Most organizations are run on instinct, urgency, and whatever plan survived the last budget cycle. Ascend helps you build something better: a clear, durable Plan A that aligns your mission, your funding, and your leadership around where you’re actually going.
Every organization has a Plan B, the one improvised in response to the latest crisis, opportunity, or funder request. Few have a Plan A: a clear-eyed strategy for where the organization is going, how it will get there, and who is responsible for making it happen. Without a Plan A, growth becomes reactive, staff burn out, and funders ask questions leadership cannot answer. Ascend works alongside your team to build the plan that should have existed all along.
Answers the question, “Where are we going, and how do we get there?” We clarify mission and vision, set 3–5 year priorities, define measurable goals, and build the operational roadmap your team actually uses.
Answers the question, “How do we fund where we’re going?” We build a sustainable fundraising strategy aligned to your plan, diversifying revenue across grants, major gifts, and individual giving.
A great plan still requires a great leader to execute it. We support EDs, CEOs, and senior staff with one-on-one guidance on leadership, decision-making, and board management.
How We Work
We start by listening to your leadership, board, staff, and sometimes your funders, to understand the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
We facilitate planning sessions and retreats that surface real priorities and trade-offs, so your plan reflects consensus, not just the loudest voice in the room.
We translate your priorities into a clear strategic and/or development plan, complete with goals, timelines, owners, and metrics.
Through coaching, check-ins, and ongoing support, we help your leadership stay accountable to the plan long after the planning session ends.
What’s Included
Plenty of consultants can run a planning retreat. Fewer can connect that plan to the funding, policy, and leadership realities your organization actually faces. Because we also work in grants and government relations, your strategic plan is built with a realistic understanding of what funders and policymakers will actually support, and we stay engaged through execution.
Working with Ascend gave our board the clarity we had been missing for years. For the first time, we left a planning session with an actual plan, one our whole team could rally around and execute.
Tell us about your mission. Get in touch and we’ll map the path to greater funding and a stronger voice in government.