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Partners Feedback

  • Atlantic Philanthropies

    Chris Oechsli -  President/CEO



    "Recently, Atlantic Philanthropies began the last of its 30 years as a major philanthropy with the final distributions of its 8 billion dollars in impact funding. As we launched our capstone program, a network of ambitious fellowship programs, we were thinking hard about how we could get something started that would achieve durable and sustained impact. At the same time, we were progressively shedding our operational capacity to implement our vision. Structuring a learning partnership to nurture, nudge, and test seven distinct but interrelated programs distributed around the globe posed a challenge for conventional foundation planning and operations. Ben’s innovative approach to disciplined learning brought together the developmental support our grantees required, the formative improvement process that our staff and trainees wanted, and the summative assessment that our Board needed. The compact learning mechanism Ben designed and instituted while working with our rather large investments in social change leadership proved to be adaptive, affordable, and most importantly effective. "


    Key Services: Program Design, Evaluation, Planning

  • SOS Children’s Villages - USA

    Neil Ghosh -   President and CEO



    "When I approached BenKermanConsulting, I was seeking an expert in program development to help with strategic planning for our international Child Welfare organization. Our organization does a number of things very well and has a lot to offer. At the time, we were crafting a way to thoughtfully launch our programming in a new geography within an evolving policy landscape and an uncertain fiscal environment. Ben and his team stepped in to support us with strategic planning help and highly professional expert advice! Ben assembled a well-equipped team of experienced organizational leaders and field researchers. Ben’s team was responsive, creative and timely, offering a candid, clear-eyed view of the opportunities and challenges we could expect, as well as some options for leveraging our assets and efficiently implementing effective programming. While the reports and deliverables were highly appreciated and well designed – I really appreciated how Ben went above and beyond with his and his team’s hands-on help and availability as we worked through some tough choices."


    Key Services: Planning and Child Welfare (substantive expertise)

  • Center for Evaluation Innovation

    Julia Coffman -  Founder and Director


    Ben was a great partner in the advocacy work we looked at! What makes him unique in a field of good “critical friends” doing program development and evaluation, is that Ben has been a very good, creative grantmaker, grant-getter, and evaluator. He’s helped stretch and grow our discipline, initiating innovative approaches such as the Purpose Built approach to evaluating mission-based capital investments and the Atlas Project we worked on together, capturing lessons and discussing implications for a range of social justice applications. All the while, he seemed equally comfortable in the Board Room, classroom, or play room. Yet, his playful spirit pulls no punches – he’ll push his collaborators to deliver their best. Most importantly, Ben doesn’t look back without looking forward: While he may be helping you document and share your results, he’s always looking for ways to help you apply them to get even bigger bang for your next buck."


    Key Services: Methodological Leadership, Understanding and Perspective

  • ClearThinking Communications

     Susan Parker -  Owner


    "Ben provided tremendous insight in conceptualizing and writing a groundbreaking case study examining how a large client foundation provided core operating support to grantee organizations. While it may not sound exciting, the report showed how this often-avoided strategy can be best applied to help nonprofit organizations while advancing the goals of both grantee and grantmaker. Through careful research and his many years of foundation experience and expertise, Ben created a robust analytic taxonomy to provide a rare ‘under the hood’ look at funder decision-making. He worked diligently to highlight grantee stories that brought to life how core operating support actually played out, sensitively addressing funder missteps and how the foundation responded to unexpected challenges. The result was a clear, useful report that provided fresh and rarely discussed details into how a foundation goes about making these grants, not just why they should. The client and I were very pleased with the final report and believe it has filled an important unmet need in examining the role of core operating support in strengthening nonprofit organizations."


    Key Services: Research and Evaluation Communications

  • WNY Impact Investment Fund

    Thomas P. Quinn -  CEO


    "Ben’s involvement proved pivotal in helping get the WNY Impact Investment Fund off the ground and onto solid operational footing. As a pioneer place-based impact investor bringing together philanthropic, nonprofit and private investors, WNYIIF worked with Ben to draw from emerging best practices in our growing field while remaining responsive and creative in tailoring procedures to our preferences and culture. Ben helped secure critical investment in our evolving infrastructure, provided expert consultation as we developed our systems, conducted social impact due diligence that added to the value of the deals under consideration, and even trained his own replacement as we developed our internal capacity. Ben’s style is relaxed yet focused - working well with our board, staff and investees.  In the end, working with Ben to articulate and share our lessons supported us as we built our brand and expanded our network in ways that continue to help us thrive."


    Key Services: Organizational Development, Impact Investing