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Room40 News

Category Archives: Room40 News

Feb 21
1

Summer Internship 2019 – Applications Open Until March 13

By | Room40 Hiring, Room40 News

NONPROFIT CONSULTING INTERNSHIP

[Download as a pdf]

We are looking for an intern to support the Room40 team in delivering transformative and much-needed consulting services to our clients. As an intern, you will support discrete projects (“workstreams” in consulting jargon) within client engagements, perform data-driven analysis, and work on internal projects to help Room40 function more efficiently. You’ll be expected to take leadership of your work and reach out for help when needed.

By combining hard work, analytic insight, compassion, honesty, humility, and humor, you will help nonprofit leaders better understand their challenges, see their options, and move their organizations towards a better future. With the guidance of our team of Associates, you will learn a lot, advance your career and have fun doing it.

ABOUT THE ROOM40 GROUP

The Room40 Group is a consulting and advisory group working with nonprofits to help them improve, grow and change. We work hard to delight our clients, help them at critical points in their organization’s development and have fun along the way.

Room40 blends a strategy consulting skill set with the experience gained as nonprofit executives leading organizations ranging in size from $5M to $150M. A growing number of organizations also know us for our revenue analysis, facilitation, and publications like The Map of Opportunity. In all we do, we enable nonprofits to make better decisions, faster.

Founded in 2014, Room40 is still a lot closer to small and scrappy than big and boring. But while we’re young and growing, we’re not new to this. We are built on decades of experience working with nonprofits as executives and consultants. So, you get the best of both worlds — an opportunity to learn from talented, experienced nonprofit leaders and to be a part of defining and shaping our company. Your impact will be significant — for Room40 and for our clients.

And our clients are awesome. City Year, Cradles to Crayons, Citizen Schools, Ceres… and that’s just some of the “c”s!

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES & GOALS

(1) Bring analysis, logic, critical thinking and data to bear to help solve really messy, complicated problems for our clients. This will make up about 60% of your time and will involve some combination of:

  • Qualitative and quantitative research and analysis on individual organizations and the field as a whole
  • Financial analysis, including forward-looking financial projections
  • Attending Room40 team meetings and client meetings
  • Working to support Room40 Group Associates

(2) Make the whole team better (about 40% of your time):

  • Work on internal projects that aim to help Room40 function more effectively. This might involve cleaning and analyzing data sets, drafting content for our blog/social media, or supporting sales and marketing projects.
  • Look to improve. You seek out feedback and set the highest standards for your work and how much you contribute to those around you.
  • Take Room40 and our work even further down the field than all the progress we’ve already made because complacency is boring. And, honestly, it’s so past time for the world to be a better version of itself.

SO, WHO ARE YOU?

You’re the one people like to have around because you’re smart and quick to lend a hand. You see the gap in logic, what needs doing, what has to happen 1st, 2nd, and 3rd to pull off whatever project you’re working on whether it’s a research paper, some sort of analysis, or a gathering of friends. You’re diligent, matter-of-fact and are bothered if the details of your work aren’t right. You like seeing others succeed and doing more than your share when you work as part of a team. You’re excited by trailblazing.

We’re most interested in strong candidates who are excited about the world of nonprofit consulting. This position has the potential to lead to future opportunities at Room40. Internship candidates should at a minimum be in the latter half of their undergraduate career. Since we’re open to future opportunities, we also encourage candidates with a Master’s degree or some professional experience who are looking to make a shift into nonprofit consulting. We are offering extensive training and envision the intern working with a moderate level of dependence on our associates.

Some highlights of what our ideal candidate offers:

  • Must have a strong desire to learn about nonprofit consulting. Ideally, you are considering consulting for nonprofits as a future career path
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills
  • Comfortable conducting research and quantitative analysis (you’re not afraid to dive into a dataset!)
  • Excited about working with a small, hard-working team that likes to geek out on data
  • Takes initiative

DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION

We work with diverse organizations and value diversity on our team. Our namesake, an actual place in World War I, was established on the value of diversity of ideas.

