Consultant Collaborative Gets Some Attention

Can a Bunch of Well-Meaning, Undermployed Business Consultants Really Make a Difference?

The perfect recipe, some would say: a group of highly skilled yet undermployed business consultants and some needy Non-Profits.  The marriage of needs seemed easy to predict.  It's called the Minerva Project.  (Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and commerce.)

Two recent media outlets provided some "boost" to the program:

Press Democrat Piece (Sonoma County,A New York Times Paper)
KRCB Radio Piece NorthBay Report links for audio files. (This is an NPR affiliate.)

While the media helped to get some attention -- and draw in some more consultants and Non-Profits -- it was a validation for the members who've been working on organizing the Minerva Project. 

Non-Profits who are involved also get a rare glimpse into the behind-the-scenes workings; they see consultants brainstorming, planning, getting frustrated and arriving at some conclusions. 

But, can these Consultants really do anything of importance for the Non-Profit community and the societal good?  Can their own collaborations help their non-profit clietns?  We'll see.  For now, though, I'd say it's already working. 

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Minerva Project Formalizes Relationships with Non-Profits

Consultant, Non-Profit Collaboration Announces Next Step in Phased Effort

The Minerva Project Consultant Team announces an upcoming improvement in its operations.  From here forward, all projects with Non-Profits (NP) will involve a "Team" effort that leverages the best talents of all the Consultants involved in the Collaboration.  "We'll use all of our resources," says George Moskoff, CMC, Minerva Project Founder and Consultant. 

The Minerva Project is an initiative created by North Bay, California professional consultants who have organized themselves to help Non-Profits (NP) during this difficult time of increased demand and sagging donations.  The NP's get some help; the Consultants get something to seek their teeth into and contribute to a good cause.

Download the latest Press Release

The new feature will call for a lead consultant who will "shepherd" the Team effort for the NP.  Moskoff explains: "The Shepherd will be the Consultant who has the greatest amount of work with that particular organization and can see how the puzzle pieces of other consultants might fit together," says Moskoff.

The new program calls for monthly Web and phone conferences among all the consultnats in the program.  This will provide the venue for "checking in" and brainstorming the need for more / different resources.

The Minerva Project will continue to focus on core needs for non-profits but in a more efficient way.  Some of the areas of support include: Fund Raising; Management Development; Board Training and Development; Board Recruitment; Finance and Accounting; Volunteer Recruiting and Retention.

Consultants in the program will sign up for a six (6) month commitment to the work whose structure will include weekly phone calls and monthly face to face meetings with the "clients."  Some of the activities the Consultants will engage in include: Board Trainings / Retreats; Staff Trainings; Personal Coaching of Executive Directors; Market Research; Computer and Web-Based Projects.

Lomesh Shah, of IQR Consulting, specializing in Technology and Analytics said, "Without the work of these non profits, the community would be far worse off.  And, if IQR could,in a small way, contribute to helping these organizations overcome the resource crunch, then it was a worthwhile effort." 

The Program in the Northbay -- Sonoma County -- is part of a statewide rollout of similar initiatives to help Non-Profits and give good-willed consultants something to sink their teeth into.  Minerva Project Founder, George Moskoff, CMC, says "we'll be moving into San Francisco by the end of the year as part of our phased rollout to recruit more consultnats who want to work with non-profits in need."

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Sonoma State University Proudly Displays Study by Consultant

Minerva Project Demonstrates Major Accomplishment

Few consultants get to work with organizations that are so open so it was with pleasure that George Moskoff, CMC, of APG Consulting relished an assignment for a pro bono project with Sonoma State's Center for Community Engagement (CCE).

The Minerva Project is an intentional collaboration between non-profit organizations who need help and Professional Consultants who want to make a contribution to changing our social landscape for the good.  It has now begun in Sonoma County, California and will soon roll out across the State through partnerships with other Universities and local Community Foundations.

See the results of this Study that was performed for them on SSU's website:

SSU's URL for APG Consulting / Minerva Project Report

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Great Time for Consultants and Pro Bono Work

Organizing Help for Non-Profits in North Bay

Mark Your Calendar: September 2, 2009 - 10am to 11:30am: Consultants Help Non-Profits (see below for map link)

Sonoma County, California is home to a great number of non-profits.  Ecological centers; social justice causes; disadvantaged peoples; reducing gang violence; sustainability: many agencies are working against the odds while doing some good work.  I'd like to help them and hope I can interest you!

