ABOUT US
HOW WE DO IT
We work on quickly getting up to speed: what your core business is, what your project is, and what you want to accomplish, and we develop a detailed plan to get there.
We produce drafts when we say we will, we communicate, and we follow up. We also get to know what drives your organization makes your team tick, so we can point you in directions you may not have considered, or match you up with new partners or funders.
Our decades of work with public and nonprofit organizations have made us relentlessly committed to practical, logical plans, the details of implementation, and concrete results.
But what excites us is the work you’re doing: your innovation, creativity, collaboration and perseverance in building a world that works better for more people.
WHY WE DO IT
We’re all about the specifics of getting your organization to work better. “Nuts and bolts,” in context, can mean a wide range of things:
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Creating compelling, competitive proposals to local, state, federal and foundation funders. We specialize in combining storytelling and a personal touch with meticulous, efficient project management to make the grants process as painless as possible.
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Working with your organization to develop and carry out a detailed implementation plan for a large initiative with a lot of different partners and programs.
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Analyzing what your agency does and how it does it, from outreach to data management to working with clients to financial operations, and finding ways to make those processes work better. Our work helps you focus on the things you care most about.
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Working with you to identify key outcome measures - how do you know if all your hard work is having the impact you want it to have?
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Constructing common-sense plans to get where you want to go over the next three to five year, including finding new sources of funding, expanding your partnerships, adding new programs or services, and streamlining your existing programs to make them as effective as possible.
OUR APPROACH: NUTS & BOLTS
Over 30 years of professional experience being:
Smart
Tenacious
Resourceful
Quick to adapt
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Jayne is great at:
Writing convincing prose
Bringing people and ideas together
Seeing the big picture
Planning and connecting
Works with associates who are amazing at:
Designing systems
Managing projects
Solving complex problems
Making complicated things simpler
Trying new things
Tracking a thousand details
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We know a lot about:
Criminal Justice Reform
Creative Placemaking
Education Policy
Business Management
Job Training and Workforce
The Arts
Social Services
Government Grants
Health
and a lot more.
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We work with a select group of people we know and trust who have:
mad skills.
WHO WE ARE:
JAYNE WILLIAMS
Jayne is a fast and fluent writer and editor, a planner, a synthesizer of ideas, and a connector of complementary people and organizations.
She is a seasoned veteran of the public grant proposal process, having planned, conceptualized, and written dozens of of federal, state and local grants from planning to submission. She has helped clients raise over $180 million in 15 years of grant writing. She also writes marketing and web copy, fundraising documents like donor letters and case statements, and humorous and self-help non-fiction.
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Jayne is skilled at understanding how complex systems connect; forging connections among them; and crafting logical and compelling stories that convey the importance of clients’ projects and initiatives. She delights in bringing together people and programs that can support each other’s work. She also specializes in finding and un-sticking the sticking points that prevent work from moving forward. She blends unblinking pragmatism with a broad vision and a long-term perspective.
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She is quick-witted, insightful, tenacious, deeply collaborative, and believes that even hard projects should include fun.
You might need Jayne if:
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You need a well-written, concise, competitive grant proposal.
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You need to plan a project or an initiative with a lot of moving parts.
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You need to get clear about what it is you’re doing, who you’re doing it for, and how you’ll know if you've succeeded.
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Your agency’s written materials need more storytelling and less jargon.
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You do great work and you want to partner with someone who can share your excitement.
SELECTED PROJECTS
Jayne has accomplished a wide variety of projects for many different clients.
Examples include:
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Working with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office over a period of eight years to support their innovations in law enforcement and public safety. With writing, planning, research, creative thinking, project management and supporting partnerships, Jayne has been integral to the Sheriff’s Office developing into a nationally recognized leader in crime prevention through community development and relationship-based police work. In fall 2015, she wrote a white paper summarizing the Sheriff’s Office work and its impact for a county-wide symposium.
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Creating and delivering a series of customized, hands-on grant writing trainings for emerging leaders at Bay Area Community Resources. Jayne developed assignments for program managers in grants research, problem statements, program descriptions, organizational capacity statements, setting goals and objectives, and program evaluation. She worked with the group to examine and critique their work while creating a collegial, non-threatening environment, and she shared concrete examples of the art and science of grant writing that pertained to the different managers’ challenges.
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Planning, writing, budgeting, and submitting a 250-page Race To The Top-District proposal to the US Department of Education on behalf of New Haven Unified School District that resulted in a $29 million grant. The proposal involved working intensively with the district’s leadership, data team, principals, teachers, and community partners. Jayne produced detailed narrative, multiple project timelines for the complex initiative, data tables, and attachments, working with project managers to ensure that everything was organized and submitted properly.
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Writing copy and serving as art director for capital campaign case statements for the Castro Valley Center for the Arts and Capital Stage Theatre Company in Sacramento. The case statements were beautiful and convincing, and the campaigns resulted in stunning performance venues and happy audiences.
SELECTED PROJECTS
Jayne has accomplished a wide variety of projects for many different clients.
Examples include:
-
Working with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office over a period of eight years to support their innovations in law enforcement and public safety. With writing, planning, research, creative thinking, project management and supporting partnerships, Jayne has been integral to the Sheriff’s Office developing into a nationally recognized leader in crime prevention through community development and relationship-based police work. In fall 2015, she wrote a white paper summarizing the Sheriff’s Office work and its impact for a county-wide symposium.
-
Creating and delivering a series of customized, hands-on grant writing trainings for emerging leaders at Bay Area Community Resources. Jayne developed assignments for program managers in grants research, problem statements, program descriptions, organizational capacity statements, setting goals and objectives, and program evaluation. She worked with the group to examine and critique their work while creating a collegial, non-threatening environment, and she shared concrete examples of the art and science of grant writing that pertained to the different managers’ challenges.
-
Planning, writing, budgeting, and submitting a 250-page Race To The Top-District proposal to the US Department of Education on behalf of New Haven Unified School District that resulted in a $29 million grant. The proposal involved working intensively with the district’s leadership, data team, principals, teachers, and community partners. Jayne produced detailed narrative, multiple project timelines for the complex initiative, data tables, and attachments, working with project managers to ensure that everything was organized and submitted properly.
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Writing copy and serving as art director for capital campaign case statements for the Castro Valley Center for the Arts and Capital Stage Theatre Company in Sacramento. The case statements were beautiful and convincing, and the campaigns resulted in stunning performance venues and happy audiences.
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Master of Arts, Slavic Languages and Literature, University of California at Berkeley
Bachelor of Arts, Russian Languages and Literature, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA​
EDUCATION
Master of Arts, Slavic Languages and Literature, University of California at Berkeley
Bachelor of Arts, Russian Languages and Literature, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA​