TESTIMONIALS
Movement Strategy Center
“We highly recommend Cory and Bandwidth Consulting to organizations looking to find talented staff who are aligned with your values, culture, and can shine in their job. Cory was a skilled, empathetic listener who provided great upfront coaching and thought partnership on the organizational culture fit we needed. She worked with us to develop the candidate profile and position announcement and helped tailor an organizational process to engage our staff in the ways that fit our organizational moment.
Then, Cory hit the phones, shook the trees, and organized us to find excellent candidates. And she took great care with all the candidates — it is obvious she cares deeply about each candidate’s aspirations and goals and ensured that candidates had the quality personalized attention that MSC wants talented people to experience as they get to know us. The result was that in one job search, we found TWO highly skilled, strategic and relational team members for our Senior Operational Leadership that will enable MSC’s Innovation Center to step into our next stage of transformation, promise and impact. Thank you Bandwidth Consulting!”
Ayoka Turner, Chief of Staff & Mimi Ho, Executive Director
Thousand Currents
“In the last ten years, I have worked with Cory and Paula in various capacities – from an inventory and updating of job descriptions to personnel policies to executive coaching to search for senior management. Not only have the goals of the projects they have undertaken been met and exceeded but they have consistently gone above and beyond to use their considerable expertise and experience to help my organization build the infrastructure it direly needed. We could always count on Bandwidth Consulting to show up and demonstrate their heartfelt commitment and rigorous execution in all they do! Their orientation towards getting things done and also building the capacities and nurturing the talent within our organization make them so much more than regular consultants. You know that when you hire Bandwidth, you are truly going to expand the possibilities from the inside out for your organization. And will be left better than you were found!”
Vini Bhansali Executive Director, Solidaire Network
Shanti Project
“I cannot say enough good things about Cory! She will always have my deepest appreciation for stepping in, shoring us up, and supporting us through a very important transitional time at Shanti. Our previous Deputy Director left with very little notice. Cory jumped in right away as Interim Deputy Director; she was very collaborative and met with all the key staff members, conducted an assessment, provided ongoing supervision, attended to personnel matters, and created plans to ensure things would continue smoothly. Her presence and experience provided a sense of assurance and comfort to all of us. While doing this, she also was a thought partner to me. She provided recommendations on our organizational reporting, leadership and meeting structure which we implemented. And, she led an inclusive, thorough and successful search process that culminated in the hiring of an amazing permanent Deputy Director.
Non-profit consultants with Cory’s level of skill, experience, and emotional intelligence are indeed few and far between. ”
Kaushik Roy, Executive Director
Hidden Leaf Foundation
“Bandwidth was the ideal partner for Hidden Leaf Foundation in helping navigate what was for us a major leadership transition — hiring our first “non-family” Executive Director. Bandwidth guided us from the initial stage of defining our needs and priorities, all the way to helping us onboard our new Executive Director. Cory and Paula were always organized and consistently graceful on the journey with us. They helped us stay focused on our mission and true to our values throughout the process. We are forever grateful and, happily, Hidden Leaf is thriving under its next phase of leadership.”
Karie Brown, Board Chair
Whitney Young Child Development Center
“Cory served as Interim Executive Director for WYCDC for a period of 16 months. WYCDC was going through a difficult period and we were also engaged in discussions regarding a possible merger. Some of the key areas of focus we set for Cory were: moving our sites towards Pre School For All (PFA) qualification, assessing the agency management and infrastructure, providing direct supervision of the agency administrative team, attending to staff morale as well as board, community and funder relationships, ensuring that grant, contract, and licensing requirements were met, and shoring up and preparing the organization for new leadership.
Cory hit the ground running. She quickly learned the licensing and programming requirements as well as the agency’s financial and administrative needs while making time to meet each of the staff one on one, listening to their thoughts and sharing her own expectations. This one on one contact was critical with a staff that had been through many ED’s in the last 9 years.
Cory effectively kept the overall vision and focus on the children in the forefront. She was always there for the children interacting at their level with mutual respect and obvious pleasure. She was honest and thoughtful particularly with staffing issues and Board dynamics. Utilizing her past experience and expertise, Cory reviewed the agency’s finances and budget and made recommendations based on realistic data. She ultimately assisted the Board in making difficult decisions necessary to balance the budget.
