FIRM OVERVIEW

 

is a management advisory firm that helps nonprofit organizations and socially focused businesses improve performance, effectiveness and sustainability.  The firm’s areas of focus include:

 

 

In addition to traditional consulting, The Osgood Group designs and delivers customized earned income and revenue generation programs to nonprofit organizations, foundations and associations to meet their specific objectives.

 

BACKGROUND

 

Nancy Osgood, founder and president, brings years of executive-level experience in the nonprofit, philanthropic and private industry arenas.  Sector experience includes performing and musical arts, venture and high engagement philanthropy, higher education, private/independent schools, social services, retail and financial services.

 

APPROACH

 

The firm’s work is led by Nancy Osgood, with frequent involvement from Principal and partner, Dennis Osgood. The Osgood Group also draws on a small network of trusted partners and advisors to supplement the firm’s skills in order to meet the specific needs of our clients.

 

BIOGRAPHY

 

Nancy Osgood is president of The Osgood Group, a management advisory firm that helps nonprofit organizations and socially focused businesses improve performance, effectiveness and sustainability.  Her work across diverse industries and functions falls into two broad categories: revenue generation (earned and contributed) and large-scale planning and restructuring to support profitable growth.  Prior to founding the firm, Nancy held senior positions in nonprofit management, philanthropy and private industry.

Nancy is on the faculty of Case Western Reserve University (Weatherhead School of Management) and teaches the Marketing and Earned Income courses in the Masters of Nonprofit Organizations program. Her work with students and nonprofit executives earned her the 2010-11 Teaching
Award. She has also developed revenue generation workshops for executive directors and
nonprofit leaders that focus on helping organizations identify and pursue new revenue streams.
Clients include: BVU: The Center for Nonprofit Excellence, the Florida Association of Museums,
and The Mandel Center for Nonprofit Management.

During her tenure on the senior executive team of The Cleveland Orchestra, Nancy led new
business initiatives inside and outside Ohio and developed new revenue streams. She established
a European board and built a Europe-based fundraising program, which she continues to lead as a
retained consultant. In Cleveland, she restructured and led marketing and development
departments/initiatives, developed new concert formats and launched patron engagement
initiatives resulting in earned and contributed revenue growth.

 

As Director of Marketing for Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and the Weatherhead School, Nancy worked with internationally recognized faculty to brand and market their areas of expertise, develop new programs, and build new earned revenue streams.

 

Nancy’s decade of experience in private industry includes leadership roles in general management, marketing, product management and business development in both the business-to-business and consumer sectors, for Progressive Corporation and Cole National Corporation.

Nancy’s community work is focused on children, music and education. She is a trustee for
Lawrence School, founding advisory board member of the Rainey Institute’s El Sistema@Rainey
program, and founding board member of ChamberFEST Cleveland. Nancy founded and led a
non-traditional Girl Scout troop focused on outdoor adventure and skill-building.

 Nancy earned an MBA from the University of Michigan, a BA (German and Political Science) from Central Michigan University, and an Advanced Certificate in German Language from the Goethe Institute.  She speaks German and holds dual citizenship in the US and Germany.  


BIOGRAPHY

Dennis Osgood is a principal of The Osgood Group, a management advisory firm that helps

nonprofit organizations and socially focused businesses improve performance, effectiveness and

sustainability. He has held a variety of executive level positions in the private sector and has been

an active consultant in the nonprofit sector. His functional grounding is in human resources,

organization development and training, with expertise in business planning, stakeholder

engagement, building organizational infrastructure, and new business start-ups.

 

Dennis’s nonprofit career began after he left a successful 25-year career in the private sector. He

began volunteering at Roxboro Elementary School as a tutor and PTA president, and co-led the

development and rollout of a high impact academic tutoring program for grades 1-5. As a retained

consultant to Reaching Heights, he led the development and rollout of academic tutoring

programs across the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district. The process involved

engaging diverse stakeholder groups and delivered measurable improvements in academic

outcomes for target groups of students and over 300 hours of weekly volunteer tutoring.

 

Dennis consulted with Towards Employment to revitalize its earned income program and build the

organization’s marketing and sales capacity. He developed and tested a new sales model,

generating new interest and sales at levels not achieved during the prior nine years of the

program’s life.

 

Dennis spent the first 12 years of his for-profit career in various Human Resources roles. He rose

through several training and development positions to head of HR for several corporations.

Achievements included: developing and leading training programs which had a measurable

positive bottom line impact, redesigning benefit programs which increased perceived value while

lowering costs, and leading company-wide organization change efforts. At Cole Vision

Corporation, he turned a small claims processing unit into a stand-alone vision benefits

management company that generated over $200 million in incremental sales. He ran the company

for 12 years.

 

Dennis’s community work (board and advisor roles) over the past 11 years has focused exclusively

on education and includes work with Thea Bowman Center, Reaching Heights, Roxboro

Elementary School PTA and the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district.

 

Dennis earned an MBA from Northwestern University, a PhD/ABD (Literary Criticism) and MA

(English Literature) from University of Iowa and a BA (English and German) from the University of

Southern California.


PARTIAL CLIENT LIST AND ORGANIZATIONAL AFFILIATIONS

 

Arts and Culture

 

Education

 

 Social Services

 

Venture Philanthropy/Foundations

 

Private Industry