You may have worked with The Improve Group on an evaluation – but did you know that we also facilitate the development of data-driven strategic plans? Maybe we know you from a project providing community engagement, but you might not know that we provide facilitation to support staff teams, workgroups, and task forces to move their work forward. In addition to working with clients and community members to apply tested evaluation and assessment methods to learn from their work, we design equitable and accessible pathways for diverse communities to give authentic input on the programs and policies that affect them. And we’ve heard from clients that our generalist and person-centered approach unlocks insights for organizations to make the most of complexity in their work. We know government agencies, nonprofits, and foundations are grappling with how best to respond to uncertainties and changes. We want to remind you that IG’s specialty is in supporting mission-driven organizations to deepen the impact of their work—and that can look like a lot of different types of support.
“Your team was really able to help us think and move forward in a way that I don't think we would have been able to do without you.” -State of Minnesota client
Our team can support you with:
- Building tools for working through uncertainty—we worked with one nonprofit, for example, to develop decision-making guidance for uncertain times (versus determining multi-year strategies that may not be relevant in a constantly evolving landscape).
- Helping you clearly understand what activities are necessary for achieving your outcomes, knowledge that is helpful for managing through funding cuts.
- Facilitating ways for internal teams to work together more smoothly and efficiently. For example, we facilitated an organization through a process to map current work and identify and address collaboration gaps.
- Effectively engaging communities about their priorities. We’ve been working with several clients on community-centric needs and strengths assessments, to help guide how they can best support their communities in these uncertain times.
- Picking up where something left off. For example, analyzing survey data that has been collected but not cleaned or analyzed.
- Bringing extra capacity to support tasks that may have dropped due to shifting priorities or funding cuts.
- Showing the responsible use of resources by monitoring and determining the value of investments in grants and communities. With more scrutiny coming down on grant funds, we can help you measure and report on outcomes that show the importance of your work to funders.
The Improve Group is a worker-owned cooperative: our powerhouse team of 22 people is experienced in managing complex projects, and we want to work with you! Over 25 years, we have worked across a variety of topics and communities, and we partner with community and subject matter experts as needed for projects.
“Other consultants were fine to do the bare minimum but … IG was willing to do more work to get more interviews.” -State of Minnesota client
Our experience with a variety of clients means we know the challenges, insights, and needs that you may encounter at your organization. Not only do we help you achieve your goals in the present moment, but we also prioritize building capacity for our clients. This means developing tools and materials that are clear, easy to use, and accessible, so that you can sustain your project on your own over time.
We are open for work to support you and your organization to gain clarity and insight to make a greater impact, and to alleviate challenges you may be experiencing in this moment. Have a project in mind that we can help with? Reach out to Dan Goldstein on our business development team and we can start scoping out the work together. We look forward to hearing from you!