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 inside a structure that no longer works for your life.

I had the career I thought I was supposed to want.

I worked in public policy in Washington, D.C. I became a director of digital communications strategy for a national nonprofit. Later, I became a program officer at a $500M private foundation. I earned my master’s in nonprofit management from Columbia because some part of me still thought I had to prove I was legit.

On paper, I’d done the thing.

I had the title, the salary, the credentials, and the mission-driven work.

But real life was telling a different story.

After becoming a mother and realizing that my work, health, family, and future were competing with each other, I knew something had to change.

I didn’t leave because I stopped caring about the work.

I left because that version of work no longer fit the life I needed to build.

Consulting became the vehicle that let me keep doing mission-driven work with more freedom, flexibility, income, and ownership.

But I learned very quickly that consulting isn’t just doing nonprofit work independently.

It’s building a business around your expertise.

And that’s the part most of us were never taught.

The part no one prepares you for

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

They start making business decisions.

Suddenly, you’re responsible for positioning, pricing, marketing, sales, scope, delivery, client communication, boundaries, and the systems that make the work sustainable.

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 can end up with underpriced projects, inconsistent clients, blurred boundaries, referral dependence, and a business that feels harder than it needs to.

That’s not a talent problem.

It’s a business structure problem.

Why Relatable Nonprofit exists

When I started consulting in 2021, 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 weren’t the right fit because any client felt better than no client.

And when I looked for help, most business advice 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 and consultants build the business side of their expertise: clear offers, stronger 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 and consultants who want to build consulting businesses that work in real life.

That includes people who are:

• Already consulting, but want stronger offers, pricing, positioning, systems, or boundaries

• Getting clients, but still feeling inconsistent, underpriced, or too dependent on referrals

• Booked, but overextended by custom work, unclear scope, or delivery that depends too much on them

• Transitioning into consulting with serious intent and a valuable nonprofit skill set

• 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 can be a legitimate next chapter

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.

Consulting is not a fallback plan.

It can be a professional, valuable, and strategic way to keep doing mission-driven work on better terms.

Sustainable businesses serve better

A consulting business built on undercharging, overdelivering, unclear scope, 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.

That requires clear offers, appropriate pricing, thoughtful communication, realistic timelines, and strong delivery 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 experienced nonprofit professionals should have more than one way to stay connected to mission-driven work.

For some people, that path is a nonprofit job.

For others, consulting becomes the vehicle that lets them keep serving the sector with more freedom, flexibility, income, and ownership.

We want more mission-driven professionals to know that meaningful work and a sustainable life can exist together.

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.

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