In addition, existing nonprofit groups, especially giant international organizations are growing fast and need specialized consulting services for new challenges.

Greater individual wealth going to countries outside of Europe and North America has helped fuel this revolution. Bill Gates has been focusing on worldwide concerns, and a growing number of other philanthropists from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East are supporting NGOs.

That means nonprofits in many parts of the globe have the resources to invest in innovation and are inventing new methodologies and tools to meet their needs.

In our book, Global Fundraising: How the World Is Changing the Rules of Philanthropy, coming out next week, Bernard Ross and I and our c0-authors write about the fact that nonprofits are innovating as never before. That brings opportunities but also mandates changes in what we consultants pay attention to: Some consultants are equipping themselves to assist the unique needs of  the rapidly growing number of mega-charities, and innovations that emerge in other parts of the world can affect domestic charities later on.

In some respects, other countries are way ahead of the United States. Internet fundraising took off in Argentina with Greenpeace almost 12 years ago, largely because the mail didn’t work. And giving from mobile devices is huge in Kenya and Qatar because landlines are unreliable and mobile phones work just fine.

Even those of us without global ambitions cannot afford to ignore this trend. If anything, we are behind. The relative geographic isolation of the United States and our historically strong independent sector have made it easy for us to look inward rather than outward. Yet even if one has no plans to work outside of U.S. borders, the innovations and trends from other places can have significant potential for domestic clients.

How are you addressing this change in your own practice?  What are you reading?  Where do you have memberships? Are you learning new skills or languages? Are you hiring differently?  Offering new services?  Changing your business model?

I planned for this by incorporating an after-lunch energizer that used movement to get people’s brains going. Energizers are activities designed to awaken a sleeping audience or activate a jaded one. Energizers are typically done right after lunch and during mid-afternoon breaks, when energy tends to be low, but they can be done any time. The energizer can be connected to the content or just a movement exercise or stretch.

In India, I designed the first one to celebrate the local culture: It was called “Bollywood Moment.” I asked colleagues from India what was the most famous Bollywood moment was, and they mentioned the well-loved movie, “Chaiyya Chaiyya.” So as participants came back from lunch, I had them do Bollywood dance moves. And to make it more fun, I awarded prizes.

It totally changed the atmosphere of the room, and people were ready to learn.

I had different energizers planned for after lunch on each of the training days.  On the last day, we made use of the beautiful three-story double staircase by having participants do a couple of laps up and down the steps.

I try to incorporate movement in all of my trainings but not just after lunch or during break times. There are many creative ways to have people move around while learning in training. For example, after you divide participants into small groups to work on a project, you can have them create wall posters and then do a walking-around debrief. Or speed-geek, which is similar to speed dating, but in this case you spend five minutes talking to each person about the content of his or her poster.

You can integrate movement right from the start. One of my favorite ways to do that is the human spectrogram, in which participants line up according to whether they agree or disagree about a topic related to the training.

What are some creative ways you have infused movement into your training sessions?

Locals already know about donors in the community and will not need to be brought up to speed. Board members and staff who have already worked with them may trust and be comfortable with them.

Consultants who have been around a long time, however, even if they’re very good, may have detractors in the community. We’ve all heard the saying that “familiarity breeds contempt.”

Certain kinds of work–like feasibility studies, organizational assessments, board training, and strategic planning—sometimes benefit from the fresh perspective of an outside firm, unencumbered by preconceptions or community politics. An example: One well-known local consultant insisted that a particular donor had not, and would “never,” give a seven-figure gift. An outside professional, new to the donor and the organization, went ahead and got the gift. What passes for knowledge and insight at times is just assumption.

Whether they come from inside or outside the community, consultants can boost a board’s courage in a major fundraising effort, especially if the trustees are new to this type of effort or if they face a particularly daunting challenge. The involvement of a respected consultant can also give donors confidence of a positive outcome, especially in the early stages of a campaign when evidence of success is limited, and this can inspire gift commitments.

But consultants can’t work miracles. Nonprofit boards at times believe that consultants can open doors for them they cannot open themselves, and donors don’t relate to ‘hired guns’ as well as to their peers.

Ideally an organization’s mission and track record are strong enough to attract gifts, and at least some members of the board will have the ability to open the desired doors. If not, perhaps the board needs further development before undertaking a major fundraising effort or feasibility study.

Do you encounter these issues in your practice? How do you handle them? How important are your own connections considered in the philanthropic community?

