Strategic Planning and Retreat Facilitation
We work with small and medium-sized organizations develop shared vision, align teams with a shared theory of change, and create strategic plans from 1-3 years.
Training and Curriculum Development
In search of a training for your staff or membership? Reach out and let’s talk about if it might be a fit. I train on strategic campaigning, organizing and movement building – in particular on issue areas of immigrants’ rights, gender justice, and prison/policing abolition. I can also offer internal organizational skills like supervision, conflict management, program evaluation, and sexual harassment.
Creating healing spaces in nonprofit organizations
My healing work with nonprofits opens doors for staff and members to address burnout and develop deeper tools and understanding of the community-level trauma that we experience. This is my newest area of work, the synthesis of my many years of organizational development work with my perspective as a trained therapist. Is this exciting to you? Find out more here.
Enlace Institute Trainings
We build stronger staff teams and organizations using strategic frameworks that have been tested and refined through the United States, Mexico, and Central America. I currently offer these trainings in collaboration with Peter Cervantes-Gautschi, co-founder of the Enlace Institute. In recent years, our most popular training has been our Supervision and Leadership series. You can see a full list of the frameworks we offer here.
Leadership Coaching
Supporting leaders and leadership teams to bring their full strengths and unique perspective to the work, while nurturing skills development and resilience practices. I love supporting new leaders, leaders who have been recently promoted, or those seeking to level up their skills.
Recent collaborations:
GSA Network (National)
The Genders and Sexualities Network wanted to develop deeper alignment through creating a theory of change. We held a series of retreats and workshops to understand the purpose of a theory of change, and to develop a unique vision that would provide both clarity and motivation to the team.
Meyer Memorial Trust (Portland, Oregon)
We facilitated a series of visioning and feedback sessions with the Latine community in collaboration with Meyer as part of their internal strategic planning process. The final report is publicly available here.
Casa Latina (Seattle, Washington)
Casa Latina approached us for support in developing a training series on “Creating a Culture of Respect.” A team of staff are now trained to deliver this curriculum, which is integrated into a yearly orientation for all members, and used to promote a safer environment for sexual and gender minorities.
Oregon Health Equity Alliance (Portland, Oregon)
Oregon Health Equity Alliance wanted to support their member organizations to develop new organizing strategies that would build community power and political education for the long haul. In collaboration, we designed a webinar training series and coaching program to support their members in building skills and strengthening their campaigns.
Urban League of Oregon (Portland, Oregon)
After experiencing exponential growth of their staff team during the COVID-19 pandemic, Urban League saw the need to invest in more support for their management team. We offered a 3-day training for their directors, managers, and supervisors so that every level of management would have consistent tools to be able to provide values-centered support and accountability to their team.
Leadership coaching
Nonprofit leadership requires vision, stamina, emotional maturity, humility, and a long list of administrative and technical skills that top leaders are often not trained or coached in. From supervision skills to financial management to strategic planning or program development, we support women, trans, and gender nonconforming leaders of color to navigate the complex terrain of leading in nonprofits.
What our clients are saying about us
I appreciate the humanity and transformative frameworks and approach Nico brings to the work. They are resourceful and have a wealth of knowledge, networks, and resources they can easily tap into. It is a wonderful and refreshing experience working with Nico! I highly recommend them.
Osmani R. Alcaraz-Ochoa, Executive Director at Voz
Nico was easy to work with, creative and insightful in adapting training to meet the needs of various “audiences” always grounding it in relevant and real experiences and ensuring the training would be very interactive and a safe space for learning.
Mary K Ochs., RoadMap
Mid-Flight Consulting 