Drawing on a team of experts with experience in research, fundraising, strategic planning, partnership development, management, marketing and technology. While Commons is in semi-hibernation mode, the team still takes on occasional consulting gigs in the following areas:

Partnership development: Successful partnerships require clear goals, strong relationships and solid resources. Our hands on, practical partnership development process helps with: community needs assessments; strategic planning and governance; trust building; fundraising and project start-up.

Business planning: Civil society capacity builders are under increasing pressure to become self sustaining. We work hand in hand with organizational leaders to develop realistic business plans that balance community values with the need to generate revenue. We also offer training and mentoring to groups that are working through business planning on their own.

Facilitation: Building trust and transparency doesn't happen on its own. We design and facilitate meetings that build bridges, solve problems, avert conflicts, and move things forward to create a strong foundation for ongoing collaboration.

Collaboration design and troubleshooting: Facilitating and supporting partnerships amongst a community of grantees is delicate work. Working with grantmakers, we use facilitation and dialogue to help organizations identify opportunities for collaboration and to get struggling partnerships back on track.

Stakeholder consultation: Effective projects and services are always grounded in a clear understanding of community needs. We develop and implement consultation strategies using facilitated meetings, interviews, surveys and the review of existing research.

Information ecosystem design: Free-flowing information is the currency of successful networks. We design and implement collective knowledge management and web publishing systems that create powerful information ecosystems within a network.

Strategic technology planning: Used strategically, the Internet can provide a platform for whole new approaches to collaboration, research and constituency building. We help organizations connect up their vision with the right technology solution by developing strategic technology plans, detailing software requirements and helping to find the right technology providers.

Practical research: Funding needs to be informed by solid information. We undertake research projects that provide insight into the needs, practices and trends, especially in relation to the use of networked technologies by non-profits.

Management support: While leadership of any group should come from its members, that doesn't mean that they need to do all the work. We provide neutral management support services, helping network leaders to raise funds, implement strategic plans and facilitate network activities.

Project development and fundraising: Marshalling people and resources requires a clear and articulate plan. We have a proven track record developing visionary project plans and successful grant applications for civil society projects.

Technology grantmaking support: The Internet has become an essential tool for civil society work, especially at the global level. We have a strong track record working with grantmakers on technology funding program design and technology project proposal reviews.

Case studies and storytelling: Unique, world changing approaches only travel if their story is told. We have a passion for writing case studies and other materials that illustrate the work of organizations in a useful and replicable way, especially where organizations are using technology or networks to change the world.