" A different world cannot be built by indifferent people."
Danette Olsen Consulting
Facilitator & Organizational Development
Danette Olsen works across sectors and jurisdictions to design dialogue processes for comprehensive community engagement. With advanced training in Open Space Technology, World Café, and Circle Practice, Danette is well versed in participatory leadership and civic organizing. Other areas of expertise include marketing, board development, fundraising, and program assessment. Danette’s core areas of practice include strategic action planning, retreat design & facilitation, program development, organizational assessment, and fund development.
Danette has worked in the nonprofit realm since 1997, serving as the Director of Arts Education and Community Partnerships at the Arts Council Lake Erie West, as a producer for CLIMB Theatre, and as Executive Director of St. Croix Festival Theatre. Within each post, Danette’s passion and expertise for community development provided a platform for building unique relationships and delivering powerful programs. Among them there were partnerships with the juvenile justice sector, K-12 education, economic development, tourism, parks & recreation, and others. For example, “In a Storybook Garden” emerged in partnership with the Toledo Botanical Garden and 30 nonprofit organizations worked together to reach over 5,000 children and adults in the inaugural year of a reading & nature initiative. In partnership with Lucas County and the Ottawa Coalition, unique social justice programming resulted in “SEGUE,” an afterschool program for highly at-risk elementary children, and “Project ABC” a school readiness program for Toledo’s most vulnerable preschoolers and their families. In partnership with the National Park Service, Danette spearheaded a program to bring five hundred 5th graders annually to an Earth Day event combining nature interpretation with an arts response, thereby deepening the student experience.
Danette lives in Stillwater, Minnesota. Danette loves to kayak, ski, bike, and build community through the arts and nature programming.
Danette has worked in the nonprofit realm since 1997, serving as the Director of Arts Education and Community Partnerships at the Arts Council Lake Erie West, as a producer for CLIMB Theatre, and as Executive Director of St. Croix Festival Theatre. Within each post, Danette’s passion and expertise for community development provided a platform for building unique relationships and delivering powerful programs. Among them there were partnerships with the juvenile justice sector, K-12 education, economic development, tourism, parks & recreation, and others. For example, “In a Storybook Garden” emerged in partnership with the Toledo Botanical Garden and 30 nonprofit organizations worked together to reach over 5,000 children and adults in the inaugural year of a reading & nature initiative. In partnership with Lucas County and the Ottawa Coalition, unique social justice programming resulted in “SEGUE,” an afterschool program for highly at-risk elementary children, and “Project ABC” a school readiness program for Toledo’s most vulnerable preschoolers and their families. In partnership with the National Park Service, Danette spearheaded a program to bring five hundred 5th graders annually to an Earth Day event combining nature interpretation with an arts response, thereby deepening the student experience.
Danette lives in Stillwater, Minnesota. Danette loves to kayak, ski, bike, and build community through the arts and nature programming.
- Retreat Design & Facilitation
Custom design of retreats is a specialty. Each group has a distinct personality and specific needs related to that personality, their organization & structure, their opportunities & challenges, and their budget. Danette works closely with key leaders to identify outcomes and consider potential retreat formats. Together, retreat design is fine-tuned to yield actionable results.
- Strategic Action Planning
Strategic and Sustainability Planning have become essential to organizations. Many organizations benefit by a model of short-term strategic action planning that enables forward movement in a very focused and aligned manner. Danette works closely with teams to identify key action areas and to prioritize the actions that are results oriented in the short term (12-18 months) with an eye on your vision of the future.
- Facilitator & Conversation Guide
Is your group --- or is your topic --- in need of an outside facilitator to help with productive and positive conversation? Often the simple addition of a neutral party who is committed to team engagement can break down barriers or hurdles that have seemed insurmountable. Sometimes, the addition of a facilitator allows the maximum participation of ALL members of team rather than some members being relegated to meeting management. Danette works closely with teams to provide an environment where all types of communicators participate in the conversation. A well-versed “dialogue consultant,” Danette uses exciting, collaborative models for group facilitation such as World Cafe, Open Space Technology, and Circle Practice.
- Program Development & Needs Assessment
Whether it's a new program or revamping an existing enterprise area, the strategic design of programs and services is critical to organizational success. Outcome-based program design that has built-in success measures and benchmarks is key to helping teams be aligned and agile in delivering optimum results. Danette works closely with teams to maximize their strengths, identify and address non-strengths, and to create assessment mechanisms that are authentic without being cumbersome.
