The short version
Netroots, the rate survey, and something new
An abbreviated article this week, as I’m recovering from a knee injury and also on the road much of the week. I’m just going to glide over the cognitive dissonance of those two things (to say nothing of the physical discomfort of traveling with a lower body injury).
Tomorrow, I’m headed to Netroots Nation. I’ll be representing Chorus at Booth #204 Thursday-Saturday. If you’ll be in Philadelphia, please stop by and say hi. Last year, I had a chance meeting with Myles Bugbee in the registration line, and it turned into both a great piece for the Substack plus an ongoing friendship. Netroots feels more about the community-building than anything else, so come build some with me!
I am also presenting a session Thursday (6/4) at 3:45pm called “Receipts, Not Vibes: Turning Conversations into Data.” It’s a training on how to collect audio recordings from field work and then analyze them using new technology. We’ve been partnering with The Outreach Team on that, and the early results are really cool. There is an important quality control dimension but also an opportunity to learn about what is actually working to change minds or motivate people to act.
Take the survey!
If you haven’t had a chance yet, I’m going to keep plugging taking our 2026 community rate-setting survey. This survey is the tool through which we get confidential, anonymous data about how independent consultants set rates. The 2025 version was widely viewed and well-received. This year, we’re expanding the fields to provide information about more specific edge cases and needs. It takes 5-10 minutes and, again, it’s anonymous!
What Independent Consultants Actually Charge
In early 2025, we surveyed independent consultants working in the social impact space about how they price their work. What follows is a summary of what they told us — about their fee structures, their rate-setting logic, and the gaps in their confidence.
Free community resource
Less than 2 months ago, we launched Working with Consultants: A Guide for Mission-Driven Organizations. The point of it was to build a resource for our clients to learn how to get even more out of working with independent consultants. It’s been a pretty big success! Almost two thousand people have checked it out already and about 10% of those people have created a free account. And every single one of those people will tell you: we’re not spamming them! Free resource and free account means just that. So if you haven’t signed up yet to access the full library, go check it out.
But for this group, I also want to ask: is there anything missing? Is there an article you think would add something to the guide? Are you willing to write it?!?!?! If so, then please email me at sam@chorusai.co and let’s talk!
Center for Strategic Thinking
Some of you followed the Strategic Fitness findings Susannah and I published in April (the 3.17-point gap between how EDs rate their organizations and how everyone else does). At the end of that report, we said we were building something, and it’s rounding into shape.
The People at the Top Think Everything Is Fine
Here is the most important number in this report: 3.17
Final name TBD, but our idea is a “Center for Strategic Thinking,” which would be a year-long executive program for nonprofit C-suite and senior leaders. Participants would work on live challenges inside their own organizations, in cohorts of leaders at comparable levels of authority, over a full year. We want to build a curriculum around the research many of you have been reading here: the perception gap, Reactive Sophistication, the structural reasons strategic discipline erodes as organizations scale, etc. Our goal is to create something that combines the rigor of a top business school program and the cohort intimacy of something like Rockwood, designed specifically for our sector.
We’re in the design phase now. If you’d want to learn more as a potential participant, someone who’d refer a client, or someone interested in helping build it, raise your hand here.