Strategic Advising and Consutling

Through strategic advising and consulting, we help our partners build and implement impactful initiatives that strengthen the power of proximate leaders working to drive systems change around the world.

Our Approach

Our approach provides donors with a customized and collaborative path to social impact. Tides advisors work hand-in-hand with our partners to turn their visions into sustainable, justice-driven solutions.

For donors interested in moving beyond standard grantmaking, our strategic advising and consulting services offer a springboard to create innovative strategies and programs that reach across organizations, industries, and communities to drive transformative systems change.

Strategic Advising and Consulting is for Donors Who are Ready to…

Shift Power to Proximate Leaders

Tides builds bridges between funders and leaders who are working on the ground to break down systemic barriers to justice. We collaborate with our partners to devise programs that move resources, money, and power directly to communities historically denied power.
Center Community-Driven Solutions

Communities that face systemic barriers have the knowledge to realize a just and equitable future. Tides helps our partners apply equity-centered approaches, like participatory grantmaking and co-design, to disrupt power imbalances inherent in traditional philanthropy and center the needs and expertise of proximate leaders.
Collaborate to Reach Their Social Impact Goals

Through customized social impact advising, Tides works closely with our partners to design creative and complex initiatives from the ground up. Our advisors bring together diverse perspectives and tools to strengthen grantmaking strategies, unite multiple stakeholders to pursue shared goals, and expand the capacity of our partners and their teams.
Move Resources Toward Equitable Solutions

We develop strategies that center those with lived experience, build trust, and amplify diverse perspectives to create sustainable solutions for systems change. Our approach provides partners with a platform to explore fresh ideas, new connections, and alternative ways of working — driving greater, more equitable impact led by proximate leaders and their communities.

Strategic Advising That Advances Social Justice

By working in collaboration with Tides, our partners have an opportunity to push their philanthropic initiatives further than they could on their own through:

Grantmaking Strategies

Grantmaking strategy development
Philanthropic vision and blueprint
RFP design and management
Trust-based philanthropy and participatory grantmaking strategies

Corporate Social Impact Strategies

Corporate social impact strategy and implementation
Corporate and nonprofit partnerships and commercial co-ventures
Corporate employee engagement strategies

Collaborative Programs and Community Engagement

Collective action and network-based program development and implementation
Pooled fund development and funder collaborative facilitation
Grantee and community engagement
Capacity building program design and management
Complex and multi-stakeholder program management

Why Tides?

Every effort, action, and relationship at Tides is in service of helping leaders on the ground move us all toward a just and equitable future.

Connection

Through our strategic advising services, our partners forge new connections with a dedicated and diverse community of changemakers, sparking initiatives that directly support work led by proximate leaders.

Equity

Our work is grounded in equity and the pursuit of justice. We understand that equitable outcomes are the result of equitable processes. That’s why our advisors center those with lived experience and challenge our partners to transform inequitable systems and trust diverse perspectives.

Innovation

Our advisors work in deep partnership with changemakers across the social sector to develop innovative strategies and initiatives that will shift resources and power to community leaders and organizations that have been historically denied both.

Expertise

Our expertise runs deep, spanning philanthropy, nonprofits, and key social justice issue areas. With a commitment to excellence in all we do, Tides turns our partners’ visions into a collective force for social justice.

Community Stories

Celebrate the ingenuity and tenacity of the bold visionaries working with Tides to foster change.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation collaborated with Tides to strengthen its Postsecondary Success strategy focused on advancing equitable student outcomes. Discover how our partnership united organizations from across the US to improve policies and practices dedicated to building more inclusive learning environments and improving graduation rates, especially among students from underrepresented communities.

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Who We Advise

Our advisors work in deep partnership with justice-minded individuals, families, foundations, and government and corporate partners to match their philanthropic and strategic priorities with social impact. While many of our consulting partners also hold grantmaking funds at Tides, this is not a requirement for engaging Tides’ strategic advising and consulting services.