Fundraising and Development
Method: Dexterity’s approach to development is equal parts art and science. Dexterity works with clients to understand donors and funders, then tailors an approach that appeals to donors' giving interests and supports the client to cultivate personal relationships and individualized materials. This work is balanced by consistent follow-through, scheduling, tracking, and engagement to ensure success. Dexterity can expand donor and corporate support pools by leveraging networks and designing systematic follow up. Finally, through its detailed tracking and management processes, Dexterity ensures that all donors receive timely information, acknowledgments, and follow-up as needed.
Experience: Dexterity Management’s grant writers have 50 combined years of experience in grant writing, individual donor cultivation, and corporate sponsorship development. We have worked with major national and international foundations; have successfully written local, state, and federal grants; managed teams of grant writers; and overseen a spectrum of grants management activities. In addition, we have led strategic corporate and individual outreach efforts.
Staff Management and Training
Method: Dexterity Management LLC ensures that staff members’ skills and aptitudes fit their positions so they and their organization can thrive. Dexterity combines asset-based work with tactical individual and group planning to achieve successful, measurable staff performance and organizational success. Dexterity facilitates the development of annual organizational goals and works with teams and individuals to establish goals and work plans that align with these goals. Through this process, Dexterity assists in identifying organizational and staff development needs to accomplish the goals throughout the year. This approach ensures that staff have both a clear vision for how their work fits into the organizational strategy and measurable performance outcomes. Dexterity also provides one-on-one and team training on management and leadership development, including coaching emerging leaders.
Experience: Dexterity Management LLC team members have won acclaim for the ability to motivate and direct staff. Our work is to support organizations, but not make them dependent on our work. As we start any project, we align our exit strategy so that clients can understand the process and recognize when the work will fall under their purview.
As a first responder to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Molly managed the 10-member special projects team whose mission was to respond to operational and management issues, working closely with the 600 field operatives, diagnose problems, and partner with stakeholders to solve these problems. Over 80% of the staff members were new to disasters and most lacked formal professional training. Singer was one of four leaders asked to return to the site for additional strategic support during a management change.
Strategic Planning
Method: Dexterity Management LLC has developed strategic planning tools that work. Our methods help organizations identify assets and gaps; define organizational and field needs and opportunities; develop goals and create a step-wise process to achieve those goals. These tools include complementary implementation components so organizations can track progress and shift efforts to work on new goals and objectives, as milestones are met.
Experience: Dexterity team members benefit from having participated in and facilitated strategic planning at international, national and community-based organizations as well as with governmental entities. We have worked on strategic planning teams during leadership transition. Dexterity’s special skills are in creating achievable strategic plans that connect an organization’s passion and vision with realistic opportunities and practical realities. We ask targeted questions and direct conversation in moving through a strategic plan block.
We helped one national local government association differentiate favorite programs from priority and financially viable ones by developing an analysis process that focused on agreed upon priorities and needs and removed pet projects discussions.
Business Continuity
Method: Dexterity Management LLC helps organizations determine and prepare to deliver most critical services during or after a business interruption such as extreme weather, power outages, epidemics, and/or man-made disasters. Dexterity ensures that your organization has a documented disaster preparedness plan and process redundancies to achieve continuity of critical business functions. Dexterity works with organizational staff to implement regular tests and response exercises to identify gaps, protect critical business processes, and ensure maintenance of services. Dexterity creates a maturity model that prescribes steps and activities over a multi-year period to implement readiness plans. She has experience in a range of settings from helping critical care organizations ensure that sick clients receive services; to homeland security settings; to major financial organizations, ensuring that $8 billion a day of federal funding is not at risk.
Experience: Dexterity Team members supported Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) executives during Hurricane Katrina, when they worked closely with local, state, federal, private and non-profit entities to address the multiple dimensions of disaster response and recovery. After Hurricane Katrina, they were asked to lead a team for Freddie Mac to develop a business continuity plan for the organization’s $851 billion in assets, working directly with Freddie Mac’s C-level leaders and making recommendations for improved procedures and legal compliance.
Network and Coalition Excellence
Method: Through facilitation and engagement Dexterity has worked with a range of coalitions, networks and associations to define purpose and ensure that the collaborative outcomes are greater than the sum of their parts. This happens through careful facilitation with stakeholders, comparison of similar opportunities and defined goals and outcomes. Dexterity can provide soup-to-nuts management of all aspects of collaboratives, reducing the member burden and increasing member engagement.
Experience: Singer has supported national coalitions, inter-agency working groups, community collaboratives and public / private / government efforts to ensure that multi-partnered projects are designed with a mission, have clear roles and expectations, and are resourced to accomplish their goals. She also works to support the operations as a champion and backbone of the effort to leverage participants’ engagement most effectively, ensuring that they have the information, inspiration and resources to participate.
Organizational Creation / Change Management
Method: Through organizational, facilitative and non-profit skills, Dexterity can help launch a new organization with a programmatic plan, strategies for growth, staffing, funding and board management. Likewise, Dexterity supports staff and leaders to manage through organizational change and re-alignment. Dexterity’s approach ensures that changes to mission, programs, infrastructure and cultural aspects are balanced in order to build a stronger organization.
Experience: Dexterity team members careers were distinguished by their ability to start up and grow organizations, programs, projects. There are three parts to this success:
Listen carefully to others’ ideas, vision, and concerns, And ask the probing questions to clarify thinking.
Understand the climate of where the organization or team wants to be—what does it require to succeed—what elements does the team have and need?
Include everyone, especially the partners who challenge you. Embrace their challenge.
Singer was called upon to manage the International City County Management Association’s 10,700 members’ collective response to 9/11. She designed a program to work with local government professionals, cull and share best practices, prioritize needs and identify partners. From there she reached out to state and national organizations around data needs and management and mutual support. The combination of national stress, local resource needs and the demands for local government leaders made this one of the most challenging and rewarding projects because all of the dynamics were continually at play.