About

 

COACH. CONSULTANT. SPEAKER. ORGANIZATION BUILDER and STORYTELLER. I TAKE YOU FROM INSPIRATION TO IDEAS, FROM STORIES TO STRATEGY.

 

My name is Desiree Adaway and I design programs and strategies that create revenue and advocates for organizations. I bring my clients insights and expertise from having served in senior-level roles in the nonprofit and grant management sectors for such renowned organizations as Habitat for Humanity International, where I was the Senior Director of Volunteer Mobilization, and Rotary International, where I was the director of their largest Humanitarian Grants program. My industry expertise also includes information technology, youth focused nonprofit, social justice nonprofit, and faith-based organizations.

I am an organization and community builder.

I work with organizations to bring the talents, resources, skills and knowledge of a community together to increase their collective power, raise funds and build brand equity.  When used correctly, this collective power is used to transform lives, not just the lives of a few but the lives of many.  At the heart of my work are inclusion, ownership, relationship building and leadership development.

 I am a storyteller.

Storytelling is the most powerful way of putting ideas into the world.  Not only the stories your organization tells others, but the stories it tells itself about who it is, who it will become, and what it values. As an organization evolves, its stories evolve – they become richer and deeper, more complex and more authentic. When storytelling is done right, it can be used as a powerful leadership tool. It can be used to achieve a variety of purposes, including sparking action, communicating who you are, transmitting your brand, sharing knowledge, getting collaboration, transmitting values, mobilizing a community or leading people into the future.

 

I design programs and strategies that create revenue and advocates for an organization.

All of us who are committed to nonprofit work understand that funding needs to flow in order for us to be effective. My many years in nonprofit have taught me that a check never writes itself. Every donation is associated with a story, history, a community. The story flows both ways. The donor has a story as well, a critical one that needs to be shared.   More than anything, donors are motivated by their own experiences and values. People often join an organization due to self-serving interests or relational reasons and become true believers in the organization after their point of entry, their first volunteer experience, or that first donation.

I work with courageous organizations and founders.

I believe that success for nonprofits is not possible without taking risks and innovating. When we “go for broke” and learn to fail graciously, we open up opportunities for shared learning. We create a culture that encourages creativity and calculated risk taking. We energize each other. Courageous nonprofits are seeing opportunities. Looking at relationships that they have fostered for years and turning them into alliances, seeking out new donors, volunteers and programs. Courageous organizations are partnering with corporations in new and exciting ways, working together on corporate and civic engagement that goes beyond check-writing. Fearless is not reckless. Sometime we forget that.

The organization that leverages the strengths, competencies and possibilities of existing networks and communities is the ultimate winner.

My work is loving the world. ~ Mary Oliver

Please join me in imagining the positive change that fearless nonprofits can make in this world.  Let’s use this space to share, teach, learn, connect, create, develop and build community!  Do not fear chaos – it is creative space where the new order can be born.

 

Take care of yourself and each other,