Can you give me an example of a typical project?
Something that differentiates Sustainable Economies
Consulting is our personalized approach to project design. We leverage tools
and methods from agricultural and environmental economics to ensure you have a
well-designed project that gets you the information you need to make decisions.
While we do customize each project to your needs, our projects generally fall
in two categories: strategic planning (covered in the next question) and program
assessments.
In our initial consultation (at no charge), we would meet
with you to do the following, 1) determine what you are trying to achieve, and
2) determine what the barriers are to success, and 3) together, design a
project that meets your needs.
For more examples of projects, please refer to the Projects & Resources page.
We’re not sure where to start with strategic planning.
What does the process look like and how long does it take?
Thanks to our nearly 10 years’ experience in
strategic planning, we have developed a streamlined process that involves
standard steps around goal setting, developing strategies to meet goals, and
selecting performance metrics. We also have curated a suite of tools to make
the process easier for your team. We work with your team to customize the
process and select which tools will be useful to meet your needs.
The process can be as short as two months for a
small organization where there is already has a clear idea of direction. Larger
processes can take over a year. Our average process takes between 6-9 months.
Can you help us write a grant? Or would you like to
collaborate on a grant?
Yes, we’d be happy to help your organization
write a grant for a fee. We’ll work with you to identify a handful of grants
(unless you have a particular grant in mind), outline timelines, and make a
plan to have the content and deliverables ready by the deadline.
We are also open to collaborating on grants that
align with our mission. Members of our team have partnered on a variety of
grants, including USDA, NOAA, and many foundation grants. In cases where we are
a partner on a grant, Sustainable Economies Consulting will collaborate with
your team to develop a narrative and deliverables.
Do you only focus on environmental sustainability
projects?
We do a lot of work around environmental projects, such as
those that support habitat protection and restoration, as well as projects
focused on nature-based solutions. Our environmental projects typically focus
also on incorporating socioeconomic metrics as well as conservation outcomes.
In addition to environmental sustainability projects, we
also look for opportunities to enhance the benefits to communities and the
local economy. For example, we’ve done work with local food systems and
balanced land use planning. In both of those cases, sustainability was not initially
a focus of the project. Our role was to help incorporate sustainability goals
into the projects.