Solutions Offered

Our approach involves amplifying the voices and expertise of people with lived experience while ensuring their needs are not only acknowledged but met with unwavering compassion and dignity. 

Trust-Based Philanthropy Implementation

Our grantmaking consulting services are designed to empower funders to make strategic investments that yield meaningful and lasting change. We help funders maximize impact through a trust-based philanthropy approach that centers the expertise of those closest to the issues while creating space for them to participate in funding decisions. From designing equitable funding mechanisms to facilitating inclusive decision-making processes, we empower funders to support initiatives that address root causes of social inequities and create pathways to opportunity for underserved communities. By aligning resources with community needs and aspirations, we catalyze transformative change that creates a more just and equitable society for generations to come.

  • Trust-Based Grantmaking Strategy Development: Assist funders in developing a clear and aligned grantmaking strategy that reflects their values and desired impact while incorporating trust-based practices.

  • Equitable Funding Mechanism Design: Design grantmaking processes and criteria that are transparent, accessible, and fair to all applicants, with a focus on addressing systemic inequities.

  • Community Engagement Needs Assessment and Participatory Grantmaking Facilitation:  Cultivate meaningful engagement with community stakeholders to understand their needs and priorities while facilitating participatory grantmaking processes to ensure communities have a voice in decisions about funding priorities and allocation.

Partnership Development Strategy

We specialize in crafting comprehensive cross-sector partnership strategies that transcend traditional boundaries, offering holistic solutions to complex societal challenges. We work with clients to understand how to engage diverse stakeholders, identifying synergies and opportunities for collaboration. By developing robust partnership frameworks, we empower communities to drive transformative change and foster economic mobility at scale; ensuring that partnerships are strategically aligned and positioned for long-term success. Example offerings:

  • Stakeholder Mapping and Analysis: Identify and analyze key stakeholders across different sectors (e.g., government, nonprofit, business, philanthropy) who could contribute to addressing the societal challenge.

  • Partnership Development and Facilitation: Facilitate connections and conversations between potential partners, helping them to identify shared goals and develop collaborative strategies.

  • Partnership Framework Design: Develop formal agreements and structures for partnerships, including roles and responsibilities, communication protocols, and decision-making processes.

Strategic Planning

Our approach to strategic planning is grounded in first garnering a deep understanding of community needs and aspirations. We help our clients to meticulously address specific challenges while capitalizing on opportunities for positive impact. Prioritizing relevance, effectiveness, and sustainability, we lay the foundation for long-term success, empowering individuals and communities to thrive. Example offerings:

  • Needs Assessments: Conduct thorough assessments to understand the specific needs, challenges, and aspirations of the target community and facilitate meaningful engagement to inform decision making.

  • Ecosystem Mapping: Perform a comprehensive analysis of the existing resources, organizations, and initiatives within a community to identify gaps, opportunities, and potential synergies for program development.

  • Strategic Planning: Develop strategic plans that outline program goals, objectives, activities, timelines, and evaluation metrics.

Content Strategy for Impact

We develop targeted content strategies to effectively reach and influence key stakeholders, fostering shifts in attitudes and behaviors and the adoption of policies and practices. In collaboration with partners, our team leads the creation and dissemination of compelling content across various mediums, ensuring that information is accessible and engaging to support learning, capacity building and decision-making. Furthermore, we design and facilitate community dialogues to build understanding, empathy, and collective action around critical issues. Through these integrated approaches, we help organizations achieve their goals and create lasting impact. Example offerings:

  • Targeted Content Strategy:  Outline a strategy to design and disseminate content to targeted stakeholders, aiming to influence attitudes, foster behavior change, and drive policy and practice adoption. 

  • Content Creation and Dissemination: Lead the development and dissemination of compelling content (e.g., video and story-telling campaigns, toolkits, reports) to engage communities, build capacity, share learnings, communicate impact, and/or guide decision-making. 

  • Community Dialogue and Research Facilitation: Design and facilitate community dialogues, events, focus groups, surveys and other forms of qualitative research that foster understanding, empathy and collective action around a particular issue.

Our Results

Content Strategy for a National Foundation

The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) seeks to address the challenge of attracting and retaining young adults in the hospitality sector. In partnership with NRAEF and Rhythm Agency, a renowned marketing agency, I AM Konsulting led the development of a comprehensive toolkit to shift perceptions about career advancement opportunities in the sector. The solution involved strategic direction, stakeholder engagement, and qualitative research to create resources that would resonate with young adults, employers, community based organizations, and state restaurant associations affiliated with the Foundation’s Restaurant Ready Program.  The resulting toolkit included an overview video highlighting the career journeys of new and seasoned hospitality workers, a set of one-pagers to describe career opportunities in the industry, interactive worksheets for young adults to explore and research jobs, a mock interview guide and planning tool, and employer best practices to hire and retain young adults. By providing accurate information and showcasing success stories, NRAEF aims to empower young adults to explore and pursue fulfilling careers in hospitality. 

Partnership Development for a Start-up Nonprofit

The NorthStar Institute exists to close Washington, DC’s racial wealth gap by helping underemployed residents to: quickly obtain or recapture credentials that increase income and economic mobility; improve their financial well-being with the support of a wealth advisor; and achieve a major financial goal (e.g., pay down debt, start a business or purchase a home) with the help of a direct capital investment.  I AM Konsulting provides partnership development, strategic planning and content strategy support to the start-up nonprofit and has been instrumental in guiding the implementation of wealth advising services in collaboration with strategic partners.  Additionally, we are working with them to establish data and storytelling processes to surface learnings, drive decision making and share impact with stakeholders. Moving forward, our work will also focus on laying the groundwork for future partnership development through ecosystem mapping and community engagement event design in an effort to transition underemployed DC residents to the middle class.

Strategic Planning for a Sector-Focused Education Provider

Hack the Hood provides Black, Latinx, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and Indigenous youth, who experience the greatest barriers to tech-based learning and careers, with tech skill-building programs and career navigation support that is grounded in justice and supports economic mobility.  Founded over 10 years ago, the Bay Area nonprofit engaged I AM Konsulting to develop a three-year strategic plan to identify its future focus areas and drive sustained community impact. Our work began with a comprehensive stakeholder engagement process that involved the development of focus group protocol, survey design and analysis, as well as a comprehensive report to share key findings.  We then conducted landscape research to validate the plan’s priorities, strategic tactics, and metrics.  The forward-looking plan leverages the organization’s strengths to maximize opportunities and minimize risks in a rapidly changing industry sector.

Our services help our clients to engage, learn, partner, plan and innovate in a way that drives sustainable impact for the populations and communities they serve.

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