It’s far too easy to hide behind jargon or consultant-speak or to expound on management theories that clients aren’t familiar with. We use jargon because it’s easy. It’s a shortcut. It’s much harder to explain something in a way you know people will understand—not just the words but also their implications—and to do it using as few words as possible. If that’s too much of a challenge, it might be a sign you don’t fully grasp the issue yourself.

Albert Einstein once said that if you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

Speaking plainly applies to every aspect of your communication, from a two-line e-mail to a strategic plan. I now create one-page business plans for nonprofits rather than the 20- to 30-page strategic plans I used to create. Forcing a nonprofit to think precisely and consistently and to articulate a strategy in one page is hard work. However, the clarity, transparency, and accountability it produces are exciting. It is amazing how much fuzzy thinking gets exposed and discarded.

Our responsibilities in communication are only getting harder. Our interactions across cultures are growing. The number of relationships we have with other nonprofits and businesses is increasing. The complexity of our missions is expanding.

Consultants as well as nonprofit executives must work together to give highest priority to assuring that we all speak plainly, accurately, and consistently and are fully understood.

What steps have you taken to make your communication clearer and more concise? Do you still have trouble explaining a complex idea in simple terms?

Logic and experience lead us to traditional responses in hard times: Grow revenue or cut expenses. But restricting our response to these strategies is flawed.

The first response to a tough economy is often to work harder on raising revenue. “Development Director” seems to top the wish list of every nonprofit that doesn’t already have one. A quick look at these job descriptions reveals a demand for people who have previously brought in large gifts, have managed aggressive campaigns, and are connected to major philanthropists. But more people pushing harder on limited or declining funding sources is like a financial cage match. It may be of interest to the spectators, but almost every participant comes out worse off.

The second response is to reduce expenses. Nonprofits everywhere have cut staff, services, or both during the past few years. Many are offering no salary increases in the coming year, and staffs are being asked to take on additional responsibilities. Reducing the scope of programs and working employees harder may be desirable financially but not programmatically.

This is not to say that effective fundraising and a sharp pencil are not useful. They are. But we would benefit from taking a step back to consider a third alternative.

Most nonprofits have expansive missions, always with more to do than their capability to achieve it. More than ever, charities need to take a hard look at the scope of their mission as well as within each program to make sure the work is targeted and the funds are spent effectively. That could mean:

▪    Coordinating services with other organizations instead of doing everything alone.

▪    Instilling of culture of discipline by using quantifiable performance metrics that are usable in real time. That can ensure that the charity is spending its resources in an efficient way on worthwhile programs.

Other changes can help, too. Innovation is important. Social-impact bonds and tighter corporate partnerships are other possible keys to survival—or even substantial expansion in program services. The big caveat is that these “investors” want to see your client coordinating services with others, if appropriate, and instilling a culture of discipline.

It is never too soon to start discussions with your clients about these ideas to help them meet the realities of their capabilities.

How are you helping your clients innovate instead of just tying harder at traditional approaches?

Let me share something a nonprofit executive told me about just such a situation. The client said that in her experience, consultants often seem to think they are somehow floating through the company without anyone really knowing what they are doing and with no obligations to other advisers. In reality, she is keenly aware of how consultants interact with each other. And the quality of this interaction and mutual support are key elements of her consultant evaluation.

If one consultant is being unprofessional toward another, the executive usually knows about it and will take action to correct it. And if she doesn’t know about it, she would want to because that kind of behavior hurts her organization. She expects all advisers to work together on their own initiative.

A consultant’s responsibility is to deliver the best value possible to clients. But if consultants are not working cooperatively, they are not delivering best value. Your client hired a group of advisers to solve a suite of specific problems or capture opportunities. Your service is better if you make it your job to understand the challenges and consulting tasks of other consultants, which (since your firm was not selected for that work) are probably in an area you don’t fully understand.

Take the initiative to introduce yourself to other consultants working for the same client. Or ask your client to make the introductions. Ask how you should work together and whether you should bring any concerns about other consultants’ work to your client’s attention. This is an consultant’s ethical obligation per the Institute of Management Consultants’ code of ethics. Your client will respect you for your professionalism, and the value of your services will increase.

Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? What did you do about it? Do you make a point to reach out to other consultants working for the same client? Respond in the comments section below.

