I recently had a couple of meetings with a prospective client I’m really excited about. The work they’re doing is fascinating, and during our conversations they asked some thoughtful questions about our capacity, how many clients we take on, how our team works, and what kind of support we can realistically provide.
It occurred to me that I haven’t written about that here in a while.
If you follow this blog regularly, you’ve probably noticed that I talk a lot about the organizations we serve, the funding landscape, and the lessons we’re learning along the way. What I don’t talk about very often is how our own shop is structured.
So today I thought I’d pull back the curtain a little bit.
A Boutique Consultancy by Design
KFA Nonprofit is intentionally a boutique consultancy. While we are generalists who work across a wide range of sectors, from early childhood education to housing, behavioral health, rural health, workforce development, and community revitalization, we are also a very small, tight-knit team.
We call ourselves The Best Team on Earth, and I mean it.
Right now, I have two active, permanent team members. A third is currently on what I’m considering an extended leave while pursuing a personal and professional passion project that I wholeheartedly support. I’m a big believer that people should invest in the things that matter to them, and when you have great people on your team, supporting them through those seasons is just the right thing to do.
In addition to our core team, we maintain a network of about half a dozen ad hoc consultants we call on when specialized expertise is needed. Some projects require evaluation specialists. Others require clinical subject matter experts or academic researchers in specific fields.
Our chief operating officer, Carla, and I both come from higher education backgrounds. Over the years we’ve built relationships with some brilliant people, people with long strings of letters after their names, and we are fortunate to be able to bring them into a project when the work calls for it.
Why We Stay Small
That said, I am a stickler for quality control.
This company bears my name, and not a word goes out the door without me reading it.
Every proposal narrative, every strategic document, every major deliverable crosses my desk before it reaches a client or a funder. That level of oversight simply isn’t possible if the firm grows beyond a certain size.
Because of that, I’ve always refused to grow beyond my ability to maintain that standard.
Our client portfolio includes four to six active organizations at any given time, plus two additional clients for each full-time grant writer on the team. That structure allows us to provide highly attentive service while still maintaining the bandwidth needed to pursue complex funding opportunities.
It also means we know our clients extremely well.
We’re not just writing one-off proposals. We’re helping organizations think strategically about funding pipelines, program design, partnerships, and long-term sustainability. That kind of work requires time, focus, and genuine partnership.
And those things don’t scale infinitely.
The Glue That Holds Everything Together
Speaking of partnership, I currently employ the best executive assistant I’ve ever had.
About twenty-five years ago, when we were both young, recent college grads with full time, entry-level jobs, and trying to launch our professional careers, we worked shoulder-to-shoulder on the weekends serving up cheeseburgers, slinging beers, and occasionally breaking up bar fights.
Those were long nights and hard work, but you learn a lot about people in an environment like that.
If someone can keep their cool when a crowded bar goes sideways on karaoke night, they can definitely handle the organized chaos that comes with managing our calendars, booking our travel, and pushing our newsletter out the door every week (apparently, even when she has the flu and doesn’t mention it).
She keeps us organized, keeps us moving, and occasionally keeps us out of trouble.
Every good team needs someone like that. We have the best.
An Opportunity to Grow (Carefully)
Recently, an opportunity emerged that I’m genuinely excited about.
One of the best grant writers I’ve encountered in the past twenty years has expressed interest in joining our team. Quite honestly, this is probably the one person I would most like to add to our core staff.
If that comes together the way I hope it will, it means we’ll be able to expand our client portfolio slightly while still maintaining the quality and oversight that define our work.
Practically speaking, that means two additional client slots opening up in our portfolio.
Not twenty.
Not ten.
Two.
Because again, the goal is not to build the biggest consulting firm. The goal is to build the best one we can manage well.
Timing Matters
In a couple of weeks, I’ll be traveling to Nashville for the national Rx Summit, where I expect to reconnect with many of the nonprofit leaders and partners we’ve worked with over the years.
There’s a good chance those two new portfolio openings will be filled during that trip.
So if you’ve been thinking about engaging with us this year, whether for grant strategy, proposal development, or long-term funding planning, this might be a good time to start that conversation.
Our capacity is limited by design.
But that’s exactly what allows us to do our best work.