Trusted by food banks, philanthropy, and mission-driven organizations
How we help teams find a path forward
Planning & Strategy
Get an actionable strategic plan and implementation roadmap that result in clear, bold commitments your staff, board, and community can rally around.
Research & Evaluation
SWIM's data experts design custom assessments and do equity-centered research to help you understand your environment and bring community-led insights to your next steps.
Implementing Change
Our team of consultants and Certified Nonprofit Professionals make sure your vision becomes reality through operational planning, practical workshops, board training, community cohorts, or AI consulting.
See how Iowa Valley Community College District used SWIM’s Shared Accountability model to achieve their ambitious strategic goals.
"[Team members] are focused on our goals and excited to talk about them… They trust that I'm here to support them with these initiatives."
Get our two cents on your next steps
1. Schedule a free consultation
Don’t worry, there are no hidden costs. Our first conversation is always free.
2. Walk through a quick assessment
During our conversation, we will guide you through an assessment to analyze your needs.
3. Recommend a plan for the future
To continue our thought partnership into the future, we will provide guidance for next steps toward your mission.
Hear from the leaders we support
“We had an outstanding meaningful experience that moved our organization forward! The whole strategic planning process from top to bottom was amazing!”
— College President
“The team at SWIM is easy to work with. They are forward thinkers, always looking for the best solution to your ‘problem’. They are flexible and honest and great partners to work with.”
— VP, Network Leader
“It was a wonderful experience and our team welcomes the opportunity to work again with SWIM.”
— Paul Daugherty, Exponent Philanthropy
“The team was incredibly kindhearted and did an excellent job at bringing people together and validating a breadth of experiences and expertise from partners and participants.”
— Collaborator
“We all wear a lot of hats in Food Banking. To design, implement and engage agencies around neighbor centered practice work can be challenging, especially when it comes to having the time to create materials, agendas and analyze data. SWIM’s support in making sure I had all the tools I needed to simply ‘press play’ and begin agency engagement was paramount.”
— Amanda Krutsch, Northern Illinois Food Bank
“SWIM/Stacy’s ability to hold space for complex dynamics around the board table has been critically important and allows staff to gain clarity on adaptive challenges.”
— Heidi Dalal, Martha-Ellen Tye Foundation
"SWIM is an outstanding resource for Community Foundations. Their deep understanding of Community Foundations, combined with expert facilitation, ensures meaningful discussions that lead to real action. I highly recommend them for anyone looking for a skilled and thoughtful partner.”
— Sue Hafkemeyer, Quad Cities Community Foundation
“We have worked with SWIM on a number of programs and projects over the last decade. We can always count on them to bring fresh ideas, helpful frameworks and positive energy to the work. They are true thought partners in shaping our strategic direction and helping accelerate our efforts.”
— Kari McCann Boutell, Iowa Council of Foundations
Insights from the SWIM team
When we work with food banks across the U.S., we center on these 6 core values as the foundation of our consulting work.
These sample strategic plans for nonprofit organizations will give you the tools and confidence to get started. We’ll cover what your strategic plan should include and examples of real strategic plans we’ve made with our clients.
The idea of using your influence can feel deeply uncomfortable for community organization leaders. Our take on influential leadership isn’t coercive – it’s inclusive.
Two of our consultants have a frank conversation about the current state of nonprofit-funder partnerships and how they hope to see big leaps in meaningful collaboration from both sides.
Here is a peek behind the curtain of what our internal AI policy looks like, along with some hesitations our team has had along the way.
Many grants management systems are discouraging people from applying. By the end of this article, you’ll have 7 tangible ways to fix that.
How you start a project is just as important as how you finish it. Here’s how See What I Mean philanthropy consultant Kerry McHugh “starts” in 4 areas with her clients: conversations, onboarding, check-ins, and building trust.
We asked our team of nonprofit consultants for their best end-of-year (fiscal year!) team questions. Here are the 6 they keep coming back to.
Data never tells the whole story. People do. Jenna Hoover, CNP, shares four ways to keep your data practices grounded in relationships, not extraction.
There’s a “new” type of segmentation that addresses the issues of the old tiering system while helping you sort your agencies into helpful groups that get targeted types of support. At SWIM, we think it's a meaningful shift, and food banks are putting it into practice. Here’s what it looks like.
When Harvesters partnered with SWIM to do a Service Area Assessment and Network Assessment across their 27-county region in Missouri and Kansas, Jury Paulson and his team got to step back and see that wider picture. What they found changed how Harvesters works.
We’ll help you find out your social change style with this quiz so you can focus your giving, your volunteering, and your efforts to create positive change in your community.