Here’s how others answered that question. Consultants must:

1. Have self-confidence and be as adept at delivering bad news as good. There’s nothing worse than consultants who are not sure of themselves, especially when they’re being asked about sensitive issues.
2. Have a good understanding of the business and of themselves. A consultant has theoretical and practical knowledge. It’s important to know what solutions have worked in the past and to have ideas about how to improve them.
3. Have transferable skills. Cookie-cutter approaches are weak. A great consultant is able to apply learning across different situations to come up with innovative ideas. The result should be practical new strategies that are credible—and that work.
4. Have the ability to simplify and explain a problem. Not every customer cares about regression analysis. A consultant needs tools to explain ideas simply, whether through a diagram or a metaphor.
5. Have more than one solution to a problem. Stuff happens and things change. Successful consultants foresee multiple solutions. They are also ready to think on their feet when challenged and to improvise.
6. Be a good listener. Consultants never assume and don’t hesitate to ask questions until they understand their clients’ needs fully.
7. Be a team player. While personal goals are important, the customer’s goal must come first.
8. Be able to market. Self-employed consultants are often great at client work but miss out on marketing. You need to be good at both to stay in business.
9. Gain client trust. To uncover the real issues, you have to be able to develop a strong relationship with your clients. Passion for their cause helps, but for integrity, you also need to be a critical friend.
10. Remember who’s the star. It’s tempting to think you’re clever when you solve a seemingly intractable problem. But successful consultants need humility and must remember that the customer is always the star of the story.

What would you add to this list?

Sudeshna Mukherjee is a fundraising and grant-making consultant in Washington, DC.

Audience members welcomed the opportunity to share their experiences and to learn about what is going on elsewhere.

Have you had a chance to meet with your counterparts in other areas of the world?  Do you seek out chances to talk to other nonprofit consultants when you travel, to compare notes?  What have you discovered about consulting in other countries?

As professions mature, they have to change with the times, adapting to confront new needs and realities. But it’s a good idea every now and then to look back at our origins, remind ourselves of the spark that led to a whole new line of work, and look how far we’ve come.

Management and fundraising consultants originated around the same time and placein the late 1800s in Michigan.

Early management consultants came from engineering and science. The first known one was Frederick Taylor, who helped Henry Ford develop the assembly line in Detroit.

The first fundraising consultants came from public relations and journalism, helping create the campaign model of fundraising at the YMCA in Grand Rapids.

In the decades that followed, consultants from time to time tried to expand their area of expertise. But in a speech at a staff conference in 1977, Marts & Lundy fundraising consultant Melvin Brewer cautioned his audience not to stray too far from their origins:

“Through the years, we have effectively resisted the temptation to get into fields that were not really within our competency—business management of philanthropic agencies, student-recruitment programs, computer-programming counsel, mail advertising, etc. Early in the firm’s history, when it did attempt such kinds of business-getters, the results were less than satisfactory.”

Thirty-five years later, much has changed: Fundraising consultants have realized the difficulty of raising support for troubled organizations. Poor management or governance is often at the root of fundraising problems, and expanding services to help clients improve in other areas can mean success for clients and growth for the consulting firms.

How has your consulting work changed over the years?

• Greater specialization: Information technology, social marketing, globalization, donor-directed philanthropic advisers, and blurring of the lines between profit and nonprofit (e.g., cause-related marketing) are a few examples of consulting specialties that have emerged in the past 25 years or so.

• More breadth: Though consulting specialists abound, there is an equally strong demand for experienced consultants who can advise clients strategically–meaning the problem a client walks in the door with is seldom the real problem. Increasingly in our practice at the Oram Group, an engagement is a troika of fund development (not just fundraising but funding alternatives as well), governance, and strategic planning.

Consulting for nonprofit groups these days is big business: The private nonprofit sector is a substantial economic driver in the U.S., employing over 10 percent of the work force. And entry into the field is easy: As Penelope Cagney’s blog “The Need for Good Advice” pointed out, anyone can apply the consultant label and the cost of professional entry, and ongoing costs can be kept low. Technology and portability have really enabled our work. First the laptop and now, for many, the iPad and smartphones have inalterably changed us and our work. (I look at my fax machine and think “how primitive.”)

There are still large consulting firms with staffs of “resident” campaign managers and costly fixed overhead. But client visits to their offices are not that common, so they are cutting down on headquarters space, and their senior staffs work from their homes or hotel rooms.

When the Oram Group had 40 employees and offices in three cities, it was fairly rare that clients came to us. We went to them, and that’s still pretty much the rule. Having given up a midtown office three years ago, I now work from my SoHo loft. Clients who meet with me at my home enjoy the side benefits of shopping and good restaurants. It’s cheaper for me and works perfectly.

Working alone takes discipline, but the rewards of consulting make it well worthwhile.

Henry Goldstein is a principal of the Oram Group. For a free download of “So You Want to Be a Consultant,” e-mail him at hankus@oramgroup.com.