Earlier this month, I helped organize 20 local civic consultants to gather at Providence Public Library to meet and discuss shared insights. It was a surprising delight to see the diversity of backgrounds, expertise, and business types represented. These smart, dedicated people are working on improving educational outcomes, environmental policy, local business viability, healthy neighborhoods, and so much more.
I realize now how civic consultants, who focus on supporting nonprofit organizations and public agencies, are such a useful part of the nonprofit organization ecosystem. By offering short-term services for specific needs which would be inefficient to have full-time within an organization, consultants are keeping costs down while ensuring better functionality.
Zac Hill and Ben Marshall, write in this month’s Stanford Social Innovation Review piece, “When Nonprofit Leaders Should Think Like Creatives” that nonprofits might consider staffing models other than “institutional.” They mention how “the arts and design industry consists of 77% freelancers,” and how that sector has used a project-based staffing model for decades, to good effect. They find three opportunities in this approach:
- A more flexible talent model,
- Work on more discrete time horizons, and
- Augmenting metrics with insights.
Do you have a project that needs a manager for 12 months only? Need some help with complex data analysis or a systems upgrade? Need some guidance or training for your core functions? There is a civic consultant out there somewhere for you.
In meeting these lovely people, I observed what should have been obvious to me: these people have deep experiences in their field. Each person had at least two decades in government, grantmaking, political advocacy, community organizing, data analysis and visualization, and more! They were very focused on the needs of their clients, delivering results, and ensuring their clients were satisfied with the deliverables.
I have worked in small and large teams of dedicated staff for decades, and I count many of these people as inspirations, mentors, friends, and colleagues. Building an effective team requires trust, collegiality, and a commitment to the mission, and smart staff recruitment and investment are key to that. Once that team has momentum, though, consider civic consultants as a way to overcome those peaks and valleys that nonprofit organizations face annually!