Useful Knowledge: The Care and Feeding of Consultants

An excellent article from the Philanthropy News Digest, looking at lessons-learned when it comes to hiring consultants.

Richard Moyers of the Meyer Foundation has gone through nearly two hundred evaluations of management-assistance grants. According to Moyers, these evaluations provide "insight into the most common problems that arise between consultants and their nonprofit clients — and what both parties can do to avoid them."

The surveys highlighted three main criticisms of consultants: 1) the consultant didn't understand the organization, 2) the consultant was too busy, or 3) the consultant was too directive, or not directive enough.

To avoid these pitfalls, Moyers has the following advice for NGOs looking to hire consultants:

"[N]onprofits need to spend more time up front to make sure the consultant they're thinking of hiring is the best fit for the job. Many harried nonprofit executives are reluctant to take the time to interview multiple consultants and talk to client references for each one. Key questions to ask include:

* Have you worked with an organization like ours before?
* Have you done a project like this before?
* How many other clients and projects will you be handling while you're working with us?
* How much board and staff time will it take to support your work?
* Do you view yourself as a neutral facilitator, a guide, or a participant in the project?"

Similarly, Moyers also has a few words of wisdom for consultants themselves - common sense, but common sense often ignored:

"The consultant who specializes in strategic planning, board development, proposal writing, program evaluation, and communications planning for all types of nonprofits seems unlikely to be equally effective at everything. Yet a surprising number of consultants, especially those just starting out, list an impressively broad range of skills and services in their marketing materials. Consultants should carefully consider whether a potential project lies within their core area of expertise and is a good match for their skills — and whether they have time to tackle the project."

Hat-tip to the European Interagency Security Forum, which forwarded this article along to its email list.

[Photo from www.yourfunnystuff.com]