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Our Work is Characterized by

Deep Expertise in Strategy for Nonprofits

We serve individual nonprofit organizations, from foundations, to those involved in advocacy, to those that work on the ground to meet needs such as food, housing, education and health. We work closely with our clients to find the most efficient and effective ways to improve their services and create targeted solutions to the problems in the world they most wish to solve.

The Pursuit of Creative Solutions

We work with clients to determine the changes they wish to see in the world through open thinking and deep discussion, informed by meaningful data that speaks to how change can be successfully achieved, including insights from diverse organizations across the nonprofit sector. In this process, we help clients determine innovative ways to have impact on the issues they care about most.

A Bias for Action

In general, all of Wellspring’s client work results in an implementation plan for the identified objectives and initiatives. In these assignments, we engage to understand the organizational and financial issues facing clients, and build plans to implement strategy. Clients frequently comment on how our work is immediately useful.

Meeting Design and Facilitation that Lead to Closure

As a team, we think carefully about how to support our clients to reach alignment on topics that are critical to your future. We design meetings to foster informed, efficient discussion. We facilitate skillfully to ensure that divergent ideas and opinions are invited and heard. And we seek pathways to closure that a broad range of your stakeholders can understand, accept, and ideally embrace.

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Our Work

In over twenty years of operation, we have conducted over 600 planning projects, virtually all with nonprofit organizations. These form a deep base of experience from which we draw.

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Our Work is Characterized by

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Deep Expertise in Strategy for Nonprofits

We serve individual nonprofit organizations, from foundations, to those involved in advocacy to those that that work on the ground to meet needs such as food, housing, education and health. We work closely with our clients to find the most efficient and effective ways to improve their services and create targeted solutions to the problems in the world they most wish to solve.

Our Clients

Wellspring Consulting works with organizations across the entire spectrum of nonprofits, applying insights and knowledge from many different fields to our work with each client. Read more about the work that we do across different sectors below.

  • Our clients in this sector grapple with questions like: 

    • How can we address upstream causes of poverty by changing policies and embedding racial equity in our work?

    • Which programs deliver the greatest benefit to our community and which programs should we transition away from?

    ​

    Our work with clients in this sector has included: 

    • An assessment of the revenue potential of new business ideas and in-depth financial modeling to test the viability of those ideas

    • Surveys, focus groups, and analysis of demand over time to inform decisions about how a program mix should evolve to better serve the community

    • Development of a new go-to-market strategy to bring a comprehensive set of services to a priority community

    ​

    Examples of past clients:

    LOCUS
    Virginia Community Capital (VCC)
    Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF)
    United South End Settlements
    RIP Medical Debt (now Undue Medical Debt)
    Vermont Student Assistance Corporation
    MoFi

  • Our clients in this sector grapple with questions like: 

    • What is our theory of change and program model to help families move out of poverty for good?

    • How can we scale up our proven program model at a cost that school districts can afford?

    • What resources and organizational structure will we need to carry out our strategy?

    ​

    Our work with clients in this sector has included: 

    • Reimagining how a proven educational program model can be delivered by school-based staff 

    • Working with local Boards to design a national organizational structure that can efficiently support further growth

    • Defining an organization’s unique contribution to the field and developing a national expansion strategy to impact more students more deeply

    • ​Collaborating with a diverse set of stakeholders to launch an intermediary organization that coordinates activities to increase impact on immigrant youth

     

    Examples of past clients: 

    LIFT
    ParentCorps
    SEO
    Apex for Youth
    USTA Foundation
    Children’s Aid Society
    Room to Grow
    Broad Foundation (to create ExpandLA)
    Social Justice Learning Institute
    Bottom Line

  • Our clients in this sector grapple with questions like: 

    • How can we proactively enact a positive environmental agenda, while also serving as a watchdog against environmental harm?

    • What is our organization’s role within a large and increasingly crowded environmental justice landscape?

    • How can we inspire a love of the natural world and stewardship of its resources among visitors to our campus?

     

    Our work with clients in this sector has included: 

    • Focus groups and surveys with members and visitors to understand how best to deepen visitation and engagement

    • A landscape analysis of the value propositions and complementary strengths of different environmental organizations

    • Crafting a donor acceptance policy to exclude donations from fossil fuel companies

    ​

    Examples of past clients:

    Natural Resources Defense Council
    Slow Food
    The Morton Arboretum
    Vermont Land Trust
    Zoo New England
    Holden Forest and Gardens
    Environmental Advocates
    Institute for Sustainable Communities

  • Our clients in this sector grapple with questions like: 

    • How can we transform our work to be relevant and welcoming to a younger generation?

    • How can we have the greatest possible impact in line with our values?

    • What additional operational resources do we need to effectively carry out our work, and how can we make the case for them to our funders?

    ​

    Our work with clients in this sector has included: 

    • Reflecting on market data, input from beneficiaries, and faith-inspired values to determine where the organization should focus its efforts  

    • Conducting rigorous analysis of survey data and case studies from other organizations to understand how young adults want to engage with communities of faith

    • Analyzing space usage and fees associated with a facility to maximize both the social value of and revenue from the space

     

    Examples of past clients:

    Sixth & I
    Catholic Charities USA
    American Jewish World Service
    National Council for Jewish Women
    Keshet
    The Religious Action Center
    B’nai Jeshurun
    Gordon JCC
    HIAS
    Church of St. Luke in the Fields
    BBYO

  • Our clients in this sector grapple with questions like: 

    • What countries should we enter next and how can we catalyze change across the region?

