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Services
| Via my company, VarnEnt, I am currently offering a compliment of consulting services specifically tailored for nonprofits and small businesses. These services allow me to put my diverse experience "in the trenches" to use while harnessing my passions for public policy, technology, coalition building, and bridging the generational divides. Offering this array of services in often overlooked areas of organization and program development, I'm able to establish trusting long-term relationships with clients working on multiple projects in various capacities at a cost that keeps them within budgets. |
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Public Policy Advocacy
Whether advocating for change in local laws, navigating relations with elected officials while staying within IRS guidelines, or seeking federal funding for a social service project - an advocate to help you navigate the public policy arena can be invaluable. Allow me to help your organization identify and strategize on public policies issues impacting you on all levels of government. As a Washington, DC based consultant - I am in a unique position to provide your organization with access to our federal government. Allow me to utilize the relationships and successful strategies I've developed to help your organization achieve their public policy needs at a cost you can afford.
Coalition Building and Bridging the Generational Divides
By far - the number one reason projects fail is a lack of proper coalition building. I've written about how damaging it is to our youth-serving efforts when we don't engage young people in the early planning and implementation stages. This simple and easy to avoid misstep can be vital to carrying out any type of project or service aimed at a particular audience. Beyond that - properly engaging other organizations, allies and partners can make the difference between a good project and a fantastic project. Building coalitions in your programs, services and policy efforts can also help sustainability efforts by increasing the number of invested players. There are numerous gains that I can help you capitalize.
Organization Development
Almost all of the services on this page fall under the broad umbrella of "capacity building" services. Which is a fancy way of saying the things we need to do to help our organizations grow, become stronger and more effective. Or simply put - how we grow their capacity to do what they do best. Organization development is taking a look at the big picture and assessing what steps, big or small, your organization needs to take next. I've helped small ventures grow into national endeavors and organizations experiencing a rebirth come out of it stronger than ever before. Regardless of the age, strength, size or stability of your organization - I can assist you in identifying how to evolve your organization to accomplish your goals.
New Media
Feeling overwhelmed by all the new Internet tools popping up every month? With over 500 million users - it's clear that Facebook is a field worth playing on and even early Twitter critics like Jon Stewart and Conan O'Brien have come on board. But what about new services like Google Buzz or population specific services like Fabulis or Nings? I promise it's not as taunting as it seems. Regardless of if your organization is all volunteer based or your business has a full communications team - we can find a workable solution to help you navigate the new media landscape.
Drupal Web Site Development
Perhaps you're starting your web site from scratch, maybe you're hoping to transfer your current site into a system your staff or volunteers can better use and understand or you've got a Drupal site that just isn't working the way you'd like it to. Whatever state your organization's web presence is at - let's find an affordable solution that gets you where you need to be. The White House, MTV, Popular Science, Amnesty International and a number of organizations of all sizes and needs have decided on Drupal as the ideal online open-source content management system. Which is a fancy way of saying that Drupal is a free, trusted, secure and widely used system for making the maintenance of your web site both easy and affordable.
MediaWiki
Wikis are an increasingly trusted and utilized way of collecting lots of information from a limitless number of people and organizing it in a way that's both easy to navigate and easy to expand. These vast collections of information can take on a life of their own with user-contributed content or designed for more presentation based or internal use. Wikipedia launched wikis into our daily lives and the system it runs on, MediaWiki, is open-source - which means your organization can utilize it for free. However, setting up a wiki initially can be a daunting task - especially if you have a number of specific requests or desires to make it as user-friendly as possible. I've had the rewarding experience of setting up a number of public and private wikis as well as contributing to dozens of Wikia, Wikipedia and other MediaWiki projects - including my company's own WikiQueer. Setting up your organization's wiki can be a convenient, fun and affordable process - contact me to get started.
Pricing
I've spent my life thus far operating and advising nonprofits and small businesses. I appreciate the lean budgets that these organizations operate on and I try to make my pricing as affordable and respectful as possible. Please contact me and I'm confident we can work out arrangements that will suite both your project and budgetary needs.