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How To Choose a Consultant
The Insider's Guide to Outside Advice: A Toolkit
Thank you to The Grand Victoria Foundation for allowing the use and distribution of their toolkit. Download a PDF copy of the toolkit.
An Excerpt from Insider's Guide to Outside Advice -
Most organizations, at one time or another, will use outside consultants to address a need that internal resources can't meet.
Typically, we use consultants when...
- A high level of expertise in a particular area is needed to produce a specific outcome. Examples include creating a web site, developing up-to-date personnel policies, and structuring a capital campaign. Generally, we wouldn't expect to have the expertise available within the organization, and it's a one-time or sporadic need.
- An "outsider" will be more effective than an "insider" at producing a given outcome. The expertise may be available with the organization, but in terms of process and dynamics, an outsider will get the job done most effectively. Designing and facilitating a strategic planning process is an example, as is training the board to be more effective fundraisers.
- The organization can't afford to hire a permanent staff person with the required skills to address an ongoing need. This is generally referred to as "outsourcing," and involved contracting with an outside resource to address a routine task. Common examples include IT network maintenance and bookkeeping.
While using consultants - whether pro bono or paid - may be common
| Definition of Consulting |
"...a temporary relationship to provide assistance to a person, group, organization, or community wanting to build their capacity, accomplish a task, or achieve a goal. The consulting relationship differs from an employee relationship in that is time-limited and the consultant is free to determine how and when to work."
Carol Lukas, Consulting With Nonprofits: A Practitioner's Guide
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in the nonprofit community, generating the desired results from such projects isn't always the typical outcome.
There are two key elements in the definition of consulting found in the box to your right that nonprofit leaders must focus on to get the most from a consulting project. First, a consultant is hired to generate a specific outcome or product - a tangible benefit to the organization. Second, every consulting project should be expected to build the capacity of the organization to solve similar problems or generate similar results on its own, in the future.
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