“Dear Sara, thank you so much for leading an excellent training, and providing all of these great resources! We’re excited to dive in, and grateful for your expertise to guide us!”

-Christie Balch, Executive Director, Crossroads Community Food Network (August 2018)

 

“Capacity Partners organized and focused us on both the possibilities and impossibilities of our development program, directing our energies in places that would be most productive, and we’ve been using Julie Crudele’s well-documented road map for the past year and a half.”

-Ambassador John O’Keefe, Executive Director, Open World Leadership Center

 

“Given the wide range of nonprofits, it was really a testament to your expertise and experience that your presentation was so relevant and useful. Your explanation of the funding models was spot on; it helped put into focus where to direct most of our development efforts. The workshop was not only extremely informative for each of us who were lucky enough to have attended but also energizing.  After the event, the parking lot was buzzing with conversation and plans.”

-Linda Madden, Director of Development, MobileMed

 

“Sara Watkins is knowledgeable, collaborative, and creative. She is both grounded and inspirational, bringing a wealth of knowledge to the process. Sara does not use boilerplate; instead she tailors her work to meet the particular needs of an organization. She gave us a process that’s in progress to improve the effectiveness of our board of directors.”

-Elaine Amir, President, Foundation for Jewish Studies

 

“Mary and Sara put into place a comprehensive schedule and worked closely with staff and board members. They were excellent at listening to different points of view and incorporating them into the process. It is hard to describe the innate ability that both Mary and Sara have to facilitate an inclusive discussion, handle differing points of view, and synthesize comments into actionable steps. I think the entire board felt included and able to share their opinions.”

-Kathy Stevens, Executive Director, MCAEL

 

“Julie did a wonderful job of helping our Board to become more philanthropic, and she has a plenitude of real-world experience with nonprofit organizations and capital campaigns. She was very competent in developing an excellent fundraising plan for the National Bonsai Foundation — and very dedicated in carrying it to fruition.”

-Felix Laughlin, President, National Bonsai Foundation

 

“After the film festival’s inaugural year, we brought in Capacity Partners to facilitate a board retreat. Sara Watkins was especially good at keeping the group on track while capturing key points, and she enabled us to make a lot of progress. Since the retreat, our board meetings have been more organized and more constructive.”

-Rick Foster, Board President, Annapolis Film Festival

 

“We felt daunted by the idea of raising 50 times our annual giving fund in our first capital campaign, but Capacity Partners’ expertise and leadership empowered our volunteers to exceed the fundraising goal.”

-Mary Kate O’Neill, Grounding Our Future Campaign Chair, Friends Community School

 

“Mary Robinson’s brilliant guidance carried us to an unexpected and exciting outcome, and we now have much greater clarity about where we are headed and how to move forward.”

-Ann Thompson Cook, Co-Director, Many Voices

 

“Capacity Partners was invaluable in helping us to assess our strategic position relative to our financial plans — and in setting us on the right path to revise our strategic vision.”

-Mary Menell Zients, Board Chair and Founder, Urban Alliance Foundation

 

“We hired Capacity Partners to provide Board solicitation training for our capital campaign. Mary Robinson quickly picked upon our unique culture, and she was responsive to all our needs in a timely fashion. We highly recommend her services.

-Jane Evans, Director of Development, Jemicy School

 

“The Capacity Partners team is always very responsive and hands-on. They conducted a feasibility study that was incredibly helpful to our Board as we decided how to move forward, and now they are helping insure the success of our fundraising campaign for the Japanese Pavilion.”

-Johann F. Klodzen, Executive Director, National Bonsai Foundation

 

“Mary Robinson was very effective in moving us forward. She channeled our group’s enthusiasm to keep us on track and help us create a cohesive strategic plan. With her guidance, we were able to identify some powerful new strategic goals that are furthering our mission and expanding our membership.”

-Jennifer Russel, Chair, Montgomery Women

 

“Capacity Partners enabled us to map the landscape of possible foundations attuned to our mission, and their deftness at massaging large foundation and corporation databases is impressive.”

-Meg Milne Moulton, VP for Advancement, ASSIST

 

“Capacity Partners organized and focused us on both the possibilities and impossibilities of our development program, directing our energies in places that would be most productive, and we’ve been using Julie Crudele’s well-documented road map for the past year and a half.”

-Ambassador John O’Keefe, Executive Director, Open World Leadership Center

 

“Working with Capacity Partners was a really good decision. Mary Robinson helped us deliver a new strategic plan on a tight timeline, but the process was never superficial or formulaic. She pushed us to be very specific and intentional, and she pulled out underlying themes we might have missed.”

-Lori Kaplan, President & CEO, Latin American Youth Center

 

“Capacity Partners provided insightful guidance that drew on extensive experience working with schools — but that also reflected a clear understanding of our school’s unique strengths and challenges.”

-Joanna Tobin, Board of Trustees, Chesapeake Montessori School

 

“When our school faced a major financial crisis, Capacity Partners worked hand-in-hand with the Board, staff and parents to craft a plan that mobilized our community and ensured the school’s survival.”

-Alden Meyer, Former Board Chair, Washington Waldorf School

 

“In the infancy of our campaign, Capacity Partners provided analysis and strategic direction. They became part of our team and gave us the confidence to move forward with our ambitious goals.”

-Lindsay Hance Kosnik, Former VP, Jane Goodall Institute