Leadership Launchpad
Supercharge your team’s strategic capacity so they can confidently drive initiatives forward, giving you the breathing room to lead with vision and meet this moment with clarity.
4+ months of hands-on, skill-expanding coaching, training, and strategic partnership for your high-potential team members.
During this era of compounding and intersecting crises and uncertainty, the work of nonprofit leaders is essential and demanding.
Nonprofits are facing direct and indirect attacks on their programs, values, and long-term impact. Some are being forced to make rapid decisions, including cutting programs, reducing staff, or eliminating entire departments overnight. Others are wondering whether their long-term strategies are adequate, or even still relevant.
Given the political and social climate, organizations may need to shift direction or launch new initiatives to respond meaningfully. But it’s not as simple as “just pivoting.”
You may have one or more folks on your team right now with enormous potential to meet this moment. You wish you could invest in them, but in order for them to lead effectively, they need more support than you can give.
The core challenge? We’re asking our staff to lead at a strategic level without giving them enough tools, time, or mentorship to grow into that role.
Teams need capacity. Not just more time, but the mental and emotional space to lead. And that’s something we’re all running low on in the face of relentless, devastating news cycles.
At the same time, the nonprofit sector is approaching a leadership cliff. In the next decade, if unaddressed, we’ll see more and more executive roles left unfilled, not just because those roles are demanding, but because people are choosing not to pursue them.
We’re burning out early- and mid-career staff because we’re not offering the right kind of support at the right time. As a result, the very people we’d hope to see in future leadership roles are leaving the sector.
So how do you support your team without burning yourself out in the process?
That’s where I come in.
Organizations bring me in as a co-facilitator to help launch strategic initiatives and mentor staff members so they can step into the leadership needed to implement them. I offer coaching, guidance, and partnership so they can move a project forward with clarity and confidence.
You deserve a moment of reflection. The space to pause is critical, but you’re struggling to create it while juggling competing priorities. I will support your emerging leaders so you can step back and focus on the strategy and vision only you can lead.
The tried-and-true approaches we’ve leaned on may no longer be enough to meet this moment.
I’m here to help you build the leadership of your team to meet it.
Are you a senior leader who…
Feels constantly overwhelmed by a barrage of competing demands, leaving no time for strategic thinking?
Wants to develop leadership within your team but lacks the time or bandwidth to coach them into their potential?
Ends up doing everything from strategic planning to copyediting, because no one else quite “gets it” like you do?
Struggles with cross-departmental coordination and feels the weight of being the connector, manager, and visionary all at once?
Wishes you had the capacity to lead change without burning out yourself or your team?
Tends to over-rely on external consultants, thereby under-developing institutional knowledge and organizational culture?
How it works…
#1 Strategic Start + Leadership Alignment
We begin with a deep dive into your organization’s current context and strategic priorities. We’ll work with you to identify the right team member(s) to support and clarify the outcomes we’re building toward. This ensures that the coaching aligns with both your organizational goals and the individual’s growth trajectory.
#4 Regular Touchpoints with Senior Leadership
We’ll have brief, strategic check-ins to keep you informed, surface patterns or challenges, and make real-time adjustments. These conversations help ensure the work stays aligned with your broader vision.
#3 Co-Facilitation + Implementation
In certain engagements, especially during the early stages of a major project or strategic process, I may partner with your team member as a co-facilitator and collaborator. This allows us to model strong implementation, set up the conditions for success, and temporarily expand your capacity while your internal leader ramps up.
#2 Coaching, Mentorship, + Applied Growth
Your designated team member(s) receive consistent, individualized coaching as they lead real projects. This isn’t training in theory, it’s capacity-building in motion. We help them organize internally, engage stakeholders, and navigate complexity with growing independence.
#5 Custom Tools + Structured Reflection
To support lasting growth, we integrate frameworks, tools, and guided reflection that help your team member internalize what they’re learning and apply it long after our work together ends.
Unlike traditional project-based consulting or one-off trainings, Leadership Launchpad is a capacity-building partnership designed to develop internal leaders through ongoing coaching, mentorship, and partnership, solving the overlooked struggle of building sustainable, strategic leadership inside nonprofits and enabling teams to lead complex change with resilience and care.
Examples of past support:
Here are a few ways I’ve supported organizations to build internal capacity and move critical initiatives forward:
Strategic Planning Reset: Partnered with a small team of mid-level staff to redesign and co-facilitate an internal planning process during an organizational change period, helping them step into stronger cross-functional roles.
