"On behalf of the Grantmaker Forum on Community & National Service, I would like to thank you and Carnegie Corporation of New York for giving us the opportunity to work with Kate Hartnick Elliott.

The consultation with a communications expert came at a critical time for the Grantmaker Forum. The Board of Directors had just made the decision to announce a change in the focus of the organization, to include a broader array of civic engagement strategies rather than a focus on the single strategy of service and volunteering. We had lots of description and explanations about this impending change, but nothing that was clear and succinct. Kate sifted through our reports and drafts, and helped us find our footing on the new path. She helped us develop core messages that we are now using to communicate the change in focus.

Kate's suggested revisions to our website were concrete, sensible, and mostly easy to implement. We expect to implement all of Kate's recommendations: the first set of changes, mostly issues of placement and layout, will be completed by the end of March and the second stage, changes in content, will be completed by the end of June. Her consultation helped us develop an immediate plan to improve the Web site as well as a sense of direction for the complete overhaul once the organization adopts a new name and mission statement.

We greatly enjoyed the chance to work with and benefit from the expertise of Kate Hartnick Elliott. Kate was easy to work with, very responsive to our needs, and very helpful..."