    • How will we align around and operationalize a compensation philosophy across all the countries where we work?

    • What is our unique value proposition in an increasingly crowded field?

    ​

    Our work with clients in this sector has included: 

    • Intensive investigation of the relative benefits and drawbacks of expanding into a short list of countries

    • Co-creating an approach to compensation that is feasible, equitable, and that staff around the world can understand and support

    • Building a growth model that allows the organization to respond to funder interest and rapidly expand into new countries through partnerships

    • Involving country offices in building a plan to cede greater decision-making authority to local communities  

    ​

    Examples of past clients:

    Last Mile Health
    Healthy Learners
    Malala Fund
    Save the Children
    Institute for Sustainable Communities
    American Jewish World Service
    The Population Council
    myAgro
    World Vision
    Global Methane Hub

  • Our clients in this sector grapple with questions like: 

    • How can we center the priorities of impacted communities in our advocacy?

    • How can we complement our direct service work with effective advocacy?

    •  In our advocacy, how will we balance the need for strategic discipline with the need to be responsive?

     

    Our work with clients in this sector has included: 

    • Convening multi-lingual advisory groups of individuals who are directly affected by an issue to provide their input on the emerging strategy

    • Working with a coalition of organizations to design a shared approach to achieving an audacious goal (e.g., abolishing hunger or representing all undocumented youth in a state)

    • Mapping intersections between federal and state programs to determine priority areas to address

     

    Examples of past clients: 

    Innocence Project
    ICARE
    Forward Justice
    Health Care For All
    Project Bread

    American Jewish World Service

    Paralyzed Veterans of America

  • Our clients in this sector grapple with questions like:

    • What will it take to move the needle on the student outcomes we care about most?

    • How will we align our faculty, staff, and alums around big ideas that will differentiate us?

    • In light of funding uncertainty, what would it look like to pursue our strategy in different financial scenarios?

    ​

    Our work with clients in this sector has included: 

    • On-campus listening sessions that engaged hundreds of faculty, staff, students, and families

    • Working groups co-led by faculty and staff, with behind-the-scenes support from Wellspring

    • Collaborative sessions to build alignment around an inspiring vision for the institution that faculty, alums, staff and families will rally around

    • Financial modeling that offers options for pursuing strategic priorities in a range of financial scenarios

    ​

    Examples of past clients:

    Smith College
    Yale University
    Pitzer College

    CUNY Early College
    KIPP NYC

    DREAM Charter Schools

    Greenwich Academy

    Buckingham, Brown, and Nichols

    Facing History and Ourselves
    Teach For America
    Relay Graduate School of Education

  • Our clients in this sector grapple with questions like: 

    • How can we plan for our long-term financial sustainability?

    • What is the most compelling value we provide, and how can we be recognized for that value and deliver it to more people?

    • How can we come together across our large institution around shared goals?

    ​

    Our work with clients in this sector has included: 

    • The creation of a 10-year financial model to test scenarios and develop a pathway to long-term financial sustainability

    • Interviews with similar, thriving cultural institutions across the country on how they collaborate across departments to achieve shared goals 

    • Listening sessions with community stakeholders and partners across the public and private sectors to gather input and garner support

     

    Examples of past clients:

    American Museum of Natural History 
    Boston Symphony Orchestra
    Zoo New England
    Holden Forest and Gardens
    The Morton Arboretum
    LAND studio
    Pittsburgh Public Theater
    The Public Theater
    Friends of Waterfront Park

  • Our clients in this sector grapple with questions like: 

    • How can we maximize our value to the greatest number of our members?

    • How should we reimagine our purpose in light of today’s most pressing challenges?

    • What organizational capacity and structure should we prioritize to meet the needs of our members?

    ​

    Our work with clients in this sector has included: 

    • Online surveys that lead to a nuanced understanding of what different sub-groups of the network need most from the network

    • Focus groups offered in different regions, to differently sized members of the network, and in different languages to test potential offerings from diverse perspectives 

    • Interviews with large network organizations to gather best practices

    • Aligning diverse stakeholders in a youth development network around a common set of outcomes that all members can commit to and track

     

    Examples of past clients:

    Catholic Charities USA
    Meals on Wheels
    National Council of Nonprofits
    Real estate
    World Pet Association
    MENTOR
    Paralyzed Veterans of America
    Every Hour Counts
    USTA Foundation

  • Our clients in this sector grapple with questions like: 

    • How can we evolve our priorities and our Board to better reflect the changing needs and demographics of our community?

    • How can we use our own funding to unlock, influence, and mobilize additional resources that support our desired impact?

    • What organizational plan and governance model should we put in place to support our strategy?

    ​

    Our work with clients in this sector has included: 

    • Developing a shared services model that provides efficient, effective support to frontline fundraisers

    • Aligning a diverse community around a shared bold goal, with clear steps for everyone to participate in achieving it

    • Engaging a Board and staff to nurture a culture of philanthropy and build a comprehensive plan to reach ambitious fundraising goals

     

    Examples of past clients:

    Houston Endowment
    Chicago Community Trust
    Donaghue Foundation
    American Jewish World Service
    Connecticut Health Foundation
    Cambridge Community Foundation
    Harbourvest Foundation
    Jewish Communal Fund
    Intermountain Foundation
    United Way of NYC / Central Indiana

View sample client list

Wellspring did not support the graphic design of these examples

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Examples Drawn From Our Work

Wellspring supported the creation of the strategies featured in these materials.

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