If you caught our blog post last month, you read all about the problems we hear from our purpose-driven clients and community. Then you learned how we solve those problems by creating an impact strategy for our clients. But it doesn’t stop there. Too often, we’ve seen consultants put a lot of effort and research into creating a plan or strategy for a client, then deliver the recommendations, walk away, and hope for the best (we are guilty of this too!). All too often, the client’s priorities or circumstances shift soon after, and the well-thought out plan remains just that - a plan on paper that never sees the light of day.The Impact Collective takes a different approach - because we care most about impact. And if we don’t help our clients to succeed by walking alongside them to implement changes, then we aren’t acting in line with our values. We know purpose-driven companies are complex and unique, and so they require complex and unique solutions to their problems. We don’t put any organization in a box! All organizations, and especially purpose-driven organizations, are whole organizations led by whole humans - and we honor and value all of you.While we never offer the same solution for any client, we do use the same approach. And it’s all about balancing complexities. We do this in four ways:- Social Impact Consulting & Leadership Coaching
- Strategy & Execution
- Heart & Head
- Numbers & Humans
Social Impact Consulting & Leadership Coaching: Every organization needs a well-thought out, strategic plan to reach its goals. And purpose-driven organizations need the same thing, but their goals must have long-term impact at the forefront. With Sarah and Rebecca’s MBAs in Social Innovation & Social Entrepreneurship, we are well adept at creating those strategies. And a good strategy is only useful when the leaders implementing it are well equipped to do so. We have realized that often what gets in the way of real change has to do with something deeper, something within the leaders of organizations and the way they are showing up to lead. Often, in order to implement change in your organization, you have to implement change in yourself as a leader, to meet the needs of your organization or team at that moment. That’s why Rebecca became a coach - so she could coach the leaders who are implementing change in order to make the most impact possible. We offer both consulting AND coaching because that approach is also in line with our values at The Impact Collective - to honor whole humans within whole organizations, so we can support them in making the long-term impact the world needs.Strategy & Execution: We don’t believe in handing you a solution out of a box and we also don’t believe in handing you a plan and walking away. Our unique expertise and experience as both strategists and coaches enables us to give you a plan for the short-term while walking alongside you to adjust accordingly for long-term success. Your strategy and plan is only as good as the information you have in that moment and in our world full of various crises, how can we give you a plan for the future and then walk away in good faith? We know things change, priorities shift, and assumptions are often wrong, so we remain alongside you as you implement the plan, while helping you adjust accordingly.Head & Heart: Corporate America is pretty comfortable reducing us humans to what’s in our heads. If you’re in a corporate job, most of your life you’ve likely been valued for your brain and cognitive abilities, in both school and work. And a special shout out to Zoom for reinforcing the narrative that we are just a bunch of heads! After COVID, we know that’s no longer working (and did it ever really work?). We can’t ignore our human-ness any longer. That’s why we started The Impact Collective at the beginning of COVID - we knew our normal way of doing business wasn’t working. So we’re doing it differently. We use our heads to come up with great business plans, and we rely on our hearts to make it happen, to connect with each other and to what matters, and to make the impact we want to have. And we help our clients do that too.Numbers & Humans: The Impact Collective is all about humans - humans who are able to thrive, feel fulfilled, and feel seen and loved. And we’re also MBAs. Rebecca is a former CPA. We love numbers too! Those two things don’t have to be separate. We can measure what matters, build the business case for doing good for people and the planet, and get companies B Corp certified by getting them to the required 80 points. We know our values because it’s what we feel in our hearts and know to be true. And another definition of value? A number. We tie the numbers to what matters. We make it make sense. We want you to be profitable because more profit means more good. And we firmly believe that using business for good makes good business sense - we can prove it!Which part of our approach resonates most with you? We’d love to hear from you! Drop us a note at hello@theimpactcollectivepdx.com.May your hearts be well, Changemakers. 
