Build partnerships and community power that multiply impact instead of draining resources.
I help social impact organizations tackle complex problems through strategic collaboration, building the partnerships, alignment, and evidence needed for lasting change.
Clients
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![SC Thrive]()
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![Hunger-Free America logo with the word 'Hunger' crossed out in red.]()
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![Essex County Well Fed Collaborative logo featuring cheese, leafy greens, bread, milk, an apple, and two hands reaching toward each other.]()
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![United Way logo with stylized hand and person with rainbow arcs]()
of the Adirondack Region
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![Logo of Champlain Valley Family Center featuring a family holding hands on a hill with a bird flying and water beneath, along with the organization's name.]()
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![Autism Alliance of Northeastern NY]()
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![Adirondack Foundation Logo]()
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![Essex Food Hub logo with text on an orange background.]()
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![Cloudsplitter Foundation logo with stylized text on a white background.]()
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I help nonprofits, coalitions, funders and networks tackle complex challenges through strategic collaboration. Whether you're forming a new partnership, aligning multiple stakeholders, or measuring collective impact, I provide the facilitation, strategy, and evaluation support that turns good intentions into coordinated action.
Strategic Planning That Includes Everyone
Develop shared strategies that honor each partner's mission while building toward collective goals
Complex social challenges require coordinated responses and shared vision. I help your organization develop strategies that clarify your unique role while identifying where connection with others creates the kind of transformational impact our communities need.
- Multi-stakeholder strategic planning
- Cross-sector alignment
- Collective impact frameworks
- Adaptive strategy design
Measure What Matters Together
Design evaluation systems that capture how collaboration creates change (not just what each partner does alone)
Traditional evaluation often misses the interconnected nature of collaborative work. I help you gather meaningful evidence about how partnerships and coordinated efforts contribute to the kind of systemic change our communities deserve.
- Collaborative impact evaluation
- Shared measurement development
- Collaborative learning systems
- Multi-stakeholder data integration
Build Effective Coalitions
Create the structure, governance, and processes your multi-organization partnership needs to actually work
Addressing complex challenges requires intentionally designed collaboration and shared commitment to transformation. I help you create and manage multi-stakeholder partnerships with clear structures and adaptive practices that build toward our most ambitious goals.
- Coalition design & governance
- Partnership network development
- Cross-sector collaboration frameworks
- Coordinating entity support
Engage Communities Authentically
Design engagement processes that center lived experience and build genuine partnership with communities
Meaningful change requires the voices and wisdom of those most affected by the challenges we're addressing. I help you design community engagement that moves beyond tokenism to create authentic partnership, ensuring your strategies and programs reflect real community needs and priorities.
- Community engagement strategy and design
- Stakeholder mapping and analysis
- Participatory planning processes
- Community advisory structure development
Testimonials
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"As an organization in the midst of an important transition, the biggest challenge in this moment is knowing the right questions to ask. Erica and Compass North Consulting brought an outside perspective that was invaluable in getting us out of our habitual ways of thinking and forcing us to look at ourselves in new and valuable ways."
Dan Kiefer-Bach, Cloudsplitter Foundation, Client
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![Portrait of a smiling woman with dark hair, wearing a green cardigan over a white top, against a dark background.]()
"Erica is AMAZING! She provided a custom evaluation that transformed complex data into clear insights about our senior SNAP outreach strategies, delivering practical and resource-conscious recommendations we could implement immediately. As a longtime partner in food security, she demonstrated thoughtfulness, flexibility and support throughout the process."
Stephanie McGuire, SC Thrive, Client
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![Smiling woman with short hair taking a photo inside a boat or vehicle with a river and trees visible outside the window.]()
"Working with Erica proved to be both informative and inspiring! Our organization is experiencing growth in both community reach and leadership structure. We recently hired Erica to guide us through a strategic planning period, which included work sessions and progress meetings. Erica listened to feedback and navigated confusion with compassion and skill. She applied feedback thoughtfully and incorporated it in a way that added clarity and improved flow. We would not hesitate to hire her again for continued guidance."
Tracy Downey, Autism Alliance of Northeastern NY, Client
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![A woman with red hair smiling, wearing a dark top and turquoise earrings, in front of a plain white background.]()
"Erica helped reinvigorate the Well Fed Essex Collaborative. By leading a series of thoughtful conversations and well planned exercises, she helped us locate a subtle change in our mission that changed everything about how members can work together and support one another. Erica designed and led a process that was both structured and flexible to help tease out the best parts of our group partnership. We now have a guiding vision that will help us do much more together. She made the process feel as valuable as the product itself."
Sawyer Bailey, AdkAction, Client
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![A woman smiling outdoors with sunlight and green trees in the background, wearing a denim jacket and a mauve top.]()
“Erica has outstanding problem solving, community organizing, communication, team building, and leadership skills that are accentuated by her enthusiasm, passion and integrity. I witnessed her ability to guide groups and communities to discover ways and means of achieving their goals through innovative training, programming and allyship.”
Leslie Ferreira, Colleague at Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
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![A woman with wavy blonde hair smiling, wearing a dark top, with a red wooden background.]()
"Erica is a leader who balances results-driven strategy with compassion and resilience. She is a clear and consistent communicator that is constantly looking for better ways to collaborate. Erica excels at strategic thinking and remains flexible and open to creative ways to achieve our shared goals. Working relationships with Erica are rooted in mutual trust and accountability, fostering an environment where growth and success are certain. "
Kate McDonald Goodin, Partner at Feeding Kentucky
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![A person with curly black hair and a beard wearing a leopard print shirt, smiling in front of an orange background.]()
"Erica is one of the most creative and driven leaders I've ever met. What I admire most about Erica is her passion and ability to motivate and ignite passion in others. It's unique to find a leader who is able to build and manage a team so effectively, while also being so empathetic and inspirational. Erica is exactly that type of leader, and I am so honored to call her a mentor that has influenced and will always influence the kind of advocate I am."
Bryce Kahari, Youth Ambassador
Why Collaborative Approaches to Complex Challenges?
The challenges we're facing, from housing injustice to climate change, are too interconnected and too urgent for any single organization to tackle alone. Our most radical aspirations require collective action.
Collective Power
Building the kind of coordinated effort that can actually shift systems and create lasting change
Resource Multiplication
Combining diverse assets to create larger impact more effectively
Shared Learning
Building collective wisdom and adaptive capacity as we navigate complex challenges together
Community-Centered Solutions
Including the voices and wisdom of those most affected by these challenges in both planning and implementation
I specialize in collaborative initiatives focused on:
Interested in Collaborating?
Whether you're launching a new partnership, revitalizing an existing coalition, or exploring how collaboration could help you tackle the challenges that keep you up at night, I'd love to hear about the change you're working toward.