About

What we believe

Our clients’ success is our mission
Like you, we have discovered the incredible personal rewards of working in the non-profit sector. We admire and respect the work organizations like yours do, often thanklessly, on behalf of bettering our world. We, too, want to do our part to help better the world and the way we can do that is to use our skills and experiences to help you. We are dedicated to your success and will do what it takes to give you the deliverables you need to succeed.

Evidence-based analysis and intuition make a powerful partnership
We believe in starting with facts about internal and external situations. Facts alleviate a lot of guessing and disagreements. But there is also a point at which more facts will not make a substantial change in what needs to be done—and it's better to try something than to keep trying to analyze it. That’s when well-founded intuition based on experience and expertise come into play. It takes both facts and intuition to move forward.

It’s just as important what not to do as what to do
Our greatest satisfaction comes from helping organizations find out what not to do. Often we’re hired because no one thinks they have time to develop a plan, even a tactical one year marketing plan. Yet we know that time invested in planning at any level results in clear day to day marching orders ultimately saving time—and frustration. We take great pride in trying to help organizations restore sanity by discovering what’s worth doing and what’s just getting in the way.

Flexibility is critical
Perhaps the most important discovery for MSG when we started working with nonprofits is that sometimes a plan is better than the “perfect” plan. We’ve built plans using year-long processes of consensus building, group meetings and flip charts and we’ve built plans by a fairly rapid assessment of the issues, then going away and returning with a “strawman” for the CEO to review and take forward. The best plan for any organization is the plan that works for that organization’s current needs and timeframes.

Confidentiality, honesty and trust are paramount to a successful engagement
We believe that our deliverables (what you pay us for) include not only tangible documents and services, but our attitude and relationship with you. We keep sensitive information confidential, we tell you what we truly believe even when its difficult and we keep our commitments. We work for you, not against you.

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