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For nonprofits and cross-border programs

I have run the program, not just the plan.

I founded and still lead a US nonprofit now in its eleventh year, operating across two countries with twelve full time staff, fifty seasonal workers, and sixty volunteers. I have built and run nonprofit restaurants employing people exiting reintegration programs. I moved eighty tons of food during the pandemic, distributed against verified need through a network of partner foundations. I built a fair trade retail business specifically to fund the social work rather than chase grants for it. I built a program serving displaced indigenous families in Medellín in partnership with the Mayor's Office. And I have organized a fundraising gala in Miami for A21. So when I talk about measurement, documentation, and operating discipline, it is from the side of the desk where you are sitting.

The symptoms

You are probably here because

The work

Four ways I work with nonprofits

Operating teardown

Two weeks, fixed fee

Interviews with leadership and program staff, then a map of how the work and the data actually move. Where the reporting time goes, which steps are manual, what you are collecting that nobody uses, and what funders are asking for that you cannot yet answer. Written findings and a ranked priority list. Credited against anything that follows.

Impact and operating dashboard

Six weeks, fixed fee

Logic model to indicator set to collection workflow to a live dashboard, plus the funder and board reporting pack that comes out of it. The discipline is the same as the commercial version and the goal is different: a small set of indicators you can defend, collected as part of the work rather than reconstructed afterward, so reporting stops being a project. Built on tooling you can actually afford to keep.

Operating hub and SOPs

Four to six weeks, fixed fee

One place where the organization lives. Document architecture, ownership and access, retention rules, and the fifteen procedures that carry the most risk: fiscal controls, grant compliance and reporting calendars, subrecipient monitoring, program delivery, and onboarding. This is audit readiness and it is turnover insurance, which for most nonprofits is the more urgent of the two.

Cross-border program operations

Retained or project

For US organizations running programs abroad, particularly in Latin America. In-country entity structure, staffing and contractor risk, cash controls and expenditure documentation, vendor management, and local compliance. Eleven years of doing exactly this in Colombia, bilingually.

Selected work

What it looks like in practice

2015 to present

Cross-border nonprofit

United States and Medellín, Colombia

Founded and still lead a US 501(c)(3) operating continuously across two countries for eleven years, serving displaced Embera families in Medellín, with twelve full time staff, fifty seasonal workers, and sixty volunteers. I built the Colombian entity from formation through DIAN registration, hiring, and governance, established a community facility in partnership with the Medellín Mayor's Office, and built the fair trade retail business that funds the programs. The artisans who make the product are the same people the programs serve. I have written the grant reports, sat through the audits, and rebuilt the data three times to learn what was worth collecting.

11 yrsContinuous operation
2Countries
12Full time staff
50Seasonal staff
60Volunteers
2Entities built from zero
2026

Luxury hospitality activation

Coral Gables, Florida

A 40 day invitation-only activation run as General Manager through Boost International, with full budget, hiring, and vendor authority. Relevant here for one reason: if a signature fundraising event is on your calendar, this is what running one at scale looks like, including sponsor fulfillment for more than twenty corporate partners.

6 wksVenue to open
$900KBudget managed
13Events produced
20+Corporate partners
11On team
5,000+Guests hosted
Contact

Tell me what you are building, or what stopped working.

The first conversation is thirty minutes and costs nothing. If I am not the right fit I will say so on that call, and tell you who is.

nick@boostinternational.net
Boost International LLC linkedin.com/in/nick-manderfield