about us
Our Mission
We deliver expert capacity-building support to the nonprofits and emerging leaders who have historically been underserved.
Our Vision
A nonprofit ecosystem where no organization is too small to get expert support, the leaders closest to the work have the resources to lead it, and capacity is never the reason good work doesn’t get done.
Our Values
Access over gatekeeping.
Expert support shouldn’t require a big budget or the right connections. We build delivery models, including cohorts, workshops, and flexible engagements, that fit the organizations that need us most.
Practical over theoretical.
We work alongside people, not above them. Every engagement produces something real and usable, not just a report or a framework that sits on a shelf.
Honest about the system.
We help organizations succeed within the sector as it exists. We also name what’s broken. Neither is enough alone.
Expertise with roots.
Our associates bring deep, hard-won knowledge across every discipline, which is how we know the difference between what works in theory and what works for a six-person team with a $1.5M budget.
Sustainability as a prerequisite.
An organization that can’t sustain itself can’t sustain its impact. We treat organizational capacity as a justice issue, not an operational afterthought.
Our Team
Jen Naecker
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Jen Naecker has spent over 15 years in the nonprofit sector doing what she does best: building the kinds of relationships that make organizations thrive.
Her background spans philanthropy advising, major giving and campaigns, corporate and foundation partnerships, and board development. She has a rare ability to understand what people need, connect the right ones together, and make everyone in the room feel like the work is possible. Clients tend to describe her as the person who makes hard conversations feel manageable and big goals feel within reach.
Jen brings that expertise to the full arc of a client relationship, from the first conversation about what an organization is capable of, to the strategy that gets them there, to the partnerships and funders who help make it real. She is deeply strategic, and her strategy starts with people: what inspires them, what limits them, and what they need to hear.
After studying Spanish education and sociolinguistics, she began her career as a Spanish teacher. She retains a scholar’s curiosity about how language shapes the way people understand themselves and each other. When she’s not working, you can find her teaching or taking a fitness class or making at the nearest estate sale.
Kirsten Hammann
Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer
Kirsten Hammann has spent more than 30 years helping mission-driven organizations find the strategy, language, and resources they need to do their best work. The throughline in her career isn’t expertise, though she has plenty of that. It’s a particular kind of seeing, an instinct for what’s not being said, whose story isn’t being told, and what a team could become if the structure actually supported them.
The organizations she’s most drawn to are doing vital work without the infrastructure to match. Led by people whose vision outpaces their resources. Whose fundraising hasn’t caught up with their mission. Who need practical tools and a partner, not another consultant who disappears after the deliverable. As a founder herself, she knows what it feels like to build something from nothing and what it costs when the support isn’t there.
Her background spans education, behavioral health and health equity, LGBTQIA+ advocacy, and other community benefit organizations. She has built communications programs, led campaigns, and spent a lot of time in a lot of rooms helping people figure out what it would actually take for their organization to thrive.
She is also a board member, an avid reader, a person with strong opinions about em dashes, and someone with a lot of open tabs.
Trusted Partners
We partner with organizations and leaders committed to building stronger, more sustainable communities.
P.O. Box 115
Menlo Park, California 94026