Ascendant helps organizations increase their social impact
As a leader of a social enterprise, you've undoubtedly been called upon to prove your impact, do more with less, grow capabilities but not overhead, and ensure that your program dollars are being well spent. These are the challenges that Ascendant tackles on a daily basis.
We're social entrepreneurs focused exclusively focused on helping mission-driven organizations achieve their mission more rapidly, effectively, and measurably. With extensive experience in performance management, we help organizations of all sizes to:

1. Prove impact to stakeholders and donors
2. Increase leadership and management effectiveness
3. Develop organizational capacity for growth
4. Align strategic and operational goals and projects

...allowing leadership teams to make decisions, manage board expectations, justify budgets, align resources with strategy and report results to stakeholders.

Prove impact to stakeholders and donors
Prove it. You entered this space to make a difference, and undoubtedly you are doing so. But can you prove it? Do you have a reliable measurement system in place that proves your impact to your donors, your board, your employees, and your customers? What measures resonate with your funders, and what measures help you understand if you're making the right decisions? We help organizations develop and deploy measurement systems that encourage the right behavior and tell the story of your strategy.
Contact us to learn more about proving impact »

Increase leadership and management effectiveness
Do you have the right people doing the right jobs? Are you sure? Are you getting as much out of your leadership team as you could, or are you shouldering more of the burden than you should? Do people understand how what they're doing on a daily basis contributes to the overall success of your organization? Getting your organization aligned around a your strategy is critical to your success. We help organizations develop performance management systems that ensure there is alignment from the board member all the way through to the front-line volunteer.
Contact us to learn more about increasing effectiveness »

Develop organizational capacity for growth
It's a paradox: You need to grow your infrastructure in order to improve the amount and quality of the services you deliver, but your funders want all of their capital to go to programs, not "overhead." How do you develop the organizational capacity for growth if your overhead is constrained? How do you show the link between organizational capacity and program delivery? We help organizations develop the cause and effect "strategy map" of their organization to show how unrestricted donations are put to use.
Contact us to learn more about increasing organizational capacity »

Align strategic and operational goals and projects
What's strategic? What's tactical? What's a special project and what's business as usual? Where should we invest for growth, and where should we pull back? When should we partner and when should we go it alone? Without a clear understanding of your strategy and your portfolio of projects, these questions are almost unanswerable. We help organizations get control over their project portfolios so that they can make rational and unemotional decisions about what should be funded this year, what can be deferred, and what is not strategic.
Contact us to learn more about aligning programs and goals »

About Ascendant
Ascendant is a different kind of consultancy. Our mission is to help social and public sector organizations increase their impact. We work with leading nonprofits, government agencies, and foundations to develop performance management systems that enable organizations to better achieve their mission.
Ascendant was founded by strategy management experts with a passion for making a difference in the world. Our focus is on advancing management of non-profits, associations, and foundations. We believe we can do this by working closely with our clients in implementingstrategy management and measurement frameworks as well as creating a collaborative environment to help them work closely with their donors and peers to accomplish their missions.

Our founding staff and connected partners all have more than 10 years of experience in implementing the Balanced Scorecard, but they also have extensive experience in working with non-profit organizations. We have helped large government organizations as well as small regional non-profits. We have worked closely with foundations and associations. Our work is typically at the senior executive level and directly with the board of directors.

Contact Ascendant
Please contact Ascendant today at (617) 379-0918 or info@ascendantsmg.com to learn more about how we can help your organization increase its social impact.  Please also visit us online at http://www.ascendantsmg.com to learn more about our services and products to help organizations better achieve their mission.