Coaching Through Role Transition: Supported a team member stepping into a new, cross-functional leadership role by helping them clarify their vision for the position, build stakeholder alignment, and lead the internal changes necessary to succeed.
Equity-Centered Policy Development: Supported a staff leader as they organized and implemented a process to redesign internal compensation policies for greater transparency and equity.
Internal Culture Initiative: Co-facilitated the early design phase of an initiative to strengthen feedback culture and internal accountability, while coaching a staff member to lead the work.
At the end of this process…
Your team members will be more confident and capable of leading strategic, cross-functional initiatives from start to finish. They’ll take full ownership and deliver results you can trust, freeing you to focus on high-level leadership.
Your people will be equipped to adapt, self-correct, and act with clarity before challenges spiral into crises. You’ll build internal resilience so change can happen without burnout.
You’ll finally have the space and energy to think big, act strategically, and guide your organization forward. With trusted leadership beside you, you’ll move from being the bottleneck to leading with vision.
Most importantly, you will actually get the work done. That project that’s been on the back burner forever? Those ambitious goals that came out of the strategic plan that would require a big organizational shift to accomplish? That person who’s been promoted on paper but has yet to step fully into their new role? This is what this offering is all about: creating the capacity and support to fulfill the mission that you came here to do.
Who this is for
This offering is designed for organizational leaders who are ready to build internal capacity—not just get through the next project.
It’s a fit if:
Your organization is making a pivot, or launching a new strategic initiative—like an organizational change effort, internal planning process, leadership transition, or the early phases of a new campaign—and you need a team member to step up and help lead it from within.
You see potential in one to two members of your team and want to supercharge their leadership development by giving them hands-on coaching and mentorship in real time.
You’re interested in a collaborative, power-sharing model—where I partner with your organization to grow facilitation, coordination, and strategic leadership skills from the inside out.
You want a longer-term investment in resilience, so your organization doesn’t always depend on outside help to manage change.
This is not the right fit if:
You’re looking for a project-based consultant to complete a set of deliverables or manage a process independently.
You want a subject matter expert to design or implement a technical solution or policy.
You need a one-time manager training or workshop rather than a sustained engagement focused on applied growth.
You’re seeking someone to “fix” organizational problems from the outside rather than grow the skills to lead through them internally.
Offering Options
Coaching Only (light touch)
You don’t need the deep support or co-facilitation, but you would like personalized coaching for one team member.
$500 - $1000/ month per person (4 month minimum)
Full Service Package (high touch)
I work with a small team of 2-4 staff and one organizational leader.
$4,000-6,000/ month (4 month minimum commitment)
Customized Package or Shorter-Term Project
You have a specific deadline or event or would like a customized package.
Contact me for a personalized proposal
“Michaela is a gifted organizational strategist and facilitator.
She sees complex situations and problems with clarity, and develops solutions that address the underlying structures, leading to longer-term sustainability and growth. She combines her clear analysis with strong interpersonal and communication skills, and so helps support constructive and forward momentum in organizational management and functioning.
In my work with Michaela, I experienced her evolve our long-standing strategic planning processes to meet the needs of an organization in transformation. Her inclusive and participatory approach tapped into the creativity of our staff. She also played a lead role in redesigning our compensation policy which led to more equitable outcomes for our staff.
Across a range of critical organizational functions, from board governance to org culture, Michaela brings deep listening skills and a commitment to leadership development of rising staff in our movements.”
-Patti Lynn, former Executive Director of Corporate Accountability
About Michaela
I’m passionate about helping people deepen their capacity to lead—whether I’m acting as a coach, a facilitator, or a thought partner. What energizes me most is when someone hands me a vision or challenge and says, “We know where we want to go, but we have no idea how to get there, can you help us figure it out?”
That’s where I come in.
I specialize in guiding teams through strategic planning and change processes—from messy beginnings to shared clarity. My role is to bring people together, surface what matters most, and co-create a path forward that feels both ambitious and achievable.
I don’t come in with a pre-made solution. Instead, I facilitate a process that builds ownership, alignment, and momentum—so your team isn’t just handed a plan, they’ve helped shape it and are ready to lead it.
Because when people feel heard, invested, and clear on where they’re going, real change becomes possible.