Amplify good.
Some of the best work in this country gets completed under the trickiest conditions, by organisations trying to make a difference on a shoestring budget, with overworked humans plugging the gaps where they can. We see them, we have been in and alongside them, and after years of consulting we know it does not have to be this way.
This is why we choose to help the people doing good, do more.
What could you do with more time, capability or money?
We have spent a lot of our lives both working in these organisations and working alongside them. Between us we have spent close to sixty years wrangling government challenges from the inside and the outside, in defence, health, employment, biosecurity, national security, youth justice and community services. Through this, we have learned and honed our strategic design, co-design and problem-solving skills through creative and unordinary approaches.
We know first hand that unless something changes, nothing changes, and now more than ever, the status quo is untenable. This is not about being different to be difficult; it is about strategically sitting with challenges, exploring different opportunities, and intentionally moving beyond admiring a problem. We love these challenges, the messy middles and connecting the moving pieces in the system. And we know that we are stronger moving through these challenges with friends.
It depends on the challenge at hand.
We always love to start with your intent. What do you want to do, and what might be preventing you or slowing you down? From there, we work out what would meaningfully move the dial for you.
And we hear you. For most of the organisations we work with, the idea of stopping to figure that out is laughable. We get it, because we have been there.
We have all been the duck.
The one frantically paddling and trying to stay calm on the surface. This is what working within a complex system can feel like, especially if you are supporting efforts to uphold a system that is supposed to support everyone, but in reality the majority of mainstream systems are a poor fit for many and a terrible fit if you do not fit the status quo. The responsibility to plug those gaps often comes down to the organisations we want to work with, to balance the scales for the communities you support, represent and care for.
In short, we help you calm that paddling, so your efforts generate meaningful system change. Or at the very least give you a couple of hours back in your day.
Let’s not fight over crumbs when we can focus on the whole damn pie.
We believe that everyone should have enough.
This does not have to be a rosy-eyed, blue-sky, utopian vision that will never be realised. We feel that it can and should be realised. This is why we have chosen to spend our time amplifying good. As part of that, we make sure people are paid appropriately for their time and expertise, and we look for creative opportunities to ensure that happens.
We believe that everyone should have enough.
How we help.
Find the time, find the funds
If you are producing good in the community, it is generally at the expense of time or money. Through our partnership with Fundraiz.ai we can find donors and manage the automated processes that build and maintain engagement. We can find, apply for and manage grants, or find philanthropic opportunities. Sometimes it is about working out what is eating your time, and then looking at automation or AI support.
Solutions that get designed, not picked
We harness the collective genius of experts and people with lived experience to define the best way forward, then we go and find funding for it. Grant programs and departmental budgets are built to fund known items at known unit costs, within existing categories. Systems challenges live across levels of government, departments and organisations. We connect those systems to find workable solutions, married to where funds are actually available.
Twenty-five cents in every dollar
We are open to more traditional consulting work for both the private sector and government. Where we take on these roles, 25 cents of every dollar of revenue we earn goes back into funding initiatives that improve the greater good.
If you are doing good, we would like to hear from you.
You do not have to be a not-for-profit or a charity. You just have to be trying to make a difference in the world in your particular way, and be interested in getting a hand or offering a hand.
What we are thinking about
Beyond the binary (no, not that one)
Doing nothing with AI is not low risk. It is high risk, dressed as caution.
No one cares about your change
You have done your stakeholder analysis, mapped your impacts, and built your comms plan.
Are you being served?
I was talking to someone recently about their AI-powered recruitment process. They were proud of it.