We help big-hearted organizations build greater capacity for impact.
We want to help you thrive, not just survive.
Blue Tree exists to equip non-profit organizations, just like yours, for action. Our goal is simple: we want you to grow and multiply your impact with confidence instead of overwhelming your leaders and staff. From grassroots to growing; from local to global; from paper to digital; whatever your transformation looks like, we’re here to help.
We come alongside your organization and provide structure instead of chaos, simplicity instead of complexity, and clarity instead of confusion. We start by joining in with you as an extension of your team, thinking together about the big-picture and the minute details, simplifying the path forward. With our assessment package, we provide additional clarity with a roadmap that contains specific, prioritized next steps that can be taken on your own or with us serving as trusted advisors, advocates, coaches, technologists, data geeks, trainers, or implementers.
How We Work
Blue Tree runs on relationships and making technical information accessible to all and actionable by all, no matter how technical or non-technical our clients are. We promise to provide you with the support and confidence you need to be able to build capacity for greater impact.
We believe in our clients. We believe in what you are doing. We believe in coming alongside and finding ways that you can do more with less.
For the dreamers and visionaries out there, we take your dreams and figure out how to make them happen strategically and tactically. For the doers who are deep in the daily grind, we take what you’re doing and start to dream with you and figure out where to strategically head next.
Our Process
We engage with non-profits in a three stage process: Ask, Assess, and Act. The first two stages are fixed cost packages and the third stage is generally setup as a recurring retainer to give your organization a predictable monthly cost spread out over time.
Stage 1 starts by listening and connecting with our clients during our one-off “Ask Us Anything” sessions where you literally can ask us anything. We’ve worked with enough non-profits and small businesses to know that we can cover a lot of ground in one call. For many of you, that’s all you need.
For other organizations, especially those looking to grow and scale, Stage 2 works through our assessment process where we hold 3-4 deep dive sessions with the appropriate people on your team and provide recommendations across key areas of your organization. The assessment report recommendations can easily be used as part of a grant application or a request for proposals from potential vendors.
We require all our clients to complete our assessment process before we will consider Stage 3 work where the goal is to take action on the assessment recommendations. This usually entails larger projects or providing longer-term services for an organization.
Ask and find clarity.
By offering one-off “Ask Me Anything” sessions, we are able to offer high-value 1:1 or 2:1 coaching, advising, and support without the hassle and expense of an ongoing contract. We’ll listen, answer any questions you bring, offer feedback, ask you questions, and ultimately work with you to bring clarity to your next right steps. This can be a one-time meeting, or serve as the beginning of the assessment process.
Some have used one-off sessions to review project proposals from vendors, to be a technical advocate/translator for you in meetings, to strategize around a new idea, or to pick our brains about data and technology or the overlap between running a non-profit and entrepreneurship.
What to Expect: This is a recorded Zoom call that lasts about an hour followed by two weeks of email-based support after the call and 6 months of complimentary access to our client portal. Our client portal is where you’ll be able to download the recording of our call, access any other materials we provide, and where you’ll have the opportunity to book additional sessions with us (at a reduced rate), start an assessment, access client-only content, or join one of our non-profit network cohorts that gathers twice a month to share advice, collaborate, and answer questions.
All it takes to get started is reserving a spot on our calendar. Anyone from your organization can attend, although we recommend keeping it to under 6 people.
Cost: $250, which will be credited towards an assessment within 6 months.
Assess with an eye for simplicity.
The capacity building process starts with assessing where you are now relative to where you want to be. We dive into eight different areas in your organization, combining our love of data with our love for great leadership and organizational efficiency.
The eight areas include: Operations Data, Outcomes Data, Analytics, Decisions, Process, Culture, Strategy, and Collaboration. During the assessment interviews, the responses are compared to a rubric that defines 5 levels or stages of growth in each area. The ultimate goal for each area should be “right-sized” for the organization; not all organizations need to invest the effort and expense to reach the highest levels of growth that are possible.
Most times the majority of the benefit can be achieved with a modest amount of effort. Past that is a decreasing return on investment unless there is a specific need to go further. From these results, we produce a roadmap for your organization with prioritized steps that are right-sized specifically for you.
Time Investment: We typically need about 10-12 hours of face time with different groups of your team. This varies between specific clients. Once meetings begin, we like to finish all the meetings within 2 weeks and once meetings are completed, it takes about a week to turn the report around and an hour to review with you/your team.
Cost: $5k for small organizations (typically <$1M operating budget and <10 staff). Larger organizations typically run $10k – $20k, but can be limited to a particular department and treated as a small organization.
Stabilize Vision and Order.
After defining desired outcomes and courageous discovery of organizational insights, we will work together to ensure your missions’ success has a clear vision and order to reach the momentum needed to achieve lucidity. This process will make your goals achievable and your strategy organized, consistent, automated, and predictable, giving you peace-of-mind that your desired outcomes are attainable.
Defining the Roadmap for Greater Impact.
The cycle from vision to order allows for an incipient situation that defines the roadmap for greater missional impact. Taking your organization from where it currently is to scalable is presented in the roadmap, with detailed plans in place. We promise to work with you to help implement your strategy, by connecting you with the right resources, so that the process can be done quickly and effectively, allowing you to get back to fighting the good fight.
We help you build your organization’s capacity.
We want to schedule a time to hear all about the roadblocks your organization is currently facing on its path to advancement. Through this free conversation we will assess your needs and let you know IF and HOW we can equip your organization for a greater impact.
