We’re Prosper Strategies, and we can’t wait to meet you.
For more than a decade, we’ve worked with nonprofits to harness the power of their people and create changemaking strategies. Whether you just came across our firm, or have spent years following our insights and podcast, we want to take a few minutes to help you learn more about us before our call, so we can spend our time together learning more about you.
Here’s the essential information about who we are, how we work, and what makes us different from the other firms you may be talking to.
This page is here to help you feel prepared, not overloaded.
No formal preparation is required before our call. Skim what’s useful, bring your questions, and come ready for an honest conversation about what your organization needs.
- ✓Learn who we are and how we work.
- ✓See what makes Prosper different.
- ✓Know what to expect during our conversation.
Trusted by changemaking organizations like
Lindsay Mullen and Alyssa Conrardy
Meet Lindsay and Alyssa, Prosper Strategies’ principals and co-founders, who take a hands-on approach with every client engagement.
You’ll talk with one or both of us on our first call, and one or both of us would be the ones to lead your project if we choose to work together, as well.
Want the short version? Here are the essential things to know about Prosper Strategies before our call.
Strategy across three key areas
We're a nonprofit strategy firm that focuses on strategic planning, communications and advisory support for impactful organizations.
Explore Services What Makes Us DifferentShared Power™ + OKRs
Our Shared Power™ philosophy centers the people your nonprofit serves, while our OKR framework turns strategy into an actionable accountability tool.
See How We Work Who We’ve Done It ForLarge, small, and everything between
We’ve worked with some of the largest nonprofits in the world, smaller local organizations, and many organizations in between.
View Our Work What You Walk Away WithStrategy your team can own
You walk away with a strategy and action plans your team helped build, can be held accountable to, and can keep advancing after our work concludes.
View Results What to ExpectA transparent first conversation
We’ll spend 45–60 minutes discussing your challenges, goals, budget, process, stakeholders, and whether we may be the right fit.
Prepare for the Call Want More Context?Read, listen, or dig deeper
Browse our blog, podcast, Shared Power resources, and services page to get a fuller sense of how we think and work.
Go Deeper
Most nonprofit strategies fail for the same reason: people.
Specifically, people in the wrong roles during the strategy development process. Most strategies are shaped by the board and leadership staff alone, without any real input from the people and communities your nonprofit serves. As a result, most strategies miss the mark.
Our Shared Power Strategy™ philosophy exists to change that. It brings the people you serve together with your board, staff, funders, community, and other stakeholders so that together you can shape a strategy that will actually move the needle on your mission.
Explore Shared Power Strategy™We may be a fit for you if you want your nonprofit to be:
Beneficiary-centered, with clear roles for everyone
We put the priorities of the people you serve first, and never treat them as less important than the priorities of your board or funders. Then, we get everyone into the right roles to act on your beneficiaries’ priorities: boards governing, staff leading on expertise, and funders enabling the mission.
Collaborative and decisive — not one or the other
Most firms lean into consensus-building or fast decision-making, rarely both. We center everyone around what the people you serve say they need, build real buy-in from your stakeholders, then hand clear decision-making power to whomever is closest to each issue.
Aligned and accountable
A strategic plan or strategy document isn’t the finish line. It’s where the real work starts. We help your team build the mindsets, habits, and structures to stay aligned and accountable to the plan, including OKR dashboards with clear owners and measures of success.
We partner with impactful nonprofits who want to drive change with the people they serve at the center.
Have we worked with an organization like yours? Probably. Our current and recent clients include national nonprofits, local community organizations, associations, human services organizations, arts and culture institutions, advocacy organizations, and more.
We’ve supported them on projects like:
Messaging Strategy
Member value research and messaging strategy for a national professional association.
Community-led Planning
Bilingual, community-led strategic planning for a legal aid nonprofit.
Brand Strategy
Brand architecture and messaging strategy for a national hunger-relief organization.
Turnaround Strategic Planning
Repositioning and turnaround strategy for an iconic legacy nonprofit facing financial unsustainability.
Expansion-oriented Strategic Planning
Global expansion strategy for an international children’s nonprofit.
Membership Strategy
Membership-focused strategic planning for a national industry association.
Our work has helped our clients:
- ✓Reverse a $2.5M budget deficit over the course of one year
- ✓Secure $1M in funding for a capital improvement project
- ✓Increase participation in a key program by 75% over three years
- ✓Launch a new program in a previously underserved community
- ✓And so much more
“Alyssa and Lindsay expertly guided us through the strategic process, collaborating closely with people facing hunger, our CEO and executive team. If your nonprofit is considering making a commitment to developing strategies that center your constituents, there is no one better to guide you than Prosper Strategies.”
Jenny Arnold
Vice President, Feeding America
“In my 30-year career, I've worked on many strategic plans for nonprofits but I am often confounded by the complexity of the process and the product. For small nonprofits with small teams, strategic planning can become burdensome. Prosper really understands that and will help you build a plan that makes sense for your organization. I am delighted with our end result. One board member described the process as magical.”
Marilyn Jackson
Former CEO, The Muhammad Ali Center
What to expect during our upcoming conversation
Length
45–60 minutes. Enough time for a real conversation. One or more follow-up conversations will likely follow if we determine there may be a fit.
What it is
A conversation to mutually decide whether it makes sense to continue to explore working together. Nothing more is expected of you than that.
What we’ll cover
Where your organization is right now, what you’re hoping this work leads to, how you’re approaching your search for a firm, and where, if anywhere, we fit in. We’ll also make sure to answer any questions you have for us.
If you’re not sure what you need
That’s common, and it’s fine. Some organizations arrive certain they want a strategic plan and leave realizing the real problem is a communications one, or the reverse. Part of what this call is for is figuring out which kind of support actually fits.
How to make it useful
You don’t need to prepare anything. But to make the call especially productive, it may help to think through questions like these beforehand:
- ✓What would success look like for you three years from now?
- ✓Who needs to be bought in for this to happen? Board chair, executive team, a particular funder, or someone else?
- ✓Who are your nonprofit’s main stakeholders, and what might be some opportunities to engage them in the planning process?
- ✓What is your budget for this work? Has it already been approved by your board?
- ✓What’s your biggest worry about the process itself? Cost, disruption, staff time, whether anything will actually change, or something else?
Bring your colleagues
If someone else will be involved in choosing a firm or shaping this work, they are welcome to join the conversation.
What happens next
If we mutually feel there may be a fit, we’ll proceed with a follow-up conversation with you and anyone else who might be involved in choosing a firm like ours, and then we’ll continue to collaboratively shape how we might work together.
We believe collaborative conversations are a better indication of how we work than a written proposal or presentation.
Read our blog, listen to our podcast, or dig into how we work.
Ideas from Prosper
More than a decade of writing on nonprofit strategy, governance, communications, and the questions our clients actually ask us.
Start ReadingChangemaker Conversations
Conversations on strategy, governance, and shared power.
Listen to an EpisodeThe Shared Power Strategy Rulebook
Five rules for redistributing the power to shape your nonprofit’s strategy to its stakeholders.
Read the RulebookExplore Our Services
See the full range of our strategic planning, communications, and advisory services before we talk.
Explore ServicesWe can’t wait to talk with you and explore working together.
See you soon on our call.