We help clients that are looking for growth and sustainability. Whether you are a leader or an organization that needs thought partnership, advice, or resources, we can help provide a range of capacity building services with a focus on board training, leadership development, strategic planning, and negotiating and implementing partnerships between organizations.
“I am grateful to have worked with Genita in developing Willie’s Warriors (a leadership program for Black women) at the Chicago Foundation for Women. She stepped up and filled in to provide much needed additional support with little fanfare when the organization needed it. She was organized, thoughtful, reliable, and brought her full set of experiences and networks to the initiative.”
– K Sujata, Former President/CEO, Chicago Foundation for Women
Assessing, training, and recruiting board members
Providing professional development and coaching for nonprofit executives individually, as part of a cohort, or with leadership teams
Advise nonprofit and philanthropic leaders on exploring and implementing long-term and permanent partnership to expand mission impact
Setting goals and developing strategic plans
Designing, evaluating, or re-designing programs to align with goals and resources
Leading an organization on an interim basis or providing project management
Creating community outreach strategies and execution plans
Establishing policy and creating authorization and renewal processes for educational programs
Advising on and implementing effective grant-making
We have worked with organizations with budgets less than $500,000 and as large as $80 million. We have a deep background supporting foundations, other capacity builders, and education organizations, and we appreciate the values and challenges within all sectors.
Board Training
Our founder Genita’s expertise for developing effective boards and leaders comes from her extensive experience. She has been a Board Member of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the ACLU of Illinois, Leadership Greater Chicago (LGC) Fellows Association, Cook County Justice for Children, and the Illinois Women’s Institute for Leadership. She is a graduate of IWIL, LGC, and Edgar Fellows, and she also served on the Board of Ethics for the City of Chicago and the Serve Illinois Commission.
Sample results:
• Genita worked with a longstanding nonprofit whose board had approximately two dozen members. Board meeting attendance was very low (less than 50%) as was board giving, with one-third of members giving less than $250 and 20% donating $50 or less annually. Genita worked closely with the Governance Committee to reduce the size of the board through a new 360-degree evaluation process. Approximately one-third of the board members resigned or were removed. Board attendance climbed to 75% and was trending upwards at the end of the engagement. The board achieved a 100% giving rate, with remaining members increasing their gifts. After less than two years, the board brought on three new members and had three additional new members in their pipeline.
• Genita provided a series of training to a small nonprofit to assist them in their transition from a founding board to governing board. After the first training, which focused on roles and responsibilities, the board: developed and implemented an orientation and exit process; recruited two new board members; and restructured all board committees and eliminated one. Follow-up trainings, including one focused specifically on the board’s role as fundraisers, resulted in a 50% increase in the number of board members making personal cash gifts and several formerly reluctant members setting individual plans to reach out to others for the organization’s year-end appeal.
Leadership Development
We are adept at co-creating and holding space for leaders to explore common challenges and develop tailored solutions. Working with the Chicago Foundation for Women, we designed the Willie’s Warriors Black Women’s Leadership Initiative from outreach and recruitment, through selection and orientation, culminating in an engaging six-month program. Foundations such as Robert R. McCormick and Lohengrin have relied on us to create high-quality peer learning communities for their grantees.
Strategic Planning
We create positive results through short and long-term planning projects and systems change for our clients. We root our planning process in the values of inclusion and equity. Throughout the process, we are highly attuned to our client’s explicit and implicit needs. For organizations such as Public Narrative and Sounds Good Choir, we have created thoughtful plans that reflect stakeholders’ values and focus on increasing impact and sustainability.
Partnerships
For five years through a fractional leadership consulting contract, we led the Mission Sustainability Initiative at Forefront, which focused on strengthening the social impact sector by building a learning culture and resources around long-term and permanent nonprofit partnerships. We supported a 17-member Funders Committee, making grant recommendations and monitoring grantee progress; convened a 28-person Advisory Committee comprised of nonprofit leaders and advisors to nonprofits; and educated the sector about the benefit of partnerships through workshops, webinars, articles, and a half-day summit.
