Idea Jar partners with you to create a customized approach to the challenges you are facing - based on experience in the field, engagement with you and your team, and research-backed frameworks and methodologies.
Need to refresh your vision, your programs, your team, and your measurements of success? We can partner with you to think forward, clarify your vision, measure your impact, and meaningfully engage with your Board, team, clients, and partners as you refine and refocus your strategy.
Is it time to think bigger? Let’s build on what you’ve achieved so far and think about how to expand your reach and multiply your impact.
Need to design meaningful conversations and get folks aligned around a shared vision? Whether you are convening a group for a fundraising event, a team retreat, or a Board strategy session, we can help you gain clarity on your objectives, design the experience, and facilitate the process from start to finish. We can make both the planning and the event fun, to boot.
Dreaming of starting a new venture to address a need and make a difference? We can help you understand your field, define your program structure, model your financials, create evaluation plans, design your organization, recruit your founding board and initial investors, develop your brand identity, and launch your new venture.
Feeling vexed by the constant and varied demands of leading a team? Want to reconnect with the inspiration and motivation that got you this far in your career? Leveraging 20 years of experience building and leading teams, we can be a thought partner to help you sort through your challenges, refocus on your strengths, strengthen your relationships, plan for the future, and lean into what brings you joy and purpose.
Transitions and disruptions are critical times in the life of your organization. An experienced, steady interim leader who can partner with the Board, support staff, reassure partners, and help the organization focus on what it most needs to pay attention to during these pivotal moments can help set up the new leader for success.
"Her ability to synthesize information, her highly organized process, and her skilled communication did more than keep us on track; they got us over huge hurdles. Paige is an invaluable partner as a strategic planning consultant and executive coach. Her generosity, empathy, depth of experience, rich resources, and, most of all, candid optimism have been the best help I could have ever asked for."
"She understands process, strategy and what it takes to run a high performing organization - because she ran one. Paige listens to understand and can develop plans for clients that meet their goals and exceed their expectations."
In the early days of building and growing One Million Degrees, the non-profit organization I led for almost a decade, I would have my best ideas in the shower and on the train to work each morning. I would rush into the office, breathless with excitement, and announce my newest (and best yet!) idea to anyone within earshot.
The brilliant young woman who worked at the desk closest to the door would give me a weary smile, a sigh, and an affectionate eye roll and remind me that she had given me an allocation of exactly one bright idea per day. The rest would need to go in what she had labeled Paige's Idea Jar.
What she helped me understand is that, to the folks responsible for implementation, the boss’s latest and greatest idea sounds like…well, it sounds like more work. And possibly a whole lot of work for relatively little return.
Idea Jar was created with the belief - derived from years of lived experience - that building and advancing an impactful and sustainable organization does take LOTS of ideas and a tremendous amount of energy and creativity.
But the inspiration part will only get you excited, at least if you’re the excitable type like me. It’s the dogged and thoughtful execution of only the best ideas that will get you, over time, the impact and the results you seek.
Paige Ponder brings over 20 years of experience building and leading innovative nonprofit organizations and designing and advancing strategic initiatives in the impact sector.
She has built great teams, developed leaders, designed and launched growth strategies, raised money, and found great joy in the struggle (most days).
