Partners for Change.
Partners for Good.
For more than twenty years, we’ve built our consulting practice on a simple idea: organizations do their best work when they have clear purpose and goals, smart strategy, and ongoing commitment to business planning, execution, learning, and adaptation. Together, we bring deep experience, perspective, and steady guidance required to help nonprofit leaders create meaningful, lasting change.
What Sets Us Apart
Founded in 2006, Clarkson Davis LLC is a premier management consulting firm dedicated to supporting nonprofit organizations. With more than three decades of experience as executives, advisors, and partners to leaders across the country, we bring a depth of understanding that can only come from years spent working inside the sector—not simply observing it.
We have helped organizations navigate some of the most defining moments of the last generation: the post–9/11 landscape, the 2008 financial crisis, the tech bubble and its ripple effects, and the unprecedented disruption of COVID-19. These experiences have shaped our approach and sharpened our judgment, giving us a clear-eyed perspective on how nonprofits endure, adapt, and lead through uncertainty.
Our work spans health and human services, arts and culture, public and private foundations, community-based organizations, and major regional initiatives. We specialize in strategic and business planning, governance, and leadership development—always grounded in practical experience at the leadership level and informed by the realities nonprofit teams face every day.
Unlike consulting firms rooted in for-profit practice, we work exclusively in the nonprofit sector. We understand its values, its constraints, its rhythms, and its opportunities. That focus allows us to bring insight, and sector-specific expertise to every engagement, and help our clients build the purpose and clarity necessary to move forward with confidence.
Services
Strategic & Business Planning
Strategic planning succeeds when it begins with clarity and ends with action. By grounding the process in thoughtful internal and external research and pairing the final plan with focused business planning, organizations gain both a shared vision and a concrete path forward. Board and staff move together with purpose—and achieve more, together.
Board Performance & Partnership
Strong governance is the backbone of a healthy organization. It flourishes when Boards have clarity of role, confidence in their structure, and a shared understanding of how to work in partnership with staff. Through thoughtful assessment, governance coaching, and practical tools, we help Boards strengthen alignment, deepen accountability, and elevate their effectiveness. The result is a stronger institution with a Board better equipped to lead with purpose.
Emerging Leaders Studio
The Emerging Leaders Studio nurtures the talent and potential of rising nonprofit leaders. Through a thoughtful blend of training, coaching, and collaborative learning, we help individuals build confidence, strengthen skills, and grow into the steady, capable leaders their organizations need for the future.
Firm Leadership
Straightforward. Skilled. Steady.
Janet is a trusted advisor to executives, boards, and philanthropists navigating moments of transformation, opportunity, and growth. As the co-founder and principal of Clarkson Davis, she brings more than two decades of experience in planning, organizational development, governance, fundraising strategy, and executive coaching.
Her clients—from symphonies to theaters, food banks to libraries—rely on her to lead visioning processes, governance evaluations and transformations, special project campaigns, and complex operational assessments with a balance of insight, rigor, and empathy.
She is a proud alumna of the University of Michigan School of Music Theatre, and Dance and her civic leadership has included service on numerous nonprofit boards. These include the Association of Fundraising Professionals – DFW, Resolana, the National Committee for Planned Giving, and the Rye Historical Society. She is a current member of the board of the Advisory Board for the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center & Institute, and she volunteers for United Way NEXT, the retiree and alumni association for the United Way system. She enjoys adventure cycling, music, gardening, and sharing good meals—with occasional help from their two loyal Labradors and frequent visits from three grown children.
Wyatt is a founding principal of Clarkson Davis with 37 years of nonprofit experience. Drawn to imagining what is possible, he keeps his eyes on what’s next for clients and the nonprofit industry, and is focused on exploring new concepts, designing alternate approaches, and building better models and methods.
An outstanding facilitator, he focuses on partnering with clients to envision, plan, and implement innovative strategies and services. An early career placement in the Arthur Andersen Business Consulting Nonprofit Industry Group launched Wyatt’s love for the consulting profession and gave him the opportunity to consult extensively in the nonprofit industry.
He earned a Master of Business Administration in Management from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Texas A&M University. He also enjoys stargazing, bicycling, motorcycling, guitar, barbecue, and hanging out with Seacoast Labrador Retriever pack members Hondo and Lindy.
Field Notes
Field Notes is where we share the insights, questions, and real-world lessons that shape our work with nonprofit and community leaders. These reflections come from decades in the field—observing what strengthens organizations, what builds trust, and what helps leaders move forward with clarity and purpose.
Health & Human Services Clients
Arts & Culture Clients
Foundation Clients
