ABOUT
Why We Are Here
In this moment of global change, when people and companies are being shaken to their core, organizations have a unique opportunity to undergo deep transformation and growth. Making change of this magnitude requires organizations to be attentive managers of their data and people. They must be savvy sense-makers of their own data to become continuous improvers and to drive towards impact in a way that improves the human condition. At the same time, organizations must center the human experience, prioritize wellness of staff, create harmony within and across teams, unlock people’s creativity, and create more buy-in from a diverse set of stakeholders to drive work forward.
Monarch Strategy Consulting is designed for mission-driven organizations doing their part to make the world better and who are seeking to more effectively use their data to deepen their impact and the story they can tell about that impact. To staff, the Board, community members, funders. We help organizations move from data to insights, strategy, and action. Often this requires cultural shifts that require grace, emotional intelligence, and a delicate touch.
Our
Values
You'll Enjoy Working With Us. We
-
Lead with joy
-
Center wellness and self-care
-
Treat others with kindness
-
Move at the speed of health
-
Collaborate as the default
-
Listen first, and deeply
-
Speak our truth, lovingly
-
Celebrate people’s lived experience
-
Honor people’s intricate, delicate, intersecting, visible and invisible identities
-
Hold multiple perspectives, embrace nuance
The Meaning Behind Our Name
Monarch butterflies are known for the far distances they travel, often south for the winter, with their journey back north requiring multiple generations of butterflies. At Monarch Strategy Consulting, we believe that organizational and broader societal change takes time and requires the collaborative effort of people now and in the future. We want to do our part today to help mission-driven organizations better use data to measure, share, and deepen their impact on the world. We are a link in the generational chain of change makers that come before and after us, and we do this work to leave this world better than how we found it.
OUR TEAM
Founder and Principal
Cheryl’s ability to both connect deeply with people and navigate complex data terrain helps organizations make deep, lasting change. As a certified facilitator with expertise in designing gatherings for groups with diverse perspectives, she uses incisive, gentle probes to gain a deep understanding of an organization’s core. She operates as a curious listener who helps people feel seen and heard in ways that honor their humanity. As a data strategist with 15 years working with educational institutions, social action and policy advocacy organizations, foundations, and small businesses, Cheryl helps organizations identify steps needed to make better use of data to drive toward impact. She has the ability to dig into an organization's data systems and reporting mechanisms, process a high volume of data, connect disparate data in new ways, and find patterns in the data that spur client reflection and analysis. Knowing how to read people and data, Cheryl helps clients move toward their envisioned future.
Our Experts
In keeping with our monarch butterfly identity, we acknowledge that no person, no organization can go it alone. Here are some incredibly talented thinkers and change makers who can be part of our team to support your organization on your journey.
Ixchel Frierson is a Bronx, New York native with Belizean roots who is passionate about empowering and inspiring those she encounters. She loves to be in settings that cultivate and promote creativity, cultural awareness and education. Ixchel has years of experience in organizational development, program development and management, community engagement and event/marketing/brand strategies. She is a very versatile and innovative management professional skilled at seeing the "big picture" while still honing in on the details.
Jasmine Johnson, MPP, is a believer in equity, an avid life learner, and committed to growing in humility. With over five years of professional experience, she has helped non-profits, foundations, and local government agencies understand the impacts of their strategies and programs through measurement and evaluation design.
OUR SERVICE AREAS
Deepen Your Organization's Impact
Data Services
We help teams and organizations adeptly use data to deepen their impact. We can analyze and synthesize pre-existing data, and we can collect and analyze new data in the form of focus groups, interviews, surveys, etc. The end result are change makers who are empowered, savvy data consumers.
Strategy Services
We lead teams and organizations through a tailored, inclusive process to create a unified, strategic path forward that optimizes deepening impact. This includes support in navigating a leadership change or moment of organizational instability.
Community Building Services
We design and facilitate experiences that build bridges across lines of difference and find the common humanity in each other. We do this in moments of rupture when repair and healing is needed, and we do this as enrichment leadership and professional development for people, teams, and groups.
Our Services Menu
Like a specialty restaurant, we have carefully curated a menu of offerings for you. You can mix and match any combination for your team or organizational needs. Schedule a chat with us to learn more about our timelines and pricing.
DATA SERVICES
Data-Insights-Strategy Journey
We analyze pre-existing data or collect and analyze new data (via listening sessions, interviews, surveys), and share back key gleanings with our clients via data facilitated data reflection sessions that helps inform an organization's strategic direction. Move from “mounds of data” paralysis or a data desert to data-driven decision-making.
STRATEGY SERVICES
Strategic Planning for Impact
We help clients create or refine an impact statement, theory of change, and key performance indicators. Don't know what those are? Don't worry. We break these concepts down in accessible ways and help organizations use these products to catalyze forward movement. Clients use this process during both strategic planning as well as impact evaluation efforts. We also design and facilitate retreats that support trust-building, creative visioning, and identifying actionable paths forward.
COMMUNITY BUILDING SERVICES
Community Building Experiences
We design and facilitate community, organizational and team-building experiences that focus on building bridges across lines of difference and learning how to hold multiple perspectives. Participants use these skills to effectively drive their work or communities forward.
DATA SERVICES
Impact Storytelling
We create current state impact stories which we share back with clients to help them see the impact story their data currently tells. We then facilitate future state visioning sessions where clients imagine the story they want to be able to tell about their impact. We create a gap analysis and roadmap to help clients move from their current impact storytelling state to their envisioned future state.
STRATEGY SERVICES
Inclusive Constituent Engagement
For clients who are moving through a strategic planning or other organizational learning process, it can be difficult to both move full speed ahead while also taking the time needed to thoughtfully engage a variety of key constituents. We help map out a constituent engagement plan and use our facilitation skills to co-execute that plan with clients in a way that celebrates and unites the various constituent voices into a unified base for collective action.
COMMUNITY BUILDING SERVICES
Organizational Wellness Support
We help clients do wellness pulse checks for their organizations, teams, and staff and develop subsequent healing and wellness plans that we can help execute. In particular, we provide executive leadership support sessions and cross-staff trust-building and repair work.
TESTIMONIALS
“Probably the best facilitated conversation I have ever had - and it was around data which can be absolutely torturous if not done well but this was engaging, and interesting, and truly invigorating- it was nice to feel inspired again even if there are some harsh realities around time and capacity to contend with some of the ideas; I think Cheryl did a phenomenal job of creating space that felt like we could be blunt and honest, as evidenced by some of the sharing I think; and yes I would go to anything Cheryl was facilitating...”
- Client Program Team Member and Retreat Participant on Using Data for Impact
“As a facilitator, Cheryl consistently models vulnerability and storytelling, encouraging others to do the same. Cheryl leads with her heart, creating environments where all participants can push out of their comfort zones and experience true growth.”
- Client Facilitator Lead
GET IN FLIGHT!
Ready for us to help catalyze transformational change for your organization? Let us know how we can help.
