About Relatable Nonprofit

Hi, I’m Cat.

I know what it feels like to love nonprofit work and still wonder how much longer you can keep doing it this way.

To care deeply about the mission, serve at a high level, and quietly feel like the work is taking more from you than it’s giving back.

To have the title, the salary, the experience, and the “dream job” on paper, while your actual life is telling a very different story.

That was me.

I climbed the nonprofit career ladder quickly. By my mid-twenties, I was leading digital communications strategy for a national nonprofit in Washington, D.C. Later, I became a program officer at a $500M private foundation. I even got a master’s in nonprofit management from an Ivy League school because some part of me still thought I had to prove I was legit.

On paper, I had done the thing.

In real life, I was burned out, anxious, depressed, and trying to hold together a version of success that was no longer sustainable.

The problem wasn’t that I couldn’t handle nonprofit work.

The problem was that I’d been trained to confuse over-functioning with excellence.

I didn’t leave because I stopped caring.

I left because the traditional job container stopped working for my life.

I still cared about mission-driven work. I still wanted to support nonprofits. I still believed in the sector.

I just couldn’t keep sacrificing my health, family, time, and future to prove I was committed.

Consulting made sense.

I had real nonprofit experience. I understood the sector. Organizations needed the skills I’d spent years building.

What I didn’t understand yet was that consulting isn’t just doing nonprofit work independently.

It’s building a business around your expertise.

And that’s the part most nonprofit jobs never teach you.

The part no one prepares you for

When nonprofit professionals start consulting, they don’t just change roles.

They change identities.

Suddenly, you’re responsible for positioning, pricing, marketing, sales, scope, delivery, client communication, boundaries, and business decisions.

You’re not only doing the work anymore.

You’re running the business.

Most nonprofit professionals were trained to be useful inside organizations, not to build businesses around their expertise.

So even highly capable people end up with underpriced projects, inconsistent clients, blurred boundaries, referral dependence, and income that feels harder than it should.

That’s not a talent problem.

It’s a business foundation problem.

Why Relatable Nonprofit exists

When I started consulting, I made the mistakes a lot of nonprofit professionals make at first.

I offered too many things.

I underpriced.

I relied too heavily on referrals.

I took projects that didn’t fit because any client felt better than no client.

I looked for advice, but most business coaching felt too generic, too bro-marketing, or completely disconnected from how nonprofit buyers actually make decisions.

Once I built the right foundation and started treating consulting like a real business, everything changed.

I grew my business to $300K in annual revenue by year four and built a business that felt more structured, professional, and sustainable.

That experience became the foundation for Relatable Nonprofit.

Today, Relatable Nonprofit helps nonprofit professionals build consulting businesses with the business skills most nonprofit jobs never taught them: clear offers, confident pricing, ethical sales, client acquisition, scope control, delivery systems, and boundaries that protect real life.

Because you don’t have to burn yourself out to prove you care.

Who Relatable Nonprofit helps

Relatable Nonprofit is for current and former nonprofit professionals who want to build consulting businesses that work in real life.

That includes people who are:

• Exploring consulting after burnout, job dissatisfaction, a layoff, or a major life transition

• Turning years of nonprofit experience into a clear consulting offer

• Newly consulting and trying to find clients, price their work, and sell with more confidence

• Already working with clients but feeling inconsistent, underpriced, overcustomized, or too dependent on referrals

• Ready to build a business with more structure, sustainability, and ownership

You don’t need to have every piece figured out before you begin.

You do need to understand that your expertise deserves a real business model around it.

What we believe

Money is a mission tool

Money isn’t the opposite of mission.

It’s what allows mission-driven people to stay in the work, support their families, hire help, give generously, and serve clients well without constantly operating from stress.

Wanting financial stability doesn’t make you less mission-driven.

It makes you responsible.

Consulting is evolution

Leaving nonprofit employment doesn’t mean leaving the mission.

For many experienced nonprofit professionals, consulting is the next evolution of their work. It lets them keep serving the sector with more ownership, flexibility, and sustainability.

Boundaries strengthen impact

Clear scope, pricing, communication, timelines, and expectations make the work better.

For the consultant.

For the client.

For the mission.

Boundaries aren’t a barrier to good work. They’re part of how good work stays good.

Sustainability is ethical

A business built on undercharging, overdelivering, and constant urgency will eventually cost too much.

Sustainable service means building a business that can hold your work, your life, your capacity, and your clients without turning into another burnout cycle.

Professionalism beats martyr culture

Good intentions aren’t enough.

Consulting works best when expertise is packaged clearly, priced appropriately, sold ethically, and delivered with strong standards.

The goal isn’t to build a business that looks impressive online.

The goal is to build one that works in real life.

The bigger vision

Relatable Nonprofit exists because the nonprofit sector needs experienced people to stay in the work without sacrificing themselves to do it.

We want a sector where mission-driven professionals don’t have to choose between meaningful work and a sustainable life.

We want more nonprofit experts to understand that consulting can be a legitimate, professional career path.

And we want nonprofits to have access to skilled consultants who know the sector, respect the work, and bring clear, professional support.

That’s the work here.

Helping nonprofit professionals build the business side of their expertise so they can keep doing mission-driven work on better terms.

Start where you are

If you’re wondering what kind of consulting work could fit your nonprofit experience, start with the free quiz.

It’ll help you identify the consulting path that best fits your skills, goals, and next chapter.

Take the Quiz

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Relatable Nonprofit® is a registered trademark of Devine and Parker Consulting Inc.