HOW WE CAN PARTNER

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Build a sustainable business or program with social impact at the core.

At Illustra Impact, we provide consulting, coaching, and community for social entrepreneurs. We leverage business school frameworks with social sector innovation and our global network to guide emerging entrepreneurs. There are a number of ways to engage with us on your entrepreneurial journey:

  • Solopreneurs Circle. Join our peer community of social entrepreneurs to meet potential collaborators, ask questions of fellow entrepreneurs, share opportunities, and encourage one another along what can sometimes be a lonely path. Learn More.

  • Coaching program. Work one-on-one with Whitney to meet your unique goals and have a thought partner when breaking through your obstacles. She brings a Global MBA, over 10 years in social entrepreneurship, and a large network to support your journey.

  • Consulting. If you are further on your entrepreneurial journey and want to integrate social impact deeper into your model, we can work with you to identify aligned opportunities.

We believe that entrepreneurship is an outlet for passion and creativity, as well as a path to freedom. When we focus our entrepreneurial solutions on solving societal challenges, we bring others on the journey to freedom with us.

CAPACITY BUILDING

Align your people, programs, policies and practices with your vision for impact.

Our capacity for impact grows exponentially when we can trust that the people, programs, policies and practices are aligned with our vision and values. Illustra Impact supports your capacity building through:

  • Leadership development. We love tailoring workshops to meet the needs of your leaders and organization. Examples of topics to enable impact include building trust, inclusive leadership, courageous decision-making, crucial conversations, program design and systems thinking.

  • Stakeholder and community engagement. Innovation is most effective when stakeholders, especially those directly impacted by the product or service, are valued as collaborators. We support organizations in building meaningful opportunities for inclusion that result in mutually beneficial relationships with diverse stakeholders.

  • Strategic and business planning. By helping you identify your value proposition to key stakeholders, we can think strategically about where to focus your resources for the greatest impact and get creative about new revenue streams.

  • Process and policy refinement. We bring nearly 15 years of experience in identifying how unconscious bias gets baked into the way we govern and how simple changes to policies, processes, and technology can get us closer to our intended impact.

SYSTEMS CHANGE

Address the root cause of the symptoms you are seeing in your community or organization.

Our approach to systems change strategy and implementation is to walk clients through a human-centered design process that includes diverse stakeholders at every step using our IMPACT Framework:

  • IDENTIFY and define opportunities for change

  • MAP the path to achieve the prioritized changes

  • PROTOTYPE a solution that considers all stakeholder perspectives and can be refined

  • ACTUALIZE the change with stakeholder champions

  • CHECK progress towards the defined goals and practice continuing improvement

  • TISSUE building will ensure the the network connections strengthen and culture shifts so that the change becomes embedded

This will require us to build coalitions that foster collective impact. In that context, we guide leaders and organizations to collaborate for change larger than any one person, program, department, or organization could.

DO YOU NEED A SOCIAL IMPACT CONSULTANT TO ELEVATE YOUR IMPACT?

Complete this assessment to reflect on where you and your organization are in prioritizing social impact and get a sense for how Illustra Impact can support you.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS ARE SAYING

  • "I could not be more impressed with Whitney’s ability to move teams and groups toward shared goals with a spirit of hopeful possibility grounded in timely, effective and seamless execution. She is also talented at building relationships authentically with partners and stakeholders while always integrating community input. The Food Security Collective work is complex, multifaceted and incredibly bold – Whitney’s strength as a facilitator and leader have enabled us to drive that initiative forward."

    Natasha Dravid, Senior Director at Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers

  • "Beyond being a kind and generous human being; you are an extraordinary thought partner. Your insights on community organizing and empowering collective community building have been SO helpful."

    Felicia Yoda, Managing Director at Faith in Action

  • "Working with Whitney means you have access to a steady flow of innovative insights and expansive ideas. Her ability to distill complicated problems and implement relevant solutions is a unique value that would benefit any client in need of her services."

    Marlissa Hudson, Managing Partner at English Hudson

PURPOSE AS PRAXIS

Illustra Impact encourages you to not only have a purpose, but to apply your values through daily decisions and actions — ultimately, creating meaningful and long-lasting change.