This is only a sample list of projects in each of our service categories. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, please email Vive or complete our contact form. We’d be happy to let you know if we can assist you or if we can provide a referral to another organization.
Board Development
Board Assessment
Vive Consulting conducts assessments of board composition, understanding of roles and responsibilities, and level of satisfaction. We also evaluate the tools used to develop board members, manage tasks, and evaluate performance. Vive Consulting then provides organizations with recommendations and can assist with developing or revising board related materials.
Board Education
Vive Consulting provides customized one-on-one or group education sessions for boards of directors on topics such as roles and responsibilities and fundraising.
Board Manual Creation
Vive Consulting creates board manuals that are used as orientation tools and ongoing reference materials. We work collaboratively with organizations to develop content and can then conduct educational sessions for boards using these custom materials.
Communications
Communication and Marketing Analysis and Strategy Development
Vive Consulting will work with your organization to assess the state of your communication efforts with constituents. We’ll review your existing communication tools, your goals, your target audiences, and you resources. We’ll work with you to create a Communication and Marketing Plan that outlines a detailed strategy for how to reach your intended audiences and documents message strategies for each audience, channels to be used for communications including social media usage and email campaigns, and tasks and team members who will be responsible for communications.
Newsletter and Blogging Services
Vive Consulting can help your organization write content for ongoing constituent communications, such as newsletters or blogs. We will work with your staff to determine content to be published and to obtain the information necessary for us to write your newsletters and/or blog content.
Editorial Services
Vive Consulting can assist with editing and making recommendations for improving the content of your communication materials, from case statements to web copy.
Fundraising
Major Donor Prospect Analysis and Planning
Have you wasted good money after bad on purchased lists and acquisition mailings and been disappointed in the results? Yes? Well, has your organization fully mined its database to create a pool of ripe mid-level and major donor prospects? No? Contact Vive Consulting! We’ll mine your database using a selective RFM and engagement analysis to find your ripest prospects. Vive can also provide assistance with writing cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship plans based on the particular attributes of each donor segment.
Prospect Research and Strategy
How much do you know about your prospects and suspects? Vive Consulting can put together full research profiles on your most important players and assist with the creation of cultivation and solicitation plans.
Development Business Process Analysis and Design
Vive Consulting conducts onsite analyses of key development business processes, from Gift Processing to Event Management. We facilitate sessions to design new processes or retool existing ones. Vive then writes custom procedure manuals based on these refined processes. We also work with your executives and board of directors to ensure that your procedures align with your organization’s stated policies. If your organization does not have written policies, for example a Gift Acceptance Policy or a Donor Stewardship Policy, we can assist with developing them.
Development Policy and Procedure Manual Creation
Already have solid business processes but no documentation for your staff members? Vive Consulting first works with your board of directors and senior staff to develop custom policy documents. We then gather information on your existing development processes and create custom procedure manuals for your staff that expand on the policy documents. Your organization can then leverage your policy and procedure manuals to train new staff, provide reference materials for current team members, ensure that organizational standards are met, and that key tasks are carried out as designed.
Interim Staffing
Interim Executive Director
Our Interim Executive Director services are designed for organizations undergoing a leadership transition.
Services are typically structured as follows:
- 20 hours per week of services over either a 3 or 6 month period, as best suits your organization.
- After 2-4 weeks of work, Vive will produce a “State of the Organization” report that documents your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, operational status, staffing needs, and more.
- Based on the State of the Organization report, Vive will build an Executive Director Work Plan in consultation with the board of directors. This work plan will lay out the key tasks that the Executive Director should complete within his or her initial months of employment.
- Vive will attend to the higher level responsibilities of an Executive Director during the consultation, for example communicating with donors, overseeing staff through the transition, and drafting executive communications. Vive will work with the board to determine appropriate assignments.
Knowledge Management
Knowledge Assessment and Strategy Planning
Vive Consulting will work with your organization to assess the various methods it uses to store internal information related to topics such as policies and procedures, organizational culture, and best practices. We will create a map of the information you currently have documented and gaps in knowledge that need to be captured. Vive will then help you put together a strategy for how and where key information should be stored, how it will be managed and updated, how it will be coded and used, and how and where new information will be captured. Our plan will identify the tools your organization will use to manage knowledge, such as wikis or blogs hosted on your intranet, SharePoint, or other collaboration platforms. Vive can also assist with implementing your new Knowledge Strategy.
Knowledge Strategy Implementation
Already have a documented knowledge strategy but need help implementing it? Contact Vive Consulting for help designing and organizing wiki sites, blogs, SharePoint Sites, Google Waves, or other collaboration tools that your organization plans on using to capture, share, and collaboration on information internally. For assistance administering SharePoint, please review our Database Services page.
Management
Standards for Excellence Certification Assistance
All nonprofit organizations can benefit from obtaining Standards of Excellence certification. Completing this nationally recognized certification program ensures that your organization is adhering to 55 best practices in 8 key areas. Certification sets your organization apart and reassures funders that you are operating in the most efficient and effective manner possible. Vive Consulting prepares organizations for the certification process and provides guidance on implementing the 55 best practices.
Staffing Assessment
The competitive funding environment has forced many organizations to downsize and has left many others wondering whether they should follow suit. Staffing should never be changed without adequate research and planning. Have you analyzed roles and responsibilities of each position to identify task redundancy? Have you investigated whether there are job functions that haven’t been formally assigned to anyone? Do your staff members have skill sets that you aren’t properly utilizing? Vive Consulting can conduct a horizontal analysis of all positions in your organization and team member skill sets. We’ll provide you with recommendations for streamlining your employee structure and capitalizing on internal talent. If you require additional assistance, we can also help you write or rewrite position descriptions.
Position and Performance Analysis
Do your team members’ roles and responsibilities align with your mission and strategy? Do your recognition and promotion structures foster team contributions and professional growth? Are your employees satisfied and engaged? Vive Consulting will conduct an analysis of job descriptions, compensation, retention, and employee satisfaction. We will compare results with your organization’s strategic direction and goals and make recommendations for creating a high performance culture.
Operations
Business Process Analysis & Design
Vive Consulting conducts onsite analysis of key business processes and facilitates sessions to design new processes or retool existing ones. Vive then creates custom policy and procedure manuals based on these refined processes. We also work with your executives and board of directors to ensure that your procedures align with your organization’s stated policies. If your organization does not have written policies, for example a Gift Acceptance Policy or a Record Retention Policy, we can assist with developing them.
Policy and Procedure Manual Creation
Already have solid business processes, but no documentation for your staff members? Vive Consulting first works with your board of directors and senior staff to develop custom policy documents. We then gather information on your existing development processes and create custom procedure manuals for your staff that expand on the policy documents. Your organization can then leverage your policy and procedure manuals to train new staff, provide reference materials for current team members, ensure that organizational standards are met, and that key tasks are carried out as designed.
Strategy
Balanced Scorecard Creation
The Balanced Scorecard is one of many effective methods for implementing and managing strategic plans. Vive Consulting can assist your organization with designing scorecard measures based on strategic and annual plans and with creating systems for reporting on scorecard performance.
Cascading Plan Creation
Your strategic plan will be most effective when it cascades to annual operational plans and individual employee plans. Vive Consulting can help you create and align these tools to ensure that everyone is focused on strategy and achieving strategic goals.