- Fund Development Planning & Training
With a successful track record in both earned & contributed revenue development, Danette brings whole brain, entrepreneurial thinking, and both private and nonprofit experience to the finance table. Whether it is assessing the financial history of an organization to determine growth and challenge areas, assisting with research and training in the development of plans and human assets, or leading the design and implementation of a successful fundraising campaign, Danette’s experiences with grants, corporate marketing sponsorships, individual donors, and fees-based programming & services will help organizations think comprehensively about the revenue side of their budgets.
- Presenter & Workshop Facilitator
As a presenter and facilitator who truly lives, breathes, and believes in the power of small groups of people to make significant change, Danette is unique in engaging the room. We are living in a time with a fractured sense of community. In fact, Michael Meade refers to an “increased rattling of the world around us” when he points out that “it seems to be our mutual fate to be living during a time of great upheaval and sweeping change. “ As a presenter and workshop facilitator, Danette provides motivational addresses and sleeves-rolled up workshop presentations that address the power of people to strengthen their communities.
As a Teaching Artist, Danette has designed and presented professional development workshops and direct instruction on integrating the arts into the curriculum, using creative dramatics in the classroom, and creating school-wide cultural projects of epic proportions. She has also designed a variety of arts-centered programs for highly at-risk youth. These same experiences, tools, and talents are very potent in conference settings. Danette is proficient in the arenas of theatre art and creative writing.
Custom design of retreats is a specialty. Each group has a distinct personality and specific needs related to that personality, their organization & structure, their opportunities & challenges, and their budget. Danette works closely with key leaders to identify outcomes and consider potential retreat formats. Together, retreat design is fine-tuned to yield actionable results.
- Strategic Action Planning
Strategic and Sustainability Planning have become essential to organizations. Many organizations benefit by a model of short-term strategic action planning that enables forward movement in a very focused and aligned manner. Danette works closely with teams to identify key action areas and to prioritize the actions that are results oriented in the short term (12-18 months) with an eye on your vision of the future.
- Facilitator & Conversation Guide
Is your group --- or is your topic --- in need of an outside facilitator to help with productive and positive conversation? Often the simple addition of a neutral party who is committed to team engagement can break down barriers or hurdles that have seemed insurmountable. Sometimes, the addition of a facilitator allows the maximum participation of ALL members of team rather than some members being relegated to meeting management. Danette works closely with teams to provide an environment where all types of communicators participate in the conversation. A well-versed “dialogue consultant,” Danette uses exciting, collaborative models for group facilitation such as World Cafe, Open Space Technology, and Circle Practice.
- Program Development & Needs Assessment
Whether it's a new program or revamping an existing enterprise area, the strategic design of programs and services is critical to organizational success. Outcome-based program design that has built-in success measures and benchmarks is key to helping teams be aligned and agile in delivering optimum results. Danette works closely with teams to maximize their strengths, identify and address non-strengths, and to create assessment mechanisms that are authentic without being cumbersome.
- Fund Development Planning & Training
With a successful track record in both earned & contributed revenue development, Danette brings whole brain, entrepreneurial thinking, and both private and nonprofit experience to the finance table. Whether it is assessing the financial history of an organization to determine growth and challenge areas, assisting with research and training in the development of plans and human assets, or leading the design and implementation of a successful fundraising campaign, Danette’s experiences with grants, corporate marketing sponsorships, individual donors, and fees-based programming & services will help organizations think comprehensively about the revenue side of their budgets.
- Presenter & Workshop Facilitator
As a presenter and facilitator who truly lives, breathes, and believes in the power of small groups of people to make significant change, Danette is unique in engaging the room. We are living in a time with a fractured sense of community. In fact, Michael Meade refers to an “increased rattling of the world around us” when he points out that “it seems to be our mutual fate to be living during a time of great upheaval and sweeping change. “ As a presenter and workshop facilitator, Danette provides motivational addresses and sleeves-rolled up workshop presentations that address the power of people to strengthen their communities.
As a Teaching Artist, Danette has designed and presented professional development workshops and direct instruction on integrating the arts into the curriculum, using creative dramatics in the classroom, and creating school-wide cultural projects of epic proportions. She has also designed a variety of arts-centered programs for highly at-risk youth. These same experiences, tools, and talents are very potent in conference settings. Danette is proficient in the arenas of theatre art and creative writing.
