Areas of Practice

Project Development

 

Grant Research and Proposal Writing: We spend the time needed to make sure the funding sources align with your goals and work with you to make sure you have the pieces together to write a competitive proposal.

Coaching and Strategic Guidance: We provide as little or as much support as you need to help you achieve impact. Often this involves taking a hard and comprehensive look at your mission, programs, outcomes, and staff capacity. Sometimes, this involves stepping outside of the work and having the chance to reflect. We have training in CoActive coaching and ecopsychology.

Technical Assistance: We have a strong history in translating science and policy into easy to understand and easy to use information. Our goal is to give you something that you can use to advocate for policy or embed into your programs.

Writing: We can help you reach your desired audience by writing blog posts, magazine and newsletter articles, and outreach documents. Examples of our portfolio are available at: https://marcusgriswold.contently.com/

Nature-Based Planning

 

We bring a long history of experience in ecological assessments, monitoring and planning in urban and remote areas of the planet.

We focus on the integration of people and nature to rediscover our connections to the earth and to bring about equitable access and connection to nature. We hope to bring about the wonder and fascination that can be seen when taking the time to slow down and enjoy life here.

Community and Stakeholder Engagement

 

Our community engagement work begins with the concept that community members know what they need and what works more than anyone, and it ends with strategies to empower them to have their own voice in public policy. We recognize that better solutions are achieved by working with stakeholder knowledge and expertise, and by building capacities within each stakeholder group to analyze and articulate their experiences and preferred interventions.

Often the community has limited capacity, funds, and bandwidth, and needs assistance to identify the agency actions that would have the greatest impact on what they value. The results of this engagement include strengthened community capacities, enhanced environmental outcomes, and new partnership opportunities. Services include neutral facilitation, coalition development, capacity building and design workshops, walking tours and public meetings, focus groups, surveys, and needs assessments.

Policy and Advocacy Support

 

Are you a non-profit or tribal community trying to navigate “agency speak”? A local government attempting to navigate complex federal and state regulations or understand your community’s needs? We take pride in translating complex information to a range of audiences so that the information is actionable and its application practical to your work. Our goal is to serve as a bridge between your organization and technical or policy staff.

We have over a decade of experience analyzing local, state and federal environmental policies including the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, CERCLA, and policies related to climate change adaptation, watersheds, and groundwater. We have experience as former staff and consultants for local and international NGOs, local government, state government and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

We focus on providing the capacity and support for tribes, environmental justice groups and local governments, while staying in the background, to help them do what they do better – lead, take action and protect their community.