"Through the strategic planning process, Oscar helped us to identify our weaknesses and to form united solutions to ensure our sustainability, growth, and overall strength in reaching our mission - clean air for Central Valley breathers."

       -Liza Bolaños,

Coordinator,

Central Valley Air Quality Coalition

"Oscar's greatest strength and contribution to our strategic planning process was his ability to tailor his approach to our needs as an organization.  His facilitation skills with both large and small groups, his flexibility, and his individualized attention helped us to develop a plan that will best serve our community and our foundation going forward."    

     -Anne Granlund,

Chairman, Lafayette Arts & Science Foundation 

"Oscar’s expansive knowledge in a multitude of fields allowed for every training to be tailored to our specific needs.  He empowered staff in taking ownership of their time, gaining responsibility within the program and investing into more endeavors with students. He helped us stimulate new ideas and creative ways of meeting the students' needs and supporting their growth and development. His facilitation skills and handouts were both excellent in increasing our resources and knowledge base."

   -Kirsten Gray

Afterschool Program Supervisor,

Seneca Center

"Oscar and his team challenged my assumptions, provided me with a boost of creativity and demonstrated a broad expertise in program positioning. I hope to continue working with them as I move from strategic planning to execution."
      - Director,

Professionals for Responsible Supply Management (PRiSM)

In the constantly evolving San Francisco Bay Area it's not always easy to keep your organization positioned at the cutting edge in its field.

Blue Thistle has the expertise to guide and facilitate you and your team as you plan, implement, fund and evaluate programs that can thrive in this competitive environment.

For nineteen years Blue Thistle's founder, Oscar Wolters-Duran, has led organizations in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors. His projects have involved dynamic partnerships with nonprofits, schools, businesses, universities and public agencies.

Coaching and Training

Managing day-to-day activities while also planning for the future and juggling non-work needs can lead to high stress and frustation. We help you find intuitive ways to find solutions to your challenges, reduce the stress in your life, and set goals that inspire you and your team.

Strategic Planning
Planning is the key that unlocks the potential of your organization. Our approach helps you get to the heart of your organizational story, to help you develop the narrative you want.

Program and Curriculum Design
Create programs and activities that will efficiently and clearly meet your organization's mission and objectives. We specialize in developing engaging service learning curricula.

Evaluation and Assessment
We can help you effectively measure what's truly important to you, your clients and your funders, and to use evaluation to help you reach your goals.

Sustainability Planning
We focus on developing the compelling story that will serve as the foundation for all fundraising activity. Our team is experienced at guiding fundraising campaigns, identifying and tapping new funding sources, and developing winning materials to support a successful effort.

We promise clients:

Creativity: We approach each project with an open mind - no preconceived or packaged solutions. Each organization is completely unique and deserves a custom-made solution.

Integrity: We listen carefully to your needs and then follow through to address them with complete honesty, thoroughness and reliability. If we think something won't work, we'll let you know!

Expertise: We bring all of our knowledge and experience to each project, and when necessary, enlist allied experts to create the best team to meet your needs.

Please check out my short articles with useful tips, links and examples for non-profit professionals.

Nonprofit Storytelling

In my career, I’ve seen too many grant proposals and strategic plans that look like academic research papers. I’ve been guilty of them myself. While there is a place for lining up rigorous facts and citing all sources, for many documents created by nonprofit organizations, simplicity, directness and the old fashioned art of storytelling are key.

Many years ago I learned about Theory of Change and the Logic Model. What struck most about these frameworks for planning, was that at heart, they were simply about telling a compelling story that made common sense. If a plan doesn’t tell a story about something that is important to us, what’s the point? If it doesn’t satisfy common sense, no indexed tables or spreadsheets full of data can be fully convincing.

         >continue reading