Helping Nonprofit Leaders, Board and Staff Align to Make High-Stakes Decisions when the Cost of Indecision is Too High

Helping Leaders Decide

You're running an organization in an impossible funding environment, serving people that systems were designed to fail — and somehow you're also supposed to have a five-year plan. What we keep hearing from leaders is how hard it is to hold the whole picture: the gap between your mission and your margin, the exhaustion of heroic management culture, and the gnawing sense that you're addressing symptoms when the systems causing them were built to stay intact.

 

This firm was built around one conviction: that strategic clarity is the most powerful resource a nonprofit can have.  When leaders work with us, they move out of the reactive and into the intentional. They go into board meetings and staff retreats with clear priorities and the analytical grounding to defend them. They stop managing the noise long enough to make real decisions about their future, and they build the alignment to act on those decisions together.

 

We work with CEOs, board leaders, and senior staff of nonprofit organizations — particularly those navigating growth, transition, or the moment when a safety-net identity starts to feel too small for what the organization is actually capable of.

 

nonprofit business strategy
Our VALUE

We bring the analytical discipline to surface what the data and context actually say, and the facilitation training to hold space for the hard conversations that turn insight into commitment. We're not interested in strategy that's politically timid, organizationally conservative, or designed to make funders comfortable. We're interested in naming what you stand for and helping you build an organization that has the clarity, alignment, and capacity to act on it.

What sets PENN Creative Strategy apart is: our 30 years working inside nonprofits and foundations—not adjacent to them; deep facilitation training to surface and address dissent, not smooth it over; our proven, field-tested practices and; strategy built with staff, boards, and communities—not delivered to them

CAPACITY BUILDING Services
Nonprofit strategy

Strategy & Planning

 When teams need to slow down, see clearly, and decide together.

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nonprofit organization development

Capacity Building

When systems need to evolve so people can do their work sustainably.

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diversity consulting

Coaching

When leaders need space to think, reflect, and navigate complexity without performance.

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Facilitation

When conversations matter—and how they happen matters just as much.

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Strategic Plans
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Organizations Served
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Mission-Based

Why PENN Creative Strategy

  • PENN Creative Strategy is a NYC-based, certified woman-owned consulting firm exclusively serving nonprofits and foundations.
  • We have a diverse team of consultants with lived expertise and consulting expertise in a variety of areas.
  • We have 25+ years of consulting experience in the sector
  • We bring an anti-oppression, inclusion lens to all of our engagements - our work is rooted in these practices.
Client Testimonials
Yamilee Toussaint Beach
Executive Director, STEM From Dance

"We created our first three-year strategic plan with Penn Creative and two years later, it is not just a plan but a guide and tool that we actively use..."

Pamela Tatge
Director, Jacob's Pillow

“Molly designed a thoughtful, Pillow-specific session that was engaging and participatory (she even challenged us to move during the breaks!) ... she really grasped the atmosphere of the Pillow during our summer festival and used that understanding to design a session that was relevant to our needs.”

Stanfort J. Perry
CEO, AHRC Nassau

“We engaged Penn Creative Strategy to assist us with our strategic planning process for 2020-2023.  They were very easy to work with.  They listened closely to our needs, responded promptly to our questions and concerns and produced an excellent SWOT analysis report..."

Arthur Pearson
Executive Director, Roger Tory Peterson Institute

“PENN Creative Strategy is among the very best. Whip smart, flexible, adaptive and empathetic. PCS excels at turning obstacles into creative opportunities. Beyond the strategic plan itself, we are stronger as an organization for having worked with them.”

Herb Oringel
Northern Westchester Energy Action Consortium

“We have recently enjoyed the pleasure of working with PENN on the difficult task of creating a Strategic Plan for a consortium of 14 Municipalities in Northern Westchester. They provided abundant skill and experience..."

We help you create change for the better.

We Meet You Where You Are
From The Blog

Analysis and Facilitation Are Inseparable

There’s a moment in almost every leadership retreat that we’ve come to recognize. The data is on the table. The options have been laid out. And then the room goes quiet in a particular way – not the quiet of people thinking, but the quiet of people waiting to see who will speak first, and […]

PENN Creative Strategy
New York based, serving nationally
Phone: (917) 819-6377

Penn Creative Strategy LLC BBB Business Review
Penn Creative Strategy LLC BBB Business Review

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