Our year is off to quite a productive start with several of our strategic projects underway. This quarter, clients are working with us in the assessment phase of their engagements. This means that we are focusing on either strategic plans, market analysis, CDFI readiness assessments, or program evaluations. We start each of these projects by working with […]
Many times when we meet with potential clients, we hear them describe their “mission people” vs. their “operations people”. I was reminded of this at a lunch meeting this week with a client, who as a mission person described how those in charge of operations did not understand what CDFI designation meant to the organization. This […]
At this time of year, many of us resolve to make changes to improve our quality of life. Many resolve to lose weight, others to be more charitable. Some vow to improve their finances. These same principles can be applied to organizations. Perhaps your organization can develop strategies to cut the fat and operate more efficiently, avoid […]
As a new year is upon us, there are also exciting new things happening at FUND Consulting. First of all, FUND Consulting has a new location at 1165 N. Clark St, Suite 300, Chicago IL 60610. This improved space gives the FUND team increased functional capacity and closer proximity to our Chicago based clients and […]
On October 28, 2013 The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) released its fiscal year (FY) 2014 Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) for the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program). The Administration’s FY 2014 Budget for the CDFI Fund requests […]
The FUND team had the opportunity to take an active role at the 2013 Opportunity Finance Network Conference, serving as a Bronze Level sponsor as well as presenting three sessions during the event. The OFN Conference is the premier CDFI industry event, attracting 1,000+ attendees to drive growth and expand the impact of the work […]
As we have discussed throughout our blog series on market studies, the ultimate goal of this type of project is to collect data that creates a set of actionable steps an organization can take to better identify and respond to the need and demand in their current and/or potential service area. Once all of the […]
In this week’s post, we will take a look at one of the most complex phases of the entire market study: data analysis. Because of this complexity and the skill required to successfully conduct data analysis, FUND Consulting recommends using a third party organization with extensive experience in market analysis. As discussed last week, the […]
The data collection and data analysis phases of the market study mark the point at which the project begins to uncover the information that will be used to guide an organization’s strategic decision making. In this week’s post we will discuss the first of these two key phases: data collection. In these phases of the […]
As we laid out in our last post, FUND Consulting utilizes a four-phased approach for market study projects. The focus of the initial phase of the project is to gain a thorough understanding of the organization’s research and data needs as well as to develop the appropriate key research questions and research tools. Organizational Assessment […]