About the Firm
Strategic Solutions for Nonprofits and Foundations

Founded in 1998, with start-up capital from three major foundations, La Piana Associates, Inc. is a management consulting firm helping nonprofits and their funders to address the strategic challenges they face. We help our clients to improve their leadership, management, governance, and market position through consulting services in these areas:

• Strategic Restructuring – we defined and lead the field of nonprofit mergers/alliances
• Strategy – using our innovative Real-Time Strategic Planning process
• Nonprofit Business Planning – interactive business model assessment and projections 
• Organizational Assessment and Development – enhancing systems, processes, and culture
• Governance – building the best volunteer board for the long haul
• Human Resources – from executive search to management team development
• Branding –  clarifying your organization’s identity: what you offer to your constituents

Our mission is to transform the way nonprofits are led and managed. 
What does this mean for you? When you choose La Piana Associates, you work with a firm that really “gets” the nonprofit sector. What’s more, we believe that the current “state-of-the-art” is just not good enough. We build our practice on cutting-edge research by our own staff and others in the nonprofit and business sectors, bringing you the latest advancements.  In fact, your La Piana Associates team will often be the same people who, working on our R&D projects, developed these new tools. To advance our mission more broadly, we have written a half dozen widely respected books, offered scores of trainings for nonprofit leaders and consultants around the country, and regularly participate in the national dialogue on organizational effectiveness. Our team engages in 16 days of in-house professional development annually, as well as attending key conferences and trainings, ensuring that you receive the highest quality consulting service.

What sets La Piana Associates apart? Our promise to you:
Our consultants create a real working relationship with each of our clients. We tailor our approach to your needs, working together to find the best ways to address your challenges. We always tell you the truth as we see it and are committed to advancing your organization’s mission. And when our engagement ends, we leave you with the solutions we created together and with a greater capacity to address future challenges.  

La Piana Associates uses inventive approaches to identify and solve problems, bringing a deep knowledge of the sector to every engagement. Our consultants have decades of experience both managing and consulting to nonprofits. We regularly undertake original – often groundbreaking – research and development, leading to ongoing innovation in our own practice and wide adoption of our new tools and methodologies throughout the nonprofit sector.