OUR STORY
"I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back."
— Maya Angelou
We are executives offering practical experience and expertise
IdeaLift was created by a group of women who, after serving in leadership roles in the nonprofit, government and private sectors, decided to use their skills, wisdom and combined years of leadership experience and expertise to help other executives bring their organizations to the next level. We have served as board members, founders, chief executive officers of nonprofit organizations and large corporations - we understand the challenges and opportunities from all different perspectives because we have served in those roles.
Our expertise and passion lies in organizational development and strategic planning, facilitating board development and effective governance practices, developing revenue plans to support long-term sustainability and help scale and develop programs to maximize impact.
We believe in developing high performing boards, strong leaders and engaged teams
Leadership is the key to success for any organization. We believe that recruiting and developing a high-performing, passionate Board of Directors and leadership is critical to a nonprofit’s success to remain financially sustainable and maximize the impact on its mission.
Unfortunately, and perhaps more commonly than one would expect, this is not the case. There are many reasons for this, such as lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities, insufficient development and educational opportunities, lack of resources and strategic direction and organizational challenges with fund development, finances, governance, talent management and culture.
When effective board governance is in place and the Executive Director and board work in partnership, an organization can develop long-term sustainability and high impact results. It’s where a culture of philanthropy is nurtured, strategic plans are developed and implemented, impact is measured and growth can take place. We believe we can help organizational leadership to bridge their passion with their vision and build capacity to move from ‘good to great’.
We believe social change is a team effort
As consultants, we ask a lot of questions, we listen and we analyze and research data - and we customize our work to fit your needs. We avoid cliché consultant language and aim for our advice to be practical. We are collaborative and once we build client relationships your team is our team.
We make you work hard and we tell it like it is. We have fun while we work – and we laugh a lot with our clients. We want to help you discover and pursue your biggest dreams
Together, we can help you find the answers to the questions that inform decision making and create solutions for your challenges. In the end, your success will hinge on your ability to do it yourself. Therefore, we follow the campfire rule - we leave things better than we found them. We leave our wisdom at the table.