Coneflower Consulting, a new Independent Sector business associate member, is a woman-owned business that helps creative nonprofits, institutes of higher education, and small businesses amplify their missions. Sarah Bishop, Coneflower Consulting CEO, explains how they empower mission-driven organizations with strategies for creative growth, building capacity for creative nonprofits.

Tell us about your mission and the need(s) it addresses.

Coneflower Consulting is a woman-owned consulting firm committed to empowering mission-driven organizations with creative strategies for sustainable growth. Our clients are nonprofit organizations, universities, government agencies, and for-profit entities that value purpose over profit. We provide a wide array of services — including fundraising and grant writing, board development and strategic planning, executive search and fractional leadership, as well as marketing, web design, and graphic design — so that our clients can amplify their mission across audiences and platforms and ensure that they are motivating their stakeholders to act.

How does your work address those concerns?

Founded in 2020, we are proud that 1 out of every 4 of our clients are already repeat customers. We believe our clients’ loyalty is a result of our ability to understand and communicate the “big picture” of their work. We use our expertise in storytelling with words, images, and numbers to help our clients share their missions in ways that transform minds, motivate organizational stakeholders, shift local policy, and open pocketbooks.

Whether we’re writing a federal grant proposal, leading a capital campaign feasibility study, or developing C-suite job postings, we keep our clients’ missions at the forefront of our minds as both inspiration and end-goal.

What motivated you to work in the nonprofit sector, and what inspires you most as head of your organization?

I have a background in the humanities, and for almost a decade, my dream was to be an English professor. Due to the 2008 recession, this dream did not come true, which surprisingly, has turned out to be one of the greatest gifts of my life. Though I initially thought of it as Plan B, I am endlessly humbled and delighted to have my current job — leading a team of incredibly talented staff to build capacity for creative nonprofits who change the world for the better.

Read the full article about building capacity for creative nonprofits by Debra Rainey at Independent Sector.