Compare their responses.
  • Fit the consultant to the job. A perfectly competent consultant will perform poorly when given tasks that aren’t suited to her/his strengths, or if personalities clash.
  • Check references, and not just the references they give you. Check with your colleagues.
  • Have at least one other person help you make the decision. Involve people who need to buy in to the work the consultant does.

Get it in writing
A written agreement will protect you and the consultant, and increase the likelihood of a successful engagement. Consultants usually prepare a proposal, although the nonprofit may want to use their own contracting form. A written consulting contract or agreement should specify:

  • The goals of the project or results you hope to achieve, against which the consultant’s work will be evaluated;
  • Scope of work, including quantifiable parameters such as the number of people to be interviewed or the number of meetings or trips;
  • Work plan outlining steps at which progress will be monitored, timeline, and organizational and consultant responsibilities;
  • Technical and human resources the consultant will need such as access to mailing lists, historical documentation, financial information, or staff and board time and participation;
  • Intellectual property rights for the organization and the consultant;
  • Concrete deliverables the consultant will produce, such as a strategic plan, written report, summary of research findings, meeting agendas, or employee handbook; and
  • Projected costs and billing arrangements. If costs are estimates, the contract should state terms under which the consultant can exceed the estimates.

Manage the consultant and your relationship
Build a relationship with the consultant characterized by open, honest discourse and mutual influence. Withholding of knowledge or opinions by either party will reduce the potential benefit to the organization. With this kind of relationship, it is easy to keep a pulse on how things are going. Check in frequently to make sure the project is on schedule and that tasks are being done to your satisfaction. Talk through concerns, questions, and problems as soon as they crop up. And remember, the meter is running; use the consultant’s time wisely. Show up on time. Don’t reschedule meetings at the last minute. Do your homework.

There is no magic potion that will ensure you find the perfect consultant and they perform to your expectations. Attention to a few key elements will help you achieve your goals: hire the right consultant at the right time for the right reason; get the agreement in writing; and manage the consultant’s work and your relationship with them.

Copyright 2004 Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. For re-use permission, contact Wilder Publishing Center, 919 Lafond Ave., St. Paul, MN, 651-659-6024

*Carol Lukas is the Director of National Services for Wilder Center for Communities. She has over 25 years of consulting and training experience with nonprofits, government, foundations, businesses, and collaboratives. She is the author of the popular book Consulting with Nonprofits: A Practitioner's Guide.

Resources:

  • NEW’s Online Consultant Directory is the perfect place to begin your search for expert help. The professionals listed represent all areas of nonprofit management capabilities. Each profile gives details on years of experience, areas of expertise, and the consultant’s personalized approach to problem solving. Contact them and learn more about how they can help your organization. One of the consultants registered with NEW may very well be the answer to a major problem in your organization, or the person who can help you avoid a future stumbling block.


  • The Online Consultant Directory provides other helpful information, including a template for a consulting agreement. Find links to further resources such as the Free Management Library’s comprehensive listing of Web sites.


  • Print resources at NEW’s online Bookstore

FEATURED ITEMS

Workshop Series Announces Fall 2004 Offerings, Special Event, New Pricing

NEW’s Fall 2004 Workshop catalog is now available online and by mail. If you are on NEW’s mailing list and have not received a catalog, please email or call 734-998-0160 to have one sent to you.

Workshop scholarships, funded by Washtenaw County, The Junior League of Ann Arbor, and Anthony and Patricia Werderitsch, are available to 501(c)(3) nonprofits in Washtenaw County only. Applications must be submitted by 5:00 p.m., Monday, August 16, 2004. Apply online.

This September, NEW will launch a theme of “Fundraising” for the ‘04-‘05 workshop sessions. See the catalog and Web site for new workshops in this category and two very special presentations on successful fundraising:

This term, for the first time in seven years, NEW has increased workshop prices by $5. However, there’s still a way for you to pay the old prices for this term: It takes NEW a considerable amount of time to process a manual registration, and no time to process an online registration. Every time you register online with a credit card, you will receive a $5 discount per workshop. We save money with online registration, and we’re passing that savings on to you!

For specific questions about this term’s workshop offerings, please contact Dallas Moore (734-998-0160 ext. 210).

Get Your Board in Gear for the Coming Year!

NEW’s Onsite Board Training program offers hands-on training for your Board of Directors. You can choose one of our five training modules to fit your board’s unique needs:


Each module is a 2-3 hour class, easily delivered at a time and location convenient for you and your Board of Directors. The cost is $500, which includes the training session for 20 board members, materials and a preliminary consultation with your lead executive and appropriate board members.
To schedule your training session for this fall, contact Andrew Steck (734-998-0160 ext. 211).

Nonprofit Resource Library: Recent Acquisitions

See the listing of new titles in the library at the NEW Center. Don’t be shy about suggesting books / videos / audiotapes that could be helpful to your programs and mission. Contact Ann Gladwin (734-998-0160 ext. 218).

Mini MBA® for Nonprofit Organizations

You have a one-time opportunity coming to the Detroit area in September. A special intensive course on Nonprofit Management will be held the week of September 20 on Wayne State University’s campus. The University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis has teamed up with Target Corporation to take their popular Mini MBA® program on the road to two different communities each year. The goal is to provide nonprofit managers with a basic overview of issues and topics relevant to their role. The class of 25 or fewer will meet Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and on Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The fee is $895 and limited scholarships are available. For more information contact Barbara Ritter (651-962-4295).

Lawrence Tech Offers Courses

The Center for Nonprofit Management at Lawrence Technological University has two learning opportunities open to the public this fall:

Each course is offered to non-registered students as a non-credit seminar for a fee of $600. Classes are held on LTU’s Southfield campus. See the Web site for detailed information on course content.

Grantmakers Encouraged to Give General Operating Support

Building Value Together, an initiative of the Independent Sector, has drafted a Statement on Guidelines for the Funding of Nonprofit Organizations to encourage organizations and foundations to work together constructively for successful outcomes. Grantmakers are urged to include support for administrative and fundraising costs when funding projects. Nonprofits are called on to reciprocate by showing “top-notch performance." See the full text of the statement.

Recycle Electronics

HP and Office Depot have recently launched an electronics-recycling program that will run unitl Labor Day. Discards may be taken to any one of 850 Office Depot retail locations in the U.S. Get rid of that pile of old PCs, mice, keyboards, PDAs, monitors, flat-panel displays, laser and ink jet printers, scanners, all-in-one printers, digital cameras, fax machines, cell phones, TVs (27" and smaller only), and TV/VCR combos. Hardware from any manufacturer will be accepted and HP will use its two US recycling facilities to process the equipment. Be sure to read the terms and conditions at the Web site.

Reminders

Accounting Course in Novi, Friday, August 6.

REGULAR FEATURES

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