The Room40 Group provides equal employment opportunities to all applicants for employment without regard to age, race, disability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, or religion.

We know that it takes people of diverse identities, experiences, and skill sets to solve the complex problems our clients bring to us.

We also know that people perform best when they are comfortable bringing their complete self to work. As such, we are constantly looking for ways to create a more equitable, inclusive work environment.

DATES

We are hiring an intern for 10 weeks, with the option for more time if both parties are interested. We expect a start date around mid-May to early June 2019.

COMPENSATION

When it comes to compensation, we believe in taking care of our people. You will earn a living wage for the Boston area (~$15/hour).

LOCATION

This position is based in Boston, MA.

APPLICATION DATES

If all of this sounds awesome, please submit a resume and cover letter to iwanttowork@room40group.com by March 13th, 2019 with “Internship” in the subject line.

Note that we will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis up until the March 13th deadline.

Nov 11
0

Behind The Room 40 Name

By | Room40 News | No Comments

What’s in a name?

A frequent question we get is about our name – it’s a little unusual. We’re actually named after an organization who came together during World War I in Room 40 of the British Admiralty Building. They brought together brilliant minds from various disciplines to understand how to use intelligence to make better decisions, faster.

One of the successes of Room 40 was identifying that a diversity of skills and ideas makes teams more successful, not less. It was this group of naval experts, linguists, mathematicians, scientists, and professors that managed to crack the enemy code.

Their mission was kept so secret that there still aren’t a lot of details about all the volunteers who came together to gather and process information crucial to winning WWI. Fortunately, our Room40 is much easier to find!

We’re thankful to them not just for their name. Without the Room 40’s code-breaking, we would not be able to celebrate today’s 100th year anniversary of the end of the Great War.

The Room40 Group is a consulting and advisory group that works with the leadership of nonprofits to help organizations improve, grow, and change. Like its namesake, Room40 is a place where smart people come together to analyze data, uncover meaning, and progress toward a greater good.

 

Sep 05
0

Meet Our New Team

By | Room40 Hiring, Room40 News | No Comments

]No summer holidays for us, we’ve been busy searching and finding 3 new recruits for The Room40 Group Team. We’re so glad to welcome these new folks to our team! We’ve gotten bigger which means we can support you better and develop new exciting insights.

Introducing our new lineup:

Associate Consultant Staff Team PhotoLiz Keeffe, Associate Consultant
Liz recently graduated with her MBA in Nonprofit Management and a Masters in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University. She brings experience in education and community development to the Room40 Group. The Team hopes that her farming experience and love of gardening will save the office plant.

Favorite Place in Boston: Liz enjoys walking along the Charles River with her dog, Tonia.

 
 

Analytics Product Manager Staff Team Photo

Karla Sordia, Analytics Product Manager
Karla brings a unique combination of public and nonprofit experience to Room40. She loves hiking across New England and programming macros in Excel. She has a degree in Economics from the University of Rochester and is originally from Monterrey, Mexico.

Favorite place in Boston: The Minuteman trail, especially along Spy pond, where she walks her dog.
 
 

Marketing and Sales Associate Staff Team Photo
Karena Viehbacher, Marketing and Sales Associate

Karena recently graduated with a Masters in Management from Babson College. She grew up between France and the United States before settling in Boston. Many of her sentences start with “So I was listening to this podcast…”

Favorite Place in Boston: People (and dog) watching from the South End Buttery with a latte and newspaper.

Jul 31
0

Our Core Values

By | Room40 News

What Makes Us the Room40 Group

We are committed helping nonprofits do great things and change for the better

We particularly value the combination of judgment, experience, data and analysis that results in better decisions, faster.

We do things the right amount to achieve great results, knowing that lots of extra time spent achieving the same result represents a cost, not a benefit; and clients will lead us to what’s important, and the important parts of how we can help them improve.

We are not interested in taking on work that does not make our clients better, even when it benefits us in some way (e.g. revenue, recognition, the positive attention of a third party, etc.)

We set high standards achieved through continuous improvement – for ourselves and for our work

We are committed to the improvement of things that matter, through both intentionality and feedback.