We had asked her to move the agency toward PFA status by raising the standard of teaching, improving classroom environments and teacher child interactions. She quickly identified areas that needed specific attention and systematically resolved various problems. She was able to hire good staff and find resources to provide much needed training and staff development. By the end of her term one site had met the standards necessary to achieve PFA status and the second site met standards shortly after.
Cory also addressed our external relationships, which resulted in increased attention and improved agency reputation. She repaired relationships with our funders and was instrumental in assisting us with merging and integrating our two organizations.
It was such a pleasure working with Cory. She was always willing to work above and beyond. As we begin our new journey with a new Executive Director, Cory is leaving us with a substantially sounder and stronger organization. Staff, children and the entire Board will certainly miss her.”
Karen Wing, Co-President, FCS-WYCDC
Boys & Girls Clubs of North San Mateo County
“Cory served as the Interim Executive Director for the Boys and Girls Club of North San Mateo County (BGCNSMC) for over 15 months. When Cory started her assignment, our clubs had deteriorating and in some cases virtually non-existing systems to manage the finances, programs, physical plants (six sites), and basic administrative functions. The club’s strengths revolved around the community contacts and key staff. Cory employed her experience and expertise to address all of the systems issues while enhancing the strengths of the club.
Cory is gifted with the ability to see, assess and communicate the overall vision of an organization while simultaneously managing the minute details of day to day operations. Cory maintained a focus on the children—their welfare and the opportunities to help them develop. I so enjoyed dropping by her office and seeing children of all ages interact with her; the mutual respect and genuine pleasure was obvious. This focus on the kids helped the Board grapple with what often seemed like an overwhelming list of operational needs. Through Cory’s calm and expert leadership, we tackled these needs systematically.
Cory’s written and verbal communication skills are clear and supported by sound analytical thinking and data. She provided detailed written reports to the Board documenting the facts of our situation and including her recommendations. She quickly recognized the gaps in the Club’s administrative structure and hired excellent staff. As a result, the Board began receiving financial reports that we could understand and use to make thoughtful decisions. Cory addressed several aspects of the human relations infrastructure including staff development. She assessed and prioritized the physical plant problems, often wielding a hammer on her own but also finding linkages with board and community volunteers to assist.
We are extraordinarily grateful for Cory’s countless hours above and beyond in resolving many issues for our Club. We are a much sounder organization today because of her contributions. She will be sorely missed by staff, children and Board members alike.”
Martha Gilmore, Board Member
Pacific Center for Human Growth and Development (the Center)
“As a member, and eventually president, of the board of the Center, I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to obtain Cory Pohley as our interim E.D. She did a superb job in every way for us during those five months. She was able, without any assistance and in a very short period of time—literally the first week–to get completely up to speed as to what our agency’s needs were both administratively and financially and to keep our organization running well. Her competence was quite impressive. Major grants, upon which the agency depends, were handled comprehensively and with clear expertise. The financial and budgetary reporting requirements that came fast and furious at her during the final months of the fiscal year were executed so thoroughly by her that we as a board were able to move our strategic planning process forward in ways we hadn’t even anticipated.
Cory’s intelligence, honesty, and thoughtfulness with regard to staffing issues, board dynamics, and long-standing administrative challenges resulted in her resolving problems that had long hampered the agency. In the end, I had the sense that, in Cory, we had had the supreme benefit of a much higher-level organizational consultant, over and above her job as interim. Not to mention so many of her wonderful personal qualities: calm and good-humored in the face of a crisis (and there were a few of them during those months!); hard-working and generous with her time; plus, a great deal of heart and soul for our mission of service to the community. It was so obvious to all of us that she was great at what she did but, even better, that she really loved doing it as well. Our experience with Cory far exceeded any expectation of an interim we had had going into this period, and I speak for the whole board when I say that her brief time with us has left the Center a substantially better organization.”
Rob Hopcke
BANDWIDTH CONSULTING 