The Pathways Partnership is free, but does require a significant investment of the Executive Director and a Board Member’s time and effort. Fair Chance’s Partnerships are free of charge in order to ensure that small nonprofits have more equitable access to quality capacity building support.

The Executive Director is expected to devote eight hours per week to the assessment, the leadership discussion group, and Partnership work, spending at least two of those hours meeting with the Capacity Building Specialist.

The Board Representative devotes 2 hours to the assessment, and about 3 hours per week from Jan – April focusing on independent work and meeting with the Capacity Building Specialist approximately every other week to accomplish Board Development and/or Leadership & Management goals.

Likewise, the Capacity Building Specialist devotes 8 to 10 hours per week to working with a partner organization.

Board Representatives take active roles in the orientation and assessment. Also, they play a critical role in Partnership work if we focus on Board Development or Leadership & Management. Therefore, the Board Representative needs to be someone who:

• has served on the Board for at least one year
• is familiar with how the Board currently does its work and the Board’s strengths and challenges
• has the time [3 hours/week for 4 months (Jan – April)] to do independent work and meet with your Capacity Building Specialist approximately every other week
• has the authority to create tools, processes, and systems for the Board to use in doing its work.

Often the Board Representative is the Board Chair, but if another Board Member best meets the requirements of the role, then a plan to keep the Board Chair informed throughout the Partnership will be devised.

Traditional engagements with consultants tend to be product driven. Fair Chance’s role is to share knowledge and resources, and provide thought-partnership and coaching. We work alongside you during a Partnership, rather than producing things for you (e.g., we help you develop a fundraising plan; we do not fundraise for you). The work is held and driven by the organization’s leadership. The success of any Partnership depends on how much your Executive Director and Board put into our work together. Learn more about what makes Fair Chance Partnership unique.

The Pathways Partnership assessment provides an opportunity to reflect, explore, and learn more about nonprofit management practices; helps determine the focus of the Partnership work plan; and serves as the way we measure short-term changes in organizational capacity. At the start of the Partnership, the assessment is administered over four 2-hour sessions with the Executive Director, and one 2-hour session with the Board Representative. Your Capacity Building Specialist also reviews organizational documents shared by the Executive Director. At the end of the Partnership, the Executive Director and Board Representative complete their parts of the assessment again, independently, and your Capacity Building Specialist shares and discusses the analyzed results.

Completion of the Pathways Partnership is not a pre-requisite to apply for the Praxis Partnership. However, some of Fair Chance’s other capacity building services are only available to graduates of the Pathways or Praxis programs. 

Yes, you can still be selected as a partner even if you don’t meet our priority considerations. Meeting a priority consideration does not guarantee a Partnership. Our priority considerations reflect our commitment to our mission and to advancing racial equity in DC and Prince George’s County nonprofit sectors. We consider a number of variables when selecting partners, including your capacity building needs; your programs; your availability to engage in Partnership work; and our staffing capacity and expertise. 

No, Pathways Partnerships are only available to organizations that have not previously received capacity building support through Fair Chance’s Pathways, Praxis or Ready for Work programs. If you don’t know if your organization has completed one of these programs in the past, please review this list of our Alumni Partners.