We own our failures, mistakes, and the times we fall short, learning from all of these with humility.

We understand that while the effort and dedication that goes into this is constant, the changes that make up the long-term positive evolution of our work happens in fits and starts.

We value learning and intellectual diversity, recognizing that we are all teachers and all learners

We take care of each other

We value collaborative relationships and taking care of people: each other, our clients, families, communities, and others

We are whole people, for whom work is one important part of a rich life

We take joy and have fun doing something meaningful to improve an imperfect world.

Room40 Group
May 30
0

We’re growing – and hiring – and need your help!

By | Room40 Hiring, Room40 News

Hello from Room40!

Things are going great over here. In fact, we’re creating four new positions that will be the perfect fit for someone you just might know. Help us and that perfect someone find each other and we’ll thank you ‘til the end of time. Seriously. Free paperclips every time you come by our office.

We’ve all met those people that make us think, “Wow, I wish I had the right position for you.”  You know who they are— bright, driven, fun to work with. In short, they’re exceptional. You’ve probably met a few of them in your career, but not more than 3 or 4.  Well, that’s who we’re after.

At Room40 we’re known for consulting work that blends the strategy tool-kit honed at top firms with the experience gained as executives at nonprofits ranging in size from $5M to $150M. A growing number of organizations also know us for our revenue and impact analysis— a proprietary, data-rich set of insights that help nonprofits grow, change and improve.

Our team is growing in both areas of our work. We’re looking for

  • an Analytics Product Manager who will dive deep into messy, complicated data sets about nonprofits and their work and later emerge (to wild applause!) with beautiful data visualizations;
  • a Consultant (more senior) and Associate (more junior) to take these insights and help our nonprofit clients use them to change the world for the better; and
  • the perfect Marketing & Sales Associate who can tell these stories far and wide, so that an increasing number of nonprofits learn and improve from our work.

How can you help? We’re so glad you asked! Share the news and help us find those exceptional folks we’d be lucky to work with.  Drop us a note and tell us about them. You won’t be sorry you did. We promise. Paperclips are just the beginning.

All the best,

Ben, George and Anna

The Room40 Group

Jun 20
1

We found a partner in crime!

By | Room40 News

We found a partner in crime!  A soulmate!  Our better half!*

We’d like to introduce our new BFF:  GuideStar. We share a love of data and analysis, travel, sunsets, long walks on the beach…  oops.  I mean, commitment to data innovation and data distribution resulting in nonprofits making high-quality, data-informed decisions.

GuideStar is the world’s largest source of information for nonprofit organizations.  Working together, we will create valuable tools, informed by data, for the nonprofit sector.

The first result of our collaboration is The Map of Opportunity, showing the distribution and concentration of philanthropy across the U.S. – and how to use the information to raise more money.  If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out.  It will change the way you think about how much you can raise for your organization.

“We strive to provide data and analysis to help nonprofits make better decisions,” said Adrian Bordone, vice president for strategic partnerships at GuideStar. “Our collaboration with The Room40 Group is a sensible step in this direction by strengthening fundraising strategy and execution.”

Partnering with GuideStar will raise the awareness of our work and help us build a community of nonprofit leaders who value data and learning from each other – which only makes our work better (and more fun).  So, yes, we’re a bit smitten.

We look forward to sharing the results of our collaboration with you.  Stay tuned!

Yours in pursuit of better decisions, faster,

Anna, Ben, George and Harleen
aka The Room40 Group

 

*Yes, that’s hyperbole.  We don’t actually commit crimes.  And we’re not leaving our spouses to run off with GuideStar.  We’re working with GuideStar to promote great tools for nonprofits, informed by GuideStar’s data and our analysis.  It’s a working relationship we all believe will improve the sector.

 

May 30
1

Show me the money!

By | Cool Analysis, Philanthropy, Room40 News

Yes!  We will show you the money!  The Map of Opportunity: A Practical Guide to Philanthropy in the U.S. is for sale!  Get your very own copy for $495 (individual) or $995 (organization).  Click here to buy it now.

