Choosing a consultant requires a lot of things to be right: background, industry knowledge, technical fluency, and more. It’s also important to enjoy working with your consultant.
When we complete a project, we ask our clients why they chose to work with us. Was it our experience? Our technical chops? Something else? Here’s a sampling of what they said:
“We felt that you’d be a cultural fit for our organization.”
“We got a sense that you were the right people to help us.”
“It seemed like your warm approach would work for us.”
These statements have something in common: we have good vibes.
We’re proud of our good vibes. Our past experience working with consultants has been that we’ve greatly preferred working with consultants who have good vibes: positive energy, respect, and caring about people, not only the project. Breakthrough moments of compassion have cemented lifelong relationships.
Our proposals to prospective clients include this sentence: “Plus, we’re fun to work with.” We think it’s true, and we’ve formed some strong bonds with our clients, both past and present.
Good vibes means our clients like coming to meetings. It means they feel seen and valued as individuals, not just as their job roles. It means that we bring good energy and enthusiasm even when we’re in a boring part of a project. It means we listen and adjust our approach without rancor when we hear feedback that things aren’t going quite right.
That kind of trust also allows things to happen during projects that weren’t even necessarily on the menu. Creative solutions, new ideas, and golden opportunities can come up. It also can reveal a fundamental truth about nonprofit tech: problems with tech aren’t just about tech. More often, underneath it, is a disconnect between people and the way they communicate and trust (or don’t trust) each other.
Many of our flagship projects during Raise HECK’s tenure have been projects that last for 6-9 months. Our assessments and selection projects are discrete and time-limited projects. If we do our jobs right, an organization shouldn’t need to choose a new tool continuously. Your CRM and digital engagement tools should stand the test of time for at least 5 years.
That’s part of why we created our new service, Your Nonprofit Tech Bestie (which we’re officially calling Technology Advisor). Project-based work means we miss out on continuing to work with some awesome people. So we’ve designed a way to continue to advise clients on optimizing your technology adoption and solving challenges as they come up.
As your nonprofit tech besties, we can also create and steward longer-term organizational development projects that help your staff maximize use of your nonprofit tech. Data governance, change management, and continuous improvement happen over time. We can help you make it happen through a longer-term relationship.
We also aren’t too modest to say that we definitely know our stuff. Together, we’ve been working in nonprofit software for more than 50 years. We know the technology landscape: where it’s been, where it is now, and where it’s going. There are more tools than ever to choose from, and we keep current.
So far it seems like Nonprofit Tech Bestie is resonating. We’ve had conversations with several organizations that told us they have a need for ongoing tech advisement outside of a strictly defined CRM and digital engagement tool assessment and selection project.
We’d love to bring our good vibes to help your organization change and improve. Contact us today at hello@raiseheck.com to tell us what you need.
