About Michael Allison Consulting

Michael Allison Consulting is mostly me, Mike.  As Director of Consulting and CompassPoint Nonprofit Services for 15 years I led teams of 20 or more consultants, published fairly often and spoke regularly at conferences.  Since 2005 as a sole practitioner I’ve chosen to focus most of my time working intensively with with individual organizations and leaders, though on larger projects or when I need specialized expertise I put together a team.  I am also a member of the Haas Jr. Flexible Leadership Investment Program consulting team and I regularly partner with other firms and individuals on consulting initiatives and publishing projects.

Preservation Park

Thanks to my friend, coach and colleague Roberto Vargas, I now describe what I do this way:   I am a facilitator of positive change.  This is my mission, the essence of my work. The work my clients do matters a lot.  My job is to help people work together better to achieve as much of their potential as possible.

I work in a beautiful nonprofit office part in downtown Oakland,  Preservation Park which is owned and managed by one of my clients the East Bay Asian Development Corporation.

I work with organizations in a wide variety of fields including advocacy, economic development, health and social services, youth development, and the arts.  Most of the organizations I work with have budgets between $1 and $15 million.  For more information, please contact me to discuss your plans.

For a slightly longer rendition of “my story” click here.

  • Testimonials

    Miguel Galvadòn
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    My first time working with Mike, he was assigned to us by a funder, back when I was an executive director in California’s Central Valley. Honestly, my first thought was, “Great, another know-it-all from San Francisco”. I couldn’t have been more mistaken. He started by listening, intently, punctuating that active listening with poignant questions. In [...]

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  • Blog

    Good strategic plans provide resilience in the face of change!
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    There has been a lot of talk, books written and speeches given about how dramatic environmental change makes strategic planning and strategic plans obsolete and irrelevant.  I want to offer a counter perspective.  While tactics and even significant decisions need to be adapted to changing circumstances, rather than becoming irrelevant a good strategic plan should [...]

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  • Publications

    STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS
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