The Map of Opportunity reveals:

  • The distribution of philanthropy across the U.S.
  • How much money is in each of the Top 50 markets
  • Practical advice for raising more money

The Map of Opportunity is an 180-page report presenting never-before-seen data on philanthropy in the U.S.  You will see how philanthropy is distributed across the U.S.  You will get detailed information about philanthropy in the Top 50 markets, from NY, NY to Providence, RI, including:

  • How much philanthropy is from Foundations, Corporations and Individuals in each market
  • How philanthropy is distributed across the counties in each market
  • The top 10 Foundations, Corporations and Zip Codes for individual giving in each market

The Map of Opportunity pairs this critical data with easy to follow how-to guides to help your organization use the data to raise more money.  We show you how to:

  • Create a shared understanding of your philanthropic market(s) within your organization
  • Assess the long-term potential of your market(s) and others
  • Set revenue target(s) for the coming year

Get your copy today.  You won’t be disappointed.

The Map of Opportunity:  Philanthropy in the 381 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the U.S.

Yours in data and insights,

Anna, Ben, George, and Harleen
The Room40 Group

[Psst…  not convinced yet?  Check out a free download of the Executive Summary and a couple pages of each section.  Take a peek and then buy the other 160 pages with confidence.]

Who is the Room40 Group?
A consulting and advisory group, we work with the leadership of nonprofits to help their organizations improve, grow and change.  We created the Room40 Group to help nonprofits combine data and learning from peers in pursuit of better decisions, faster.

May 08
1

“Where is the Money?”

By | Cool Analysis, Philanthropy, Room40 News

“The need for our services feels endless. We must find the dollars to do more, but WHERE’s the money??”

We asked ourselves this question time and again as nonprofit executives.  It was so pressing – and so hard to answer – that we decided to dedicate ourselves to the data collection and analysis that would help us answer it.  After 2+ years of collecting, analyzing, sharing, testing, head-scratching and validating, we have some data and insights to share.  Data and insights that, we believe, will help nonprofits answer the question: “where can we raise more money?”

In May, we will release these insights as The Map of Opportunity: A practical Guide to Philanthropy in the U.S.  The Map, for the first time, reveals the distribution of the $333B in philanthropy in the U.S., showing the 381 metro areas from which 90% of it originates.  (Just look at all that space without dots — that’s the other 10%.  Yikes.)

The Map of Opportunity:  Philanthropy in the 381 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the U.S.

The Map is a practical guide to using the data to generate insights and take action, answering these critical questions:

  1. How much philanthropy is in my market?
  2. How much can I raise in my market over time?
  3. What revenue target should I set for next year?

The Map includes data on individual, corporate and foundation giving by county for the top 50 philanthropic markets in the U.S.

Sample Market Overview: Boston, Massachusetts

Three “Insight to Action” sections show you how to put the data to use:

  • Orient Leadership to Markets: Learn how to use The Map to create a shared understanding within your leadership team of the markets in which you raise money – a prerequisite for making better decisions faster.
  • Assess the Potential of Your Markets (and others):  One-third of what you raise can be explained by where you are.  We show you how to combine The Map with peer data to assess the potential of a market.
  • Set Your Annual Revenue Targets:  Now we get tactical and show you how to combine what you’ve learned about market potential with what you know about your internal pipeline, competence and capacity to help you set revenue targets for the next year.

Of course, there is no silver bullet; The Map alone won’t solve all our problems. However, it CAN inform and improve decision-making, helping you raise more money.

Keep an eye out for the big release in the coming weeks.  For $495, you can have your very own copy.  If you want to be sure not to miss it, drop us a line and we’ll put you on the pre-release list for an extra special note when it’s up for sale.  We’re excited to share it with you!

All the best,

Anna, Ben, George and Harleen
The Room40 Group

Apr 06
1

Good things come in 3s!

By | Growth strategy, Room40 News

Did we say good things? GREAT things. Check it out: rings in a circus; wheels on a tricycle; feet off the ground (and rising) De La Soul is; blind mice; Stooges; members in Destiny’s Child; ingredients in a BLT… we could go on.

