Our Approach

We provide comprehensive services for  the development of collaborative leadership ranging from intensive multi-phase coaching platforms to ongoing consultation relationships. We believe that leadership should be accessible and evolving. While the leaders we work with live and practice in politically, socially, environmentally and economically diverse contexts, our leadership platforms are  extremely nimble and relevant locally, regionally and globally. In order to strengthen their roles as practitioners and as collaborators in civic engagement, it is important to provide leaders with skills based in integrity. Collaborative Leadership is relevant in every socio-cultural context.  

We build individual and organizational capacity for equity and inclusion. We specialize in building inclusive systems and practices that recognize, celebrate and reinforce racial, gender, sexual orientation and economic equity. We have worked in systems ranging from healthcare, corrections,  juvenile justice, education, community arts, refugee resettlement and philanthropy to grassroots community initiatives. In addition to our ongoing comprehensive equity work, we are currently launching an intensive community dialogue series on racial equity and inclusion. If you are interested in participating or have further questions, please contact us.

Donors across the United States are rethinking their giving strategies. As long-standing issues of racial inequity and systemic discrimination gain renewed attention, there has been a increase in the commitment of donors to address these challenges. Many donors are beginning to dedicate significant portions of their giving to projects and initiatives that address inequity. We engage philanthropic foundations and donors in work that is comprehensive and at the cutting edge of innovation. Our work leads to an understanding of the root causes of inequities in our society, deconstructing what it means to be giving for social equity. There needs to be an intimate awareness of one's philanthropic impact. Philanthropy and impact analysis are intimately linked.

Through our dialogue facilitation services, we develop a highly structured framework within which participants may engage in the constructive exchange of ideas, thoughts and emotions. Subject of the dialogue might be specific or involve  divisive or seemingly divisive cross-cultural issues. We recognize the influence of socio-political climate and geo-social circumstance on dialogue and cross-cultural interactions. Our professionally facilitated dialogue sessions result in both personal advancement and stakeholder development; such sessions provide participants with the necessary language to address hard-to-discuss topics and the tools to engage in  culturally appropriate conversations, partnerships, projects or ventures.

Cultural competency is essential for effective leadership, management, engagement and partnerships. We consistently strive to bring cultural competency to our work, though we realize that the learning curve could be steep for our partners. Our informed cultural-competency platform offers the needed educational opportunity to introspect, understand, explore and embark on a journey of lifelong learning and transformation. This is  important especially as urban areas globally are becoming increasingly diverse.  The bottom-line: it is essential to be able to express  personal challenges within cross-cultural contexts and to engage in constructive dialogue with appropriate tools. This is often difficult without informed orientation and tactical skills. We can help.

Our Effective Equity Analysis (EEA) of practices, policies, frameworks and structures within organizations and systems is entirely data-driven. The results of our comprehensive process  influence organizational values, actions, changes and desired outcomes. Our analysis helps our partners to evaluate their micro and macro systems, to accurately identify systemic gaps, to remove inequities, and to reduce threats by actively rebuilding structures. Our comprehensive analysis also helps to anticipate potential problems in a proactive and thoughtful manner. Our EEA will help identify recovery and reparation approaches as well as prevention and reintegration strategies to mitigate the adverse impacts of systemic inequities. Our EEA services are  relevant in t as the public, private, not-for-profit sectors and  philanthropic spheres.

Now, more than ever before,  donors are becoming intimately engaged in the outcomes of their support and they are increasingly interested in understanding the systems within which their support is leveraged. Their commitment  to understanding the barriers to social development directly from stakeholders informs their giving decisions. We help foundations and philanthropists to develop a collaborative approach to their giving practices. We develop structures within which foundations, donors, fund managers and program officers work collaboratively with stakeholder groups to understand the issues and barriers. Meaningful collaboration between donors and stakeholders  ensures comprehensive and  sustainable social change. When beneficiaries exercise the social power to engage in the processes that address systemic barriers, they inform the philanthropic system in a powerful manner. We believe this is the ideal pathway to engaged philanthropy. 

Education and Training together form another pillar of our organization. We bring a culture of lifelong learning to both our internal practice at The Global Institute and our partnerships.  We develop relevant resource materials and effective curricula, create educational opportunities,  and introduce equitable benchmarking. We have successfully created learning initiatives for clients and partners such as the State of Maine (Department of Corrections, Department of Public Safety, Department of Health & Human Services) and the City of Portland (Public Health Division). Our education and training programs engage content experts from a wide range of fields in the development and delivery of specialized curricula.  Since the COVID-19 global pandemic, we have been nimble in leveraging online technologies to offer thoroughly interactive and meaningful educational experiences for our learner communities in Denmark, India and the US. 

We take stakeholder engagement and empowerment very seriously. In our experience, the stakeholder communities that are most impacted by social and societal barriers are those with the least social power to change prohibitive structures. We strive to bring underrepresented voices and unique perspectives to our work through  inclusive values, guidelines and approaches. Our benchmarking requires we ensure that ALL stakeholders are engaged in the processes we develop, facilitate and coordinate. We go to great lengths to involve all relevant voices in decision-making processes resulting in  true ownership. Over the years, we have worked closely with groups and communities that have been marginalized or have suffered discrimination. We had ensured their full participation through respectful engagement and  safe, accessible platforms. We "get" unusual, marginalized, introverted and silenced voices. And, we get what it means to engage them.

Sustainable organizational strategies are key to the success of any organization. We offer mission-driven organizational development support to our partners. We lead organizations and boards of directors  through comprehensive strategic planning processes and help new start-ups and NGOs to develop thoughtful organizational structures and systems. We support government efforts to launch service programs that are accessible. In particular, we take pride in systems change work  with partners who  are committed to Social Change, Restorative Justice, Lifelong Learning, Cross-Cultural Partnerships and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).  

We offer volunteer and internships opportunities through our global partnerships. We have done so either by announcing opportunities as they arise or by developing opportunities responsive to specific needs of lifelong learners or educational institutions. We connect our interns with mentors around the world and work closely with them through their internship. We also develop unique opportunities for young social entrepreneurs and emerging leaders to work with thought leaders and established professionals as mentors and coaches.  We ensure that strong education and civic engagement threads are woven into all of these opportunities.

We build global partnerships for social change. With operational hubs and partners in Denmark, Egypt, Germany, India and the US, we are strategically positioned to develop strong relationships globally. We have worked extensively with partners in Western Europe, South Asia and  North Africa. We have partnered with educational institutions, diplomatic organizations, international NGOs, world associations, to develop unique initiatives that address a wide spectrum of social issues ranging from civic leadership needs to youth engagement to global action for social justice to restorative justice.