Board Training
Our founder Genita’s expertise for developing effective boards and leaders comes from her extensive experience. She has been a Board Member of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the ACLU of Illinois, Leadership Greater Chicago (LGC) Fellows Association, Cook County Justice for Children, and the Illinois Women’s Institute for Leadership. She is a graduate of IWIL, LGC, and Edgar Fellows, and she also served on the Board of Ethics for the City of Chicago and the Serve Illinois Commission.
Sample results:
• Genita worked with a longstanding nonprofit whose board had approximately two dozen members. Board meeting attendance was very low (less than 50%) as was board giving, with one-third of members giving less than $250 and 20% donating $50 or less annually. Genita worked closely with the Governance Committee to reduce the size of the board through a new 360-degree evaluation process. Approximately one-third of the board members resigned or were removed. Board attendance climbed to 75% and was trending upwards at the end of the engagement. The board achieved a 100% giving rate, with remaining members increasing their gifts. After less than two years, the board brought on three new members and had three additional new members in their pipeline.
• Genita provided a series of training to a small nonprofit to assist them in their transition from a founding board to governing board. After the first training, which focused on roles and responsibilities, the board: developed and implemented an orientation and exit process; recruited two new board members; and restructured all board committees and eliminated one. Follow-up trainings, including one focused specifically on the board’s role as fundraisers, resulted in a 50% increase in the number of board members making personal cash gifts and several formerly reluctant members setting individual plans to reach out to others for the organization’s year-end appeal.
Leadership Development
We are adept at co-creating and holding space for leaders to explore common challenges and develop tailored solutions. Working with the Chicago Foundation for Women, we designed the Willie’s Warriors Black Women’s Leadership Initiative from outreach and recruitment, through selection and orientation, culminating in an engaging six-month program. Foundations such as Robert R. McCormick and Lohengrin have relied on us to create high-quality peer learning communities for their grantees.
Strategic Planning
We create positive results through short and long-term planning projects and systems change for our clients. We root our planning process in the values of inclusion and equity. Throughout the process, we are highly attuned to our client’s explicit and implicit needs. For organizations such as Public Narrative and Sounds Good Choir, we have created thoughtful plans that reflect stakeholders’ values and focus on increasing impact and sustainability.
Partnerships
For five years through a fractional leadership consulting contract, we led the Mission Sustainability Initiative at Forefront, which focused on strengthening the social impact sector by building a learning culture and resources around long-term and permanent nonprofit partnerships. We supported a 17-member Funders Committee, making grant recommendations and monitoring grantee progress; convened a 28-person Advisory Committee comprised of nonprofit leaders and advisors to nonprofits; and educated the sector about the benefit of partnerships through workshops, webinars, articles, and a half-day summit.
Genita Robinson’s (she/her) experience, passion, and skills for raising awareness and building support for unique causes has earned her the respect of clients, colleagues, political figures, and the media alike.
Genita founded GCR Consulting, her Chicago-based advisory practice, in 2008. A graduate of the University of Chicago Law School with legal experience in commercial litigation and juvenile justice, Genita has focused her career on the non-profit, education, government, and political sectors. Leveraging her broad experience and her relationships with a vast network of mission-focused institutions and service providers, Genita makes warm introductions and connections that benefit her clients.
GCR Consulting has the agility to meet the needs of clients. We handle projects of varying sizes and scopes.
GCR Consulting is MBE/WBE certified with the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. We consider equity a crucial component of all our projects.
Michele Stine (she/they) has spent the last decade in Chicago working in arts nonprofits as an educator and administrator. Her focus is on social emotional learning and literacy using theatre performance as a vehicle. At GCR Consulting she supports the team with project editing, project management, copy editing, and marketing. Michele received her Bachelor of Science in Political Science and Theatre Performance from Illinois State University.
Ari Wilson (they/them) has been a Program Assistant with GCR Consulting since the end of 2023. They have experience working with a variety of nonprofits, including the International Rescue Committee, the YWCA of Northwest Louisiana, and On Earth Peace. Ari received their Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Centenary College of Louisiana and now lives in the Twin Cities.
Genita was a huge help in providing advice and structure for my goals as I was starting my new business. She expertly guided me through the steps of the process and helped me to take the business idea from concept to reality. I would highly recommend Genita as a business advisor.
Tamara Jensen
President and Senior Consultant, TÆNKE LLC