Truly, three is a magic number. So in that spirit here’s a little update on the 3 awesome things that have been happening in Room40.

Growth strategy, baby!

We’ve been working with two amazing organizations:  ioby and Braven.

ioby (in our backyards) is a crowd-resourcing platform that provides neighbors with the tools and support they need to create positive change in their neighborhoods.  (Think: opposite of NIMBY.)  We are helping ioby’s leadership develop a strategy, financial model and growth plan to support 5000 projects a year.  Check them out!

For too long, being the first in your family to go to college also meant you weren’t as likely as your peers to get a good job. Braven is changing this – and attracting a lot of attention in the process!  We are working with Braven’s powerhouse team identifying the best growth strategy for them.

We’re always keen to learn about great organizations looking for help planning their growth or adjusting to having grown.  No surprise, some of our favorite projects have been for friends of friends.  So, don’t be shy: you are an excellent matchmaker.  Introduce us to your favorite nonprofit, we’ll do the rest!

Your on-going quest to find the $$!
(aka, “Can’t we get better at this fundraising business?!”)

We are *this close* to introducing our latest labor of love:  a map and practical guide to all the philanthropy in the U.S., broken down by individual, corporate, foundation with detailed stats for the top 50 metro areas.  And what to do about it.  Yeah, get your head around that:  how much $$ is in Boston, vs. San Fran, vs. NYC (and 47 others…) and how it can help you make better decisions, faster about revenue strategy and annual targets.  This is the data and “how to” that we were sharing via LinkedIn posts last fall.  It’s grown up to be a real (big) thing: data and “how to” you can’t live without.  If you want to get on the “pre-release” list, drop us a line.
Is it just you three?

Actually, no.  We loved being 3, but it couldn’t last forever.  We have a fabulous new Associate Harleen.  She comes to us from Boston College, having just spent a year in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in LA.  She has a passion for nonprofits, a great sense of humor and incredible tolerance for 40-somethings who think they are wicked smaht, pretty cool and exceptionally funny.  Yup – we found our unicorn.  And we’re looking for more! Know some people who would be a great fit for Room40? We’re all ears.

So, those are our 3… what are yours??  Drop us a line and let us know.  And don’t forget to introduce us to your old college roommate who is on that Board that is looking for a consultant to do a strategic plan.   We’ll tell them you’re still as smart and funny as you were back then.  Promise.

– The Room40 Team:  Anna, Ben, George and Harleen

May 11
1

Introducing the new Room40 Group!

By | Room40 News

Greetings from Room40, also known as Ben, George and Anna!

Room40 was founded not too long ago to help nonprofit organizations improve, grow and change. Ben and George, as nonprofit executives and former strategy consultants, experienced firsthand how the right analysis, knowhow, and better practices led to better decisions, faster.  Room40 was created to help nonprofits do just that.

Room40’s first 18 months has proven that lots of you agree! We have worked with over a dozen growing organizations across the country – many you would recognize – giving them a boost that makes it a little easier to change the world.  We also developed a new service unique in the nonprofit sector—Peer Performance Insights —that gives nonprofit leaders access to critical data about philanthropy.

Today we’re taking another big step forward!  Anna Fincke is joining The Room40 Group as a Partner.  Anna comes to Room40 with many years’ Executive and Board leadership experience.  Most recently, she was Vice President of Work Exchange Programs at CIEE, a nonprofit in Portland, Maine.  In this capacity, she led a $20M operating division bringing 30,000 young people to the U.S. each year for cultural exchange programs in a highly regulated and quickly changing environment.

We’ve known Anna a long time—the three of us all started in strategy consulting together many years ago.  We couldn’t be more ecstatic to get this particular band back together.

At Room40, we leverage our experience, our network, and data to help nonprofit leaders make better decisions faster based on lessons learned from others’ success.  Check out our website to learn more about what we do and how we can help your organization.

All the best,

Ben, George and Anna

The Room40 Group
Better decisions, faster.