Bespoke Strategy to Advance Your Mission
Perspectives and Recommendations Grounded in Experience and Trust
Mastering strategic planning is a never-ending task for every non-profit. We’ve spent our professional lives focused on this challenge. Our perspective is informed by the fact that we have sat on both sides of the table – as part of the senior management team at the not-for-profit and as one of the trusted advisers and partners.
We intuitively understand the dynamic that works best to produce the results that strengthen day-to-day activities and yield the greatest impact.
We know that talk is, actually, not cheap, as your most precious resource is the limited time of your senior team. Our job is to respect that and focus on what unearths key assumptions, clarifies your tradeoffs and decisions, and moves the ball forward for you and your teams.
All of our work begins with a deep dive into the organization’s mission and practices. Every project must start with our learning about how you fulfill your mission and serve your community. To unpack the key components of your mission and discover how you and your teams operate, we run a series of tightly managed but sophisticated “learning sessions” at the start of our new relationships.
From this foundation, we build an “operational assessment and strategic plan” that: (1) assesses current structures and talent and identifies strengths to build upon and weaknesses and pain points that must be addressed; (2) identifies opportunities, resources, and talent to more efficient and productive operations; and (3) lays out an actionable plan for immediate training, engagement, and communication – thereby delivering the right tools to your staff, boards and volunteers to empower them to greater heights.
We are strong and nimble enough to reach far and wide on assignments that range from establishing new visionary statements and how best to communicate them to organizational challenges that require melding mission and management to highly targeted efforts to launch new strategic initiatives and reach specific audiences.
As part of that plan, we utilize our research-driven analytics team to establish the best way possible to measure our progress. Steeped in the cutting-edge technology, we bring to bear the latest tools and insights available to marketers to ensure we accelerate continuous improvement in delivering on your mission.
SEASONED AND TRUSTED EXPERTISE FOR NON-PROFITS
Shared Values, Shared Mission
After successfully guiding and counseling some of the nation's leading non-profits and working closely with their Trustees and Leadership Team, Pine Lane Advisors has established a dedicated practice focusing on these special and unique needs.
We start from a simple proposition – everything we do must extend, strengthen and amplify your mission.
In every project, we identify and tap into the core of your organization that inspires extraordinary passion. That unleashes an urgency and momentum in the funnel of actions that create even deeper engagement and value for the organization.
But we also know that a mission-driven organization measures its success based on creating social value and community impact. That means we need to appreciate, understand and learn from your stakeholders and constituencies. We also know that you want to track your progress with all of these audiences and need a partner who incorporates that precision into their own work. Together, we will build the right and appropriate tools to assess and judge if we are meeting targets and expectations.
We sometimes say our bespoke solutions are crafted by not-for-profit leaders for not-for-profit leaders. We have been working in the philanthropic sector for over twenty years, going back to the iconic, groundbreaking Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.and have advised some of the most significant philanthropic organizations in the country, creating leading-edge branding and marketing campaigns in sectors ranging from public-health to education to conservation.
Having lived side-by-side with our friends in this community for many decades, we also know that not-for-profit boards and leadership care deeply about building the most effective organizational structures, identifying revenue and being careful and methodical fiduciaries. That means having a firm grasp on management and governance, and always looking for more efficient and productive ways to manage operations and oversee the organization.
We look forward to getting to know you, your organization, your board and, most importantly, those you serve in your journey to create greater social value and community impact.
Non-Profit and Mission-Based Services
Branding and Marketing Review
We will lay out in clear, precise fashion the steps and teams that can implement the recommended strategy and guide and train your teams for successful implementation.
Internal and External Communications
A key part of any plan and implementation is not only gaining internal consensus but identifying the right internal “rallying cry” and alignment across various teams – from product development, to fundraising, to business operations.
Partnerships, Mergers and Alliances
From formal, strategic alliances to more limited marketing and sales partnerships, we have negotiated and managed all kinds and can provide seasoned expertise and perspective to our clients to maximize their teams’ effectiveness.
Governance and Trustee Relations
We have worked over the years with some of the nation's most respected tax-exempt organization legal practices in designing and implementing the most suitable governance practices and structure. We have assembled and overseen complex compensation-analysis teams to establish benchmarks and recommendations for Boards, consistent with all legal and Federal requirements.