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Our Expertise

Our Expertise

Our Team Has More Than 60 Years of Combined Professional Experience In The Nonprofit And Community Foundation Sectors.

Along the way, we have enjoyed success, embraced challenge, and learned from others. We bring that to the table, walking alongside nonprofit organizations, foundations, and those with philanthropic interests as a trusted partner. Whether it is fundraising, strategic planning, board governance, assessments, communications, or all things people, our nonprofit consultants work together within our areas of expertise to strengthen organizations and achieve impactful outcomes.

Our Focus Areas

  • Fundraising & Philanthropy

    As a nonprofit, you know you need fundraising for long-term sustainability, but you may not always know the best approach. You might need Cielo Strategy Group to help you create a diversified fundraising plan and you take it from there, or you might need us to roll up our sleeves and assist with implementing a major gifts campaign or preparing for a capital campaign. Your Board and staff may be ready for a training on creating a culture of philanthropy. We balance our understanding of the mechanics of fundraising with the sheer fact that not everyone likes fundraising! We are ready to meet you where you are and work together to achieve your goals.

    Learn about our fundraising and philanthropy projects:

  • Strategic Planning

    We can all agree that every organization should have a road map to remain focused on its mission and vision. But, making that happen is the hard part. Cielo Strategy Group will walk you through what it takes to prepare for the strategic planning process and the different components that make up a successful strategic plan. We are ready to support your organization through the entire process or pieces of it – from pre-planning, conducting an environmental scan, surveying stakeholders, facilitating the planning session, writing the plan, and supporting you in creating the benchmarking tool to assess progress. You tell us what you need, and together, we will map out a plan that is usable and actionable.

    Learn about our strategic planning projects:

  • Board Governance

    We often hear from nonprofit leaders that their Board members are passionate about the work, committed to the mission, and are excited about helping. Board members must also practice good governance that enables them to make informed decisions, spot potential risks, and weigh every opportunity for the benefit and protection of the organization. Cielo Strategy Group is here to equip your Board members with the skills they need before a crisis or uncomfortable situation occurs. Whether it is annual roles and responsibilities training, writing board policies, developing a strong committee structure, revising an organization’s Bylaws, or providing ongoing coaching to executives and Board Chairs for a constructive partnership, we are here to support you.

    Learn about our board governance projects:

  • Assessments

    For your organization to soar, we can help assess where you currently are, including your strengths, and your opportunities. Assessments can take 4-6 months to include research and benchmarking, stakeholder interviews, focus groups, creating priorities, and writing of the assessment. We then deliver a roadmap to you that identifies priorities to pursue in order to get where you want to be. This can be an organizational-wide assessment, a staffing, departmental, or a programs assessment. Or, maybe you have another idea to run by us. You can take the assessment with priorities and run with it, or we can continue walking alongside you to implement and coach you along the way.

    Learn about our assessments projects:

  • Communications & Storytelling

    We specialize in strategic communications and writing that tells a story, shares impact, and moves people to action. We believe that communications plays a critical role in achieving your goals – whether it be program growth, fundraising, or volunteer recruitment. We can support you with internal or external communications, digital content (email campaigns, writing for your website, or social media), fundraising appeal writing, or speeches and presentations. We can also help assess your communications and channels, create a strategic communications plan, or help you execute on your communications strategies.

    Learn about our communications and storytelling projects:

  • People: Hiring & Support

    Cielo Strategy Group is committed to building capacity within your organization. Sometimes that means rolling up our sleeves and assisting your team until they have the skills to succeed. Sometimes it means facilitating a DISC assessment and providing training. Other times, it means supporting your hiring process. From creating job descriptions, conducting outreach, facilitating candidate selection, to making the offer, we have the experience and expertise. We offer as little or as much support in hiring your next Executive Director, Chief Development Officer, or Chief Communications Officer. Let us know how involved you want to be, and we will make it happen.

    Learn about our hiring and staff support projects:

Training & Talks

We Are Passionate About Sharing
Our Experiences And Expertise.

Our team of experts is poised and ready to lead training and conference sessions, webinars, or in-depth, multiple-day workshops and sessions for your leadership team, staff, volunteers, or Board of Directors. Whether a few hours, a full day, or a series of workshops or webinars, we will tailor our presentation to fit your needs and audience.

Whatever it is you are looking for, we are happy to talk with you further.

Explore Training & Talks

Nonprofit Leaders

Collaborating With Foundations
For Greater Impact.

In 2022, Knapp Community Care Foundation and Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation launched the Nonprofit Leaders for Excellence program in partnership with us – bringing 12 nonprofit leaders together over 10 months. Cielo Strategy Group designed the cohort program, created the full curriculum, and fully launched and managed the program. We are thrilled to bring the program back for its second year in 2023-2024.

