High-functioning nonprofits play a critical role in both holding the fabric of society together and improving the lives of our citizens.

As a company, we believe it’s critically important to value nonprofits and the people who work in them for the integral role they play in solving society's toughest challenges.

Without nonprofits, the most vulnerable among us would fall through the cracks, perpetuating cycles of poverty, trauma, addiction, abandonment, and violence in our communities.

Since 1999, Beth Wonson has led, served on boards of, worked in, and consulted with nonprofits nationwide. This extensive experience gives her unique insight into where even the strongest and healthiest nonprofits need to strengthen and focus internally to fulfill their missions.

Beth's dedication to the nonprofit sector is evident through her involvement with Social Venture Philanthropy of Sacramento and Impact 100 of Sacramento. Through these organizations and other channels, Beth ardently advocates for funding to build capacity, strengthen leadership, and ensure sustainability within nonprofits.

Some of Our Nonprofit Clients

BWC Products & Services for Nonprofits

Many nonprofits are so focused on securing funding and delivering services that they often overlook their most valuable asset—their employees. At the same time, organizations and staff face an increasing number of conversations where communication is messy, emotionally charged, or leads to unhealthy conflict. Without skillful practice, breakdowns in communication can result in a loss of trust, collaborations falling apart, progress stalling, and group dynamics feeling toxic. 

All of Our Work is Founded on Navigating Challenging Dialogue®

Navigating Challenging Dialogue® is a toolkit for building trust by developing self-awareness, emotional self-regulation, empathy, and curiosity. These skills are necessary for teams to be effective in communication, leadership, and for incorporating coaching skills into the work environment.  When we work with your team, we not only address a specific pain point, but also simultaneously empower staff, build trust, and strengthen teams.

Our Navigating Challenging Dialogue programs are designed to support nonprofits to better focus on their goals and impact by:

• Creating a common language and system for resolving conflict.

• Teaching leaders, staff, volunteers, and board members how to have effective conversations, even when it feels risky, with a focus on the good of the whole.

• Helping staff identify and move through cross-team concerns.

• Increasing accountability and trust.

• Building leadership and people management skills that are often lacking: being effective in communication, feedback, conflict resolution, coaching in the workplace, and strategy skills.

Navigating Challenging Dialogue® Workshops 

• Navigating Challenging Dialogue® Essentials: Our flagship leadership and communication workshop for all levels of staff. Using their own real-life challenges, your team will come together to practice the proven tools for effective, fact-based dialogue, even when communication feels risky. This course transforms how you engage with others and handle conflicts, and you leave able to effectively apply the process to your situations. As a result, your team develops a shared language and set of norms for using NCD in the workplace. 

• Mastering Feedback: Our trust-building workshop that teaches the step-by-step NCD feedback process. Through hands-on practice, you’ll be able to effectively apply the feedback process to the conversations you're facing as a colleague, manager, and leader. Your team develops a shared understanding for how to use feedback in the workplace. 

• Coaching in the Workplace: Our 2-day workshop for leaders and managers. This is especially important for teams that face retention and performance challenges. Your team will practice the authentic coaching skills required to close the gap between a staffer’s potential and performance, all while fostering their growth and development. Even people with a natural propensity to be a good coach need training to build that talent into a valuable skill. Your team will leave with a shared toolset and language for coaching in your workplace. 

• Tackling Difficult Conversations with Confidence: This is a self-paced, online workshop based on the official handbook of Navigating Challenging Dialogue®. Similar to our NCD Essentials workshop, attendees will use their own real-life challenges to practice the proven tools for effective, fact-based dialogue, even when communication feels risky. Throughout the course, we provide personalized feedback and guidance on the student activities and scenarios (there’s no auto-grading). There are two options: 

• Independent Study is great for onboarding new staff and introducing NCD without having to hold a full NCD Essentials workshop. 

• The Coaching Bundle is great for managers and leaders, and includes two live coaching sessions to go deeper on addressing and solving their specific leadership challenges. 

Navigating Challenging Dialogue® Services

• Strategic Dialogue: Nonprofits are held back when they can’t or won’t dedicate time and energy to critically look at nagging problems that seem unsolvable, drain energy and time, and create frustration and drama. Strategic Dialogue is a focused facilitation session where Beth brings her nonprofit expertise to the table to help you identify a path forward in spite of seemingly nagging challenges.

• Strategic Planning: Beth’s approach to strategic planning is efficient, budget friendly, engaging, and, most importantly, based on having effective dialogue. As a result of this method, the resulting plans are meaningful, achievable, and aligned with your organization’s mission. 

• Fund Development Messaging: Do you struggle to get everyone in the organization (including your board) comfortable with fund development? Beth works with leaders and communication teams to develop a compelling pitch that can be shared with others in your organization to increase their confidence and capacity for being part of funding your mission and connecting with donors and foundations. 

• Leadership Coaching: This is a critical tool for both existing and emerging leaders. Beth’s clients are talented and motivated, but also often exhausted by the unique challenges of managing humans. They have exceptional skills that got them promoted in the first place. And they recognize they need to expand their leadership toolkit to take their team and organization to the next level. Beth provides the guidance and feedback proven to help leaders achieve their goals. 

• Communication and Performance Coaching: Beth offers both skill building coaching and performance improvement coaching for employees who are too valuable to terminate but are struggling in their current position. Beth provides exercises, guidance, and feedback proven to help staff close performance gaps and level-up their skills. 

What Clients Have to Say