Talem Consulting
Levelling the Playing Field for BIPOC-led Nonprofits

Talem Consulting is driven by the mission of empowering nonprofits with the necessary tools to build capacity, fundraise, and dismantle systems of inequity. The company works with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)-led organizations to ensure they have equitable access to resources in the nonprofit space. The company’s services include organizational development, fundraising, change management, interim services, leadership coaching, and workshops.

“We are on a mission to eliminate the factors that have historically restrained BIPOC-led organizations to ensure equity in the nonprofit space,” says Rachel Branaman, Founder & Principal Consultant.

Talem Consulting’s decade-long experience of working with esteemed clients made it realize that to bring profound and systematic change, the work must start at the grassroots level. This led them to transition from project-based management services to interim services, which has resulted in their ability to increase inclusion, equity, and justice in nonprofit spaces.

Its one-on-one coaching and training on gender inclusion, legal liability, and non-binary perspectives foster an inclusive and supportive environment, which reduces turnover and increases retention in the nonprofit sector.

“What makes our mission distinct from others is that we do not solely focus on driving fundraising; instead, we take a holistic approach to understand the barriers and create change at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, and systemic levels,” says Branaman.

This unparalleled commitment to driving equity in the workplace has led Talem Consulting to identify policies and procedures that curb the problem of employees receiving unequal access and poor workplace environments. The firm initiates conversations at conferences and within organizations to create systemic change within nonprofits and philanthropy.

A perfect example of Talem Consulting initiating internal organizational as well as systemic changes, is when a client approached it upon receiving national news coverage about one of their state chapters being alleged of sexual harassment in the workplace. The news story led to the national office hearing from other state chapters about similar issues. The client reached out for help in managing the situation, as they knew they must address gender bias and harassment. As a faith-based organization, it knew it must also consider specific cultural norms about men and women in shared spaces.

Understanding this, Talem Consulting devised a plan which involved leading confidential healing circles for employees and organizational leadership to process their emotions and thoughts around these issues. This was followed by a two-part training series on fostering a culture of gender inclusivity that looks at power differentials and how gender bias intersects with race, class, and culture. Talem worked with them to create policy and procedure recommendations for implementation at the national level and encouraged at the chapter level. It continued with a check-in plan and provided annual training series updates on various topics.

Talem Consulting, with its broad exposure in the nonprofit sector, also identified that Black and Brown women, along with those in non-dominant communities, tend not to invest in themselves at the same levels as their White counterparts. This motivated the organization to design an Inclusive Leadership Development Program which covers a range of in-depth topics like building a culture of trust, confidentiality, partnership building, and community engagement.

Its primary focus on bringing systemic change as well as attracting and retaining talent in the nonprofit or charitable sector has led it to develop workshops encouraging conversations, approach people to fundraise, and grow the donor base. Talem Consulting is on a journey of building culturally responsive fundraising techniques that centers a horizontal philanthropic mindset thereby placing donors, nonprofits, and program recipients on equal footing.