Tough times for these non-profits -- and everyone else too -- means...THEY NEED HELP!  That's what this post is about: using our talents to help non-profits who want that help. 

If you're a business, computer, management consultant, coach, I'm angling for you to get involved.  Are you interested?  Even if there isn't some financial payoff right now?  I'm hoping on that, though, at some point in the future: the long view. 

I like being used, having my talents exploited.  And, I assume I'm not that different from most other consultants: I believe most consultants are helpful folks, at their core. 

So, here is a chance to help, do some good work and get our talents exploited in the process. 

First meeting: we will be inviting forty (40) non-profits and about 30 consultants.  We're hoping to pair organizations in need with the skills and expertise of consultants through some fun exercises and methods. 

Could you do this where you live/work?  Create a forum for consultants and non-profits to get together? 

Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster Map

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Silicon Valley Startup CEO Gets Existential

Does All This Stuff Really Matter, Contribute to a Greater Good?

Greed, capitalistic greed he calls it, the normal driver for technology startups and their investors, may be the hollow promise that it just might be. Waxing prophetic, in a rare moment, the CEO of a startup in Silicon Valley gets real with me and wonders aloud: what's the purpose of all of this? "This" being the drive towards bigger machines, more memory, more CPU power, more sophisticated graphics...

This CEO is not a client of mine nor a friend; just an acquaintance met under relaxed circumstances. (No, it's not Tesla; just a logo for a startup.)

So, this guy, Ted, we'll call him, he ponders, in a somewhat hopeful voice:
"...all of these pioneers and technology. Silicon Graphics, for example, we now have the techology for very lifelike conditions on the computer...who's benefiting? We can have 6 year olds, and up, playing video games that seem more realistic. Is that a great thing? Or, Pixar can do animation that we only dreamed of. Great stuff contributing to the social good?

The model is simple: Come up with a quasi-breakthrough idea (Einstein had a couple!), get some financing from "Angels" and VC's, assemble a talented and motivated team -- give them a significant equity position (so they'll be motivated by the payoff too), work your ass off, cash in when you go public, if you're lucky, and then what? Then, do philanthropic work?

At 8pm, there are at least a few folks people still working in his shop, quietly and seemingly alone at their workstations: heads tilted somewhere between their keyboards and their multiple computer screens, some 30" or larger, and I ask: "why are they still working." Jerry looked at me with a sense of incredulity: "We've got a lot to do...the other guys, the ones who have 3,000 employees or so, they can leave at 5:30...not us."

This imperative he has just laid out seems obviously logical but carries its own subterranean stress with it: the next steps are clear to him. At this point in the company's life, he talks about a, let's say, second round of financing like my wife and I would talk about what to make for dinner. This is a culture I would not buy in to; I'd run and I would try not to look back. Is there something fundamentally flawed with me? Or, am I getting old and just can't understand what's behind a job title like "serial entrepeneur?"

Non-Profits Struggle During Challenging Times

California State Universities Work to Help Community

Went to a meeting at a University last week. An effort by part of their outreach function to link eco-minded community organizations with University faculty and resources. A nice idea. The last time they held a meeting like this was three years ago.

Until the folks convened, I don't think the organizers knew how they were going to run the meeting -- typical for academia? I hope not. But, it came off just fine. So much for me the Kilroy, the cynic, the naysayer. But, I told me so.

Anyway, all of these organizations whose mission was about outdoor education, sustainability, eco-commerce needed volunteers. What a way to start up a business: most of the work, at least some of the work, has to get done by folks who are doing it for the "feel good" of the exercise. Well, for some meaning, as well; we shan't forget that, shall we?

So, demand for services are up and so are the number of unemployed folks. While they can't put food on the table by volunteering, they can get some meaning, feel good, eh?

So much of what I'm thinking these days is just filled with so much uncertainty, so much that's not discernible. Overdetermined a good friend of mine called it. Overdetermined.

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