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Nonprofit Leaders

In 2022, Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation and the Knapp Community Care Foundation launched the region’s first nonprofit leadership cohort – Nonprofit Leaders for Excellence – in partnership with us to bring 12 nonprofit leaders together over 10 months. Cielo Strategy Group designed the cohort program, created the full curriculum, and fully launched and managed the program. We are thrilled to bring Nonprofit Leaders for Excellence back for its second year in 2023-2024.

From August 2022 through May 2023, leaders from organizations in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas prioritized developing their leadership skills to strengthen their organizations thanks to the generosity of these two local foundations. Each month, they spent a full day learning and collaborating on topics such as: nonprofit governance, highly effective teams and culture, philanthropy, communications, financial management, risk management, and more. We brought in a mix of local facilitators, panel discussions, and other experts, including Cielo Strategy Group to cover the variety of learning objectives.

These leaders reflect what the Rio Grande Valley is all about: grit, perseverance, passion, love, strength, intelligence, and most importantly, commitment to the community.

We are proud of the success of this program, and are thrilled to have been asked to guide the second cohort which will kick off in September 2023 and culminate in May 2024.

The inaugural Nonprofit Leaders for Excellence class included:

  • Ernest Espinoza, Executive Director, Children’s Bereavement Center of the Rio Grande Valley
  • Victor Rivera, Executive Director, Loaves & Fishes of the Rio Grande Valley
  • Moises Arjona, Collective Impact Director, Unidos Contra la Diabetes
  • Lourdes Flores, Director, ARISE Adelante
  • Lauro Garza, Senior Director, Special Olympics Texas – Rio Grande Valley Area
  • Roxanne Pacheco, Executive Director, Hope Family Health Center
  • Omar Rodriguez, Director of Grants & Government Relations, Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley
  • Marisol Resendez, Executive Director, El Milagro Clinic
  • Marisela Gonzalez, Executive Director, Aurora House Foundation
  • Jackie Flores, Executive Director, Dentists Who Care
  • Elias Ozuna, Chief Executive Officer, Open Hands Food Pantry
  • Sandra De La Cruz-Yarrison, Executive Director, Holy Family Services

Resources to Share

Enjoy these freebies just for you and your organization.

We’ve put together these downloadable resources to help jump-start your planning, strategizing, and creativity. Sometimes you need a little boost, and we are happy to help equip you.

View Resources

  • The Cielo Strategy Group team brings a passion for strengthening nonprofits to their work, and it is evident in their every detail – from their outstanding customer service, to their impeccable follow-through, to the way they engage with residents, board and staff – I just can’t say enough good things. They are professional, knowledgeable, and genuinely dedicated to creating a sustainable organization. I am forever grateful to them.

    SANDRA WHITLEY, FOUNDER/FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
    Thrive Youth Center

  • The Bay City ISD School Board and staff could not have been more enthusiastic about the marketing plan that Cielo Strategy Group developed for us. We are extremely excited to see what we can do with the tools you've given us. Thank you so much for making my job easier."

    GRANT MCGALLIARD, CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER
    Bay City ISD

  • Thank you so much, Cielo Strategy Group for creating capacity within our organization now and for the future. You guided us, coached us, encouraged us, and taught us how to execute ideas that had always felt like far-off dreams. You didn’t come in and point out our weaknesses – you celebrated our strengths, and then, you met us where we were and gave us actionable steps to strengthen our board governance, fundraising, communications, storytelling, and operations. We are stronger because of you!

    MINKA MISANGYI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
    Girls on the Run Bexar County

  • The Cielo team has been a trusted partner strengthening our organization from the inside out. After facilitating our initial organizational assessment process, they identified key areas we needed to focus on that would move our mission forward. They didn’t just give us a report with recommendations, they jumped in and created the infrastructure we needed to help us operate more effectively – from basic Board governance documents and processes to a staff and volunteer handbook, to operational planning and goal-setting. They have coached me to become a better leader. As we celebrated our ten-year anniversary, we accepted a transformational gift to purchase our own land and build upon our vision. We could not have done this without “getting our house in order”, which is what Cielo Strategy Group did for us.

    DEBRA FRANCO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
    South Texas Juvenile Diabetes Association

  • The Cielo team has been instrumental in helping the Weslaco Museum rebuild for the future. As a new Executive Director, I am thankful for their unwavering commitment. They provided our organization with the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel” – enabling us to focus on our vision and mission. They have helped the Weslaco Museum grow our member base, streamline our website, strengthen our board, and our overall vision for the future.

    CRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
    Weslaco Museum

  • Cielo Strategy Group is part of our Clinic family. With our long standing partnership, I have relied on their team as a steady support system – responding to our needs and flexing with us. They have elevated our storytelling and communications, guided us through annual fund development plans, designed and project managed annual appeal mailings, coached us through grant proposals, facilitated Board sessions and a strategic planning process. They push us toward excellence and don’t settle for less.

    GLORIA Z. CANSECO, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
    San Antonio Christian Dental Clinic
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