Strategic Leadership Partnership: A Steady Partner When You're the One Everyone Turns To

You're the person everyone else brings their hardest questions to. Your board looks to you for the read on things. Your staff looks to you to stay level when a grant falls through or a program hits a wall. Most days, you can do that. Some days, there's no one whose job it is to ask how you're doing, and if there were, you wouldn't have the hour to answer.

I'm Margot Holmes, founder of Blue Heron Nonprofit Consulting, and Strategic Leadership Partnership is built for that seat. It's regular time with an experienced partner: someone who has run programs, led staff, and sat where you're sitting, so you have somewhere to think out loud before you decide. And the longer we work together, the more I learn about your organization and how you lead, and the more I can offer beyond the question in front of us. I'm based in Vermont and work with nonprofit leaders across Vermont, New Hampshire, and the Upper Valley, with select engagements nationwide.

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Great blue heron in flight over still water

If You're Searching for Nonprofit Executive Coaching

Most people who land on this page typed some version of "nonprofit executive coaching" into a search bar.

Executive coaching usually means a program: set modules, a curriculum, sometimes a certification behind the person running it. Strategic Leadership Partnership works differently. It's regular, one-on-one time with someone who has held the executive director seat, matched to your board, your budget, and the week you're having. There's no workbook to complete and no program to finish. Each conversation starts with whatever is in front of you. This is not coaching in theory. It is operational and strategic clarity in practice.

Common moments

What It Helps With

  • Board dynamics

    The ones that are harder than they should be, and you're the one managing them.

  • Fundraising decisions

    The call you can't quite see clearly from inside it.

  • Staff situations

    The conversation you need to think through before you act.

  • Priorities

    Clarify priorities when everything feels urgent.

These are the moments where the right move isn't obvious, and you don't have anyone else to ask without it becoming a whole thing. You're already running the organization. What helps is an experienced thought partner who can help you think more clearly, decide more confidently, and lead more effectively.

This work is particularly well-suited to new Executive Directors finding their footing, leaders navigating a period of growth or restructuring, and EDs who have the vision but want a sharper operational lens.

If a conversation surfaces something bigger, I'll say so. Sometimes that means an organizational assessment.

“I no longer feel like I'm flying blind. I have somewhere to go to work things through. I have real strategies for making decisions, and someone helping me actually keep using them.”

Clients describe the shift the same way.

Proof in Practice

Abigail, an executive director who leads Acorns to Oaks, a therapeutic riding program, had connected with a representative from Bogs Boots about a possible partnership and needed to reach out, but had no idea what to say. She texted me in a panic. I gave her the exact language to send. When he wrote back, I gave her a follow-up script too.

The result: free boots for the entire Acorns to Oaks barn staff, plus a pair donated to a raffle fundraiser. Nobody scheduled that conversation. It happened because Abigail had someone to text at the moment she needed it, someone who already knew her organization and could hand her the words on the spot.

Pricing

Strategic Leadership Partnership is a fixed monthly fee, set individually for you. Sessions run weekly or biweekly, and we choose that rhythm together up front.

I don't put an end date on this engagement. It's open-ended by design.

Engagements are one-on-one, with regular sessions for as long as it's valuable.

Common Questions

How often would we meet, and what happens between sessions?

Sessions are weekly or biweekly, whichever fits your organization. Each is one hour live, plus up to an hour of async follow-up as things come up between calls. Between sessions, there's one designated channel to reach me when something can't wait.

How long should I plan for?

If you're weighing how long to commit to, I recommend planning for at least three months to get traction. If you have something specific in front of you right now, we can also start with a single month.

Will you get involved with my board?

Strategic Leadership Partnership is one-on-one time with you, and what we discuss stays between us. Board dynamics come up in almost every partnership, and I'll help you think through how to handle them. When a board needs direct, facilitated work, I do that as its own engagement, and I'll say so if I think that's the better fit.

Ready to Talk?

I work with a small number of organizations at a time, because a partnership like this only works if I have room to think alongside you. If you're the person everyone else turns to and you want an experienced partner of your own, let's talk.

Let's talk