Leyna offers her clients depth of expertise in nonprofit governance and management, combined with over 25 years of recruiting experience. Prior to starting our firm, she held senior leadership positions at Bay Area nonprofit support centers, where she managed consulting and program development for a broad range of nonprofit leaders and organizations.
Leyna was the Director of Programs at The CBO Center, the Program Director for the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership of Marin, and Director of Consulting Services at The Management Center. She has taught on nonprofit management and board issues throughout Northern California and beyond, and facilitated dozens of planning retreats for boards and staff.
Prior to her career in the nonprofit sector, Leyna was a corporate human resources executive. She was the Recruiting Research Manager for The Gap, Inc., Director of Human Resources for The Nature Company, and Vice President of Human Resources and Administration for Smith & Hawken. Leyna is the author of “Creating Your Employee Handbook: A Do-It-Yourself Kit for Nonprofits”, published by Jossey Bass.
Leyna serves on the board of the Golden Gate Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and is a member of the Women’s Leadership Council of the United Way of the Bay Area, and the advisory boards of Jewish Partisans Education Foundation and Jewish Gateways.
Brian’s professional experience spans the corporate, public and nonprofit sectors. He began his career as an environmental planner working for Humboldt and Solano Counties. After business school, Brian worked in software marketing for IBM, Informix and SchemaLogic. Prior to forming our firm, Brian worked as a consultant and in senior staff positions with green business and solar energy organizations. A recovering political junkie, Brian has run over 25 local and regional political campaigns as a volunteer. He served on the board of the Humboldt Access Project and as Chair of the Waterfront Committee for the City of Albany.
Claire is a professional trainer, facilitator, and process consultant with extensive background in education and counseling. As a consultant in Organization Development, she has worked in the corporate, and the public sector, helping organizations work through the process of strategic planning, change and transition. Claire led the Executive Search Services consulting practice at The Management Center, a nonprofit support center serving all of Northern California, and served as a Trainer and Organizational Development Specialist with Kaiser Permanente. Her workshops on leadership partnering skills and relational empowerment focus on employee retention by creating workplaces that value individuals while supporting the organizational mission. Claire is the co-creator of, and lead consultant for, the Mentored Search™ model we offer to smaller organizations.
Wendy is a consultant with nearly 10 years of experience in nonprofit development. She has extensive experience in online giving and marketing, direct mail, databases, membership, grant writing, board development, major donor prospecting and solicitation, corporate sponsorship, and special events. She has most recently worked as the Director of Development at Alonzo King LINES Ballet and the Membership Director at the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Wendy currently serves as the VP of Membership for the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Golden Gate Chapter. As a volunteer, she has led the small modern dance organization Double Vision as Managing Director, served as co-chair of the LINES Ballet Extensions young professionals auxiliary, and served on the boards of El Gato Theater Company and the Stanford University Marching Band. Wendy works remotely from her home in Shanghai, China and is learning Mandarin.
