Your Favorite Reads from 2025
Reports, stories from the field, and think pieces about social impact
I’ve been looking back at what we published this year, and I wanted to share the pieces that seemed to resonate most with you. These are the newsletters that sparked the most conversations, got the most replies, and that people kept coming back to months after they first went out.
I started this newsletter because I wanted to do my small part to build a thriving community. I hope you’ve found it useful and welcoming.
The Surprising Truth About Finding Clients
Over the summer, I ran a survey to learn how other independent consultants find and keep clients. The results confirmed what many of us suspected but maybe didn’t want to admit: about 80% of client engagements come from personal networks. Professional colleagues send the most referrals, followed by existing clients. Cold outreach, online platforms, and formal referral programs ranked lowest. The data also revealed something I found encouraging: 40% of engagements led to additional work with the same client, and another 35% were likely to lead to future work. This suggested that investing in client relationships pays off more than constantly chasing new ones.
I also looked at what consultants earning over $150,000 per year do differently. They focus on quality over quantity, securing fewer but higher-value contracts. Retainer and monthly fee arrangements dominate their client portfolios, creating predictable revenue streams. They cultivate long-term relationships rather than short-term project work. The feast-or-famine cycle wears on most of us, and seeing patterns in how some consultants built more stable practices felt valuable to share.
What I Wish I Knew When Starting as an Independent Consultant
In this piece, I talked with Hannah Fine about her first six months of consulting. Hannah had launched her practice earlier in the year after leading digital organizing and communications efforts at major organizations, and she shared what that early period felt like. The slow days. The anxiety. The thrill of signing contracts. Hannah’s point about celebrating wins along the way!
Hannah also talked about how much more balanced her life became through consulting. The flexibility to fit in a midday workout, call family between meetings, or start dinner during a work break made a real difference. Being able to design your day the way you want is one of consulting’s biggest perks, though it requires setting boundaries intentionally. Without the structure of an office environment, you have to define your own parameters for availability. Hannah emphasized how crucial peer connections became for her, both for celebrating wins and being vulnerable about challenges.
Strategic Agility Reboot
In November, my longtime friend and colleague Susannah Hook-Rodgers joined me as a co-author to launch a new series on strategy. I’ve known Susannah since 2007, and in nearly 20 years of partnership, I’ve never stopped being in awe of her brilliance and commitment to social change. The series came out of conversations we’d been having about how leaders struggle to stay grounded as strategic operators when chaos and urgency disrupt their clarity.
Finding Your Consulting Sweet Spot
I caught up with my friend Jamie Cerretti in the summer, and we talked about the tension between being a generalist versus a specialist. This shift marks one of the most significant transitions when moving from nonprofit employment to consulting. Jamie’s path exemplifies this journey. After nearly 20 years in leadership roles across nonprofit operations, finance, and HR, she initially approached consulting by creating a comprehensive list of everything she could potentially offer clients. She soon discovered that casting such a wide net wasn’t effective.
The breakthrough came when Jamie focused on state charity registration filings and connected with Detention Watch Network, an organization whose abolitionist values aligned with her approach. This helped her understand that her true niche wasn’t just “compliance for nonprofits” but specifically serving organizations with particular values that preferred working with an individual who shared their perspective. By narrowing her focus and clearly articulating what differentiated her from larger firms, Jamie built a sustainable practice. Her story helped me think through how the sweet spot in consulting emerges when three circles overlap: what you’re good at, what people need, and what you enjoy doing.
The Hidden Forces Driving Nonprofit Workers
This piece took a different approach. I started exploring the psychological and cultural forces that drive many of us into nonprofit work, and sometimes drive us out of it. I introduced two concepts: “relaxtionary consciousness” and “achievement-subject culture.” Growing up in a comfortable middle-class household, I never worried about basic needs. This created a mental framework where I was free to pursue spiritual fulfillment and ask questions like “What gives me satisfaction?” When you don’t need to plan for survival, your outlook centers around personal flourishing.
Alongside this, I learned to strip away activities that couldn’t be measured and ranked, focusing only on pursuits where others could measure and proclaim my success. At Yale, these two forces fused together. The cultural elite had redefined achievement for my generation. The highest rankings went to those who did something “special,” who didn’t “sell out.” This created a powerful cocktail: we could pursue spiritual fulfillment while satisfying our achievement needs. The highest plane of achievement became doing good for the world. I accepted a position with Green Corps to work 80-hour weeks for low pay, a choice that perfectly satisfied my cultural elite values. It signaled pure intentions while burnishing my record as a striver.
I wrote 3 other pieces in this series. If Part 1 grabs you, definitely check out the others!
Looking Ahead
These pieces represent what I hoped this newsletter could become: a place where we talk honestly about the experience of building an independent consulting practice in the social impact space.
I’m grateful you’ve been part of this community this year. Your replies, your questions, and your willingness to share your own experiences have shaped what we create here. I’m looking forward to continuing these conversations in 2026.
Happy New Year!
Sam