Girl's Best Friend Foundation (GBF) closed November 2007. 
GBF’s records are archived with Special Collections of the University
of Illinois, Chicago.  In fall 2008, they will be made public: www.uic.edu/depts/lib/specialcoll.

Consultants

Exceptional consultants we've worked with, and the expertise they've brought! (Many provide services far beyond our experience, briefly noted below.)

Stephanie Clohesy of Clohesy Consulting was a godsend of a facilitator for the Board from 2001 through 2004. Her uncommonly broad and deep insight into social change and women and girls' philanthropy is the backdrop to a style that combines awesome intelligence, genuine good humor, and respect, allowing others to connect their passion to their pragmatism. www.clohesyconsulting.com

Executive Service Corps was the source for an affordable, expert, extremely valuable coach for GBF's executive director in 2005. She's since recommended the service to enough others that ESC's CEO has taken her to lunch! Can't say it enough: coaching is an awesome, deeply satisfying form of professional development. www.esc-chicago.org

Nicole Ferentz has been creating attractive, brightly colored materials for GBF since 2003. She has been the graphic designer of our postcards, annual reports, revamped website, and Sisters Empowering Sisters brochure. Nicole has a great ability to match look to tone, and to create even when direction is less than well articulated. luluwild@sbcglobal.net

Marcia Festen of Marcia K. Festen Associates gathered and synthesized GBF historical materials to make a coherent story of a complex history. Youth development knowledge, evaluation and strategic planning expertise, and grants review are among her many talents. Marcia@festen.net

P. Catlin Fullwood of On Time Associates has been GBF's evaluation trainer since 2000. Her expertise in participatory evaluation research and how it can be used with and by youth is endless. Her knowledge of work with girls and young women is longstanding. Social justice for women, girls, and people of color is in her soul. She is mentor extraordinaire to younger consultants. Fullcat@aol.com

Kristin Lindsey of Intersector Consulting conducted a communications audit and developed a strategic communications plan in 2004 that have guided and focused all our communications since. She helped us begin annual reports and a website that features girls, great grantee organizations, and what we've gleaned in eleven years of funding. Kristin knows philanthropy (sometimes against her better judgment), communications, and planning like no one else we know. kristin@intersector.net

Hilary Marsh is the owner of Content Company. She helped us completely revise our website and re-create our e-newsletter, realizing the vision articulated so eloquently by Kristin Lindsey. Hilary is a great web editor, asks many tough but necessary questions, and coordinated all aspects of the GBF web redesign. If you like it, she gets much of the credit. www.contentcompany.biz

Laura McAlpine, of McAlpine Consulting for Growth, and Mary Morten, of the Morten Group, provided a safe space for youth workers to talk candidly about their knowledge, opinions of, and anecdotes of on-the-ground reality of making safe space for LGBTQ youth in their programs. Together, they then wrote a great report of their findings [link] and used it to do an influential training. Their expertise shines. laura@lmcalpine.com and marym@mortengroup.com

Elizabeth Seja Min has many areas of expertise, but the one that has benefited GBF above all was her time with staff, skillfully facilitating conversations about privilege, power, and oppression, which became bedrock for great cooperative work. Elizabeth is magical. www.trimtab.org

Jessica Palmert is the former director of Girl World at Alternatives Inc., where she learned and practiced evaluation research with young women and girls. She has trained with Catlin Fullwood and begun to co-train and coach with her, with Tawanna Brown, and on her own. She completed an evaluation with and for the Empowered FeFes of Access Living in 2004, loved the work, and is seeking more evaluation opportunities. messamomma@yahoo.com

Lynn Phillips, Ph.D. was the lead and directing researcher and sole author of Speak for Yourself: What Girls Say about What Girls Need (2002). Her work helped us focus our vision, check our work, and share much of what we've learned and wanted to tell others about girls. She is the author of several other touchstone works about girls, including The Girls Report and Flirting with Danger (in video form soon). LEPJ908@aol.com

Susie Quern Pratt is leading the design, execution, and analysis of GBF's 2005/2006 evaluation. A longtime evaluator with the Lily Endowment, evaluation curriculum designer and trainer at the Donors Forum of Chicago, and member of a small family foundation, Susie is sensible, informed, and smart about how grantmakers and practitioners can use evaluation well…and badly. Susie@sqpconsulting.com

Wendy Siegel, Christina Kappaz, Pat Dowell, and Ken O'Hare of Millennia Consulting have been leading very popular Learning Circles and training for GBF since 2003. Christina also helped GBF assess organizational readiness for capacity building in 2004, after leaving the GBF Board. Wendy conducted a grantee review in 2000, greatly adding to our understanding of how others see us and how we can serve them better. Millennia folk know the nonprofit world, foundations, organizational and staff development, and facilitation -- and are sharp observers and analysts. www.consultmillennia.com

Pam Smith of PSmith Consulting led the 2004 feasibility study of a Chicago Youth Freedom School and has been GBF's media and outreach consultant since 2005. Youth like working with her. She writes awfully well. She's easygoing, hardworking, and really knows her stuff. Freedom is in her blood. PSmith30@aol.com

Robin Wade of blueEGG communications developed our custom Web design, programmed the website to integrate the new design and content architecture, and optimized our accessibility in search engines. In doing so, she's helped us increase visibility, accessibility, and usability for you. Working with her is a dream. www.blueeggcommunications.com/