
Can nonprofits benefit from hiring consultants? Well, I believe so – particularly since I started my own consultancy for nonprofits, Lucivero Consulting LLC, six years ago this month to offer my experience as a nonprofit professional and assist organizations to deliver quality programs to the communities that they serve.
Like paid staff and volunteers, consultants can be another layer of human resources that can help nonprofits fulfill their missions. But in what ways can consultants benefit nonprofits? A few months ago, Forbes Nonprofit Council asked the leaders of twenty successful nonprofits to offer their input on why nonprofits might consider hiring consultants at all.
I found that these suggestions could offer more clarity when they are grouped together to answer three more specific questions (and keeping in mind that some overlap):
(1) Can hiring the consultant help the nonprofit with capacity building?
Consultants can bring their skills, knowledge and experience to aid an organization in a variety of operational areas or for program planning and delivery. Among the suggestions cited in the article — 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 13, 16, 17 and 19 fall into this category.
One example of capacity building offered by Kimberly Lewis from Goodwill Industries of East Texas Inc., describes when consultants handle a project without the organization having to put together a staff committee or add more to one staff member’s plate. In these cases, a consultant can “help launch and scale projects quickly, and in many cases, they are more cost-effective than a small team of internal staff because they are focused on that singular project, as opposed to trying to start a new program in the midst of their regular job duties.”
The article also cited Tara Chalakani of Preferred Behavioral Health Group, who explains the benefit of bringing in a consultant to build certain areas of the nonprofit’s operations, allowing staff to focus on how to operate them once the consulting engagement has concluded. “The freedom of a short-term commitment releases nonprofits from salaries that can become oppressive on a lean budget. Marketing, fundraising, grant writing and IT are some areas where consultants can assess, diagnose and get operations stable enough so core staff can maintain the improvements made moving forward.”
(2) Can engaging a consultant help the nonprofit improve efficiency?
Working with consultants to evaluate and refine their existing operations and programming can help nonprofits keep costs lower in the long run. Improving efficiency is best described by suggestions 2, 3, 4, 7, 12, 15, 18 and 20.
One of the experts cited in the Forbes article, Ladi Stephen from Chemonics International, explained how deploying consultants in different phases affected the delivery of development projects. “Leveraging short- and long-term consultants provides unique access to in-demand technical expertise for standard delivery and best practices. This enhances operational agility, cost-efficiency and performance.”
(3) Can the nonprofit benefit from a consultant being a “trusted outside voice” to bring clarity to an existing issue?
Serving as a “trusted outside voice” may sound similar to “capacity building” but I think the latter more accurately refers to adding skilled “extra hands”, while the former refers to the way in which a consultant’s expertise and perspective can help other nonprofit professionals to consider new possibilities or reassess their current approach with suggestions from a fresh set of eyes. While several suggestions from the experts in the article refer to this in part — 5, 10, 11 and 14 most directly describe how a consultant can be a “trusted outside voice”.
George Hsieh from Community Resource Exchange explained that consultants can not only expand a nonprofit’s capacity and expertise but spark “essential internal discussions.” In this way, consultants. “can clarify challenges and cultivate an environment where a team’s own expertise, wisdom and insights can emerge and flourish. Engaging with a consultant can enable organizations to unlock their own potential and drive meaningful change from within.”
One of the members of the Council, Liz Salguero or Circle of Care, described how bringing in someone with a “fresh, experienced skill set, especially for a specific project like strategic planning, fundraising or program evaluation” can help efficiently identify “operational strengths, weaknesses and inefficiencies” because the consultant can apply their skills and outside perspective.
I hope you found this analysis helpful in evaluating how nonprofits might benefit from working with a consultant. Please feel free to comment and continue the discussion by sharing your own experiences.
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