Our Offerings
Our research and consulting services build on one another to take any community or organization through reseach, analysis, planning, and execution.
Services can be bundled into larger projects or used a la carte.
Research + Assessment
Dive deep into the perception of your constituents, customers, and communities. Our research plans will cover broad topics with laser focus and real science.
Research is tricky business; many claim to do it, few do it well. Unlike other weapons in the marketing and planning arsenal, if research isn't done well, it becomes fully useless at best, actively harmful at worst. But, when it's planned intelligently, designed according to publication-ready standards, and analyzed at a deep level, research becomes the most useful weapon in your arsenal.
With backgrounds in deep financial analysis, university psychological study, and years working in the field, Crane + Grey has built a reputation on delivering more useful insights from research than our competitors. Paired with our team's talent in creative problem-solving, and. research goes from passive understanding to active maneuvering.
The Why
- Because I want to understand what my community thinks is important.
- Because I want to know how my organization is percieved in our space.
- Because I want to understand how an audience thinks and makes decisions.
- Because I want to get to the truth about how my organization is performing.
Needs Assessment & Analysis
Find out how your community or organization stacks up, where the gaps exists, and exactly where your strengths and the needs of your constituents align for maximum value.
Research is the backbone of any great strategy or strategic plan. But, without deep and creative analysis, research is a collection of disparate metrics. When understood at a deeper level, the story that weaves those findings together begins to come to light, and through a multifactorial analysis, we can begin to understand the nuance that truly makes up your audience.
Our research team examines many factors and crosstabs, asking follow-on questions when needed, to find the threads that weave together a tighter understanding of your organization, community, or audience. We shed light on the Venn diagram that is your constituents' needs, your organizational strengths, and the deeper mission of your organization.
The Why
- Because I need a clear assessment of my organizations abilities.
- Because I want to understand potential threats and opportunities that exist in the landscape.
- Because I need to see what the research really means.
- Because I want recommendations about how to move forward to make better impact.
Strategic Planning
Building your longterm plan around the a compelling story arc sets our Narrative Planning apart from the fray. Narrative plans are measurable, executable, and garner enormous support.
Strategic planning can be one of the biggest wastes of time your organization will ever do. Weird pitch, right? Often, strategic planning results in ambiguous and unrealistically lofty sets of goals and ideas. No thru-line, no singular focus, no mechanism for making impact. The plans end up being desk ornaments, checking a box but accomplishing little.
We started doing planning with zero background and we're eternally grateful to have taken that approach. Now, years later, our Narrative Planning process solves the biggest problems in the strategic planning space. Our plans deliver a singular story for the future of the organization, a simple infrastructure for measurement and accountability, and a mechanism for evolution and participation of the plan. While strategic planning can be the biggest waste of time, done correctly it will be the best investment you can make.
The Why
- Because I want a long-run vision that my people actually care about.
- Because I want a plan that can evolve with the ever-changing needs but doesn’t lose impact.
- Because I need processes that bring passionate people to the table to help.
- Because I’m sick of cookie-cutter strategies that get tosses and rewritten every few years.
Partnership & Vision Alignment
Partner with us for proactive advice, consistent measurement of key indices, and continual refinement of your research, plan, and processes for the greatest impact.
Our firm is unique in the world of consulting. We take on only a handful of projects at any given time, dedicating ourselves fully to each project like an internal member of the team. We pride ourselves on knowing more about the organization and customer than our clients and use that knowledge to continually and proactively feed our clients with new ideas.
At Crane + Grey, we work with clients that aim to help people live their most meaningful and substantive lives. That work fuels us and seeing real, measurable results is the only success we measure. We partner with our clients over years to ensure anything we touch has real-world impact.
The Why
- Because I want an injection of creative thinking without the staffind and overhead.
- Because I want to be sure my plan has unbiased owners shepharding it into reality.
- Because I need proactive advice on how to continually improve.
- Because I want to take research and make it actionable over the long run.
Communications Consulting
Working for years in the marketing and public relations space, our team of communications professionals are equal parts scientists and marketing minds.
When communications loses its laser-focus on strategy (at any nonprofit, foundation, or organization), the rest of the organization is quick to follow suit. Soon, the mission gets hazy and your people and customers start to feel disconnected. On the other hand, when communications is designed and deployed tightly around your vision, the whole of your organization will follow suit. That's the enormous power of language, when wielded smartly.
Communications strategy isn't an exercise in being Don Draper; it's as much science as art. Our team of communications professionals have a history building strategies that weave a tight narrative around the vision of an organization and create creative, consistent, and concise messaging to bring that story to life. Our strategy, training, and professional communications services ensure your organization takes the reins back and gets the whole organization back moving in the right direction.
The Why
- Because I want clear, concise, and consistent communications.
- Because I have a complex issue that requires specific and measured communications.
- Because I’m having trouble ensuring my message finds the right audience.
- Because I need creative thinking to bring my message to life and realize my impact.