Testimonials

Mark was a top-notch strategist, networker, and advisor as Global Citizen Year launched our new partnership with Chicago Public Schools and began building a local community of donors and champions. He is an extremely quick study; within weeks, we all felt like he had been part of the team for years! Mark is also incredibly skilled at cultivating relationships and partnerships, thanks to an extremely rare combination of personality, patience and persistence. Mark is able to gracefully juggle multiple tasks and shares his expertise with humility and a sense of humor. Best of all, he is 100% motivated by mission (not ego) and will always keep student success as his bottom line.

In regards to your Continuum Exercise, I was impressed with how effectively you moved everyone along. You are an absolute master of your craft.  In 3 hours, you achieved what would have taken us days to accomplish. I especially enjoyed the open, non-judgmental atmosphere where you helped identify the language most appropriate for the needs of different donors.  You had the depth of experience to guide the group through a deliberate process, compiling, organizing and rephrasing while taking every suggestion seriously until the goal was reached. I enjoyed every minute. It was an exceptionally valuable experience. Thank you again.

Our organization decided that it made sense to merge with another similar organization but we weren’t sure where to start. Hiring Mark was the best decision we could’ve made! Mark helped us think through all of the questions we didn’t even know we needed to answer. He is thoughtful, strategic, and kept us on task and organized. I don’t know if the merger could’ve happened without him and it certainly would not have been as easy or seamless. Mark’s contributions were innumerable and we can’t recommend him enough.

Mark facilitated the pandemic-delayed annual leadership retreat of our board and senior staff. Supposed to happen in April, delayed six months to October. Mark worked with us throughout the delay, when the whole world was on fire, continuing to be a true thought partner during a tough time. Then he facilitated a great retreat that didn’t look at all like what we had planned to do in April. He made it all work, like it was the most natural thing in the world to throw out one plan and create a whole new one because, well, COVID!

Mark is a joy to work with, because he is thoughtful and thought provoking. He has been a key leader in nonprofits and had to think through the same sorts of strategic choices I, as Executive Director, am thinking through. He gets it. And when he commits to doing something, he is all-in! He led the way to redesign our whole retreat due to COVID’s many disruptions to our business, then partnered with me to get our entire senior staff and board ready and excited to be coming together to think about the future again. I don’t know that anyone ever facilitated a three hour Zoom retreat pre-COVID, but he just went with it and our entire board stayed with him the entire three hours. Not one person dropped off mid-retreat. Breakout rooms and 20-person sharing – it all went great!