Meet the Team: Colton Strawser

Position: President

Random Fact: I am an award winning poet and I enjoy writing songs in my spare time, none of which will be heard outside of my apartment. My favorite music to listen to and sing along with is pop, country (I am from Indiana you know), broadway, and jazz - my Pandora Radio is better than yours.

​What are the causes you most care about and why? 
I care most about education and youth causes since that is how I got involved in the nonprofit sector. There are so many issues facing young people in this country from lack of high-quality preschool to access to higher education. I enjoy supporting all types of causes, but at the end of the day my heart bleeds for youth and education nonprofits.

What has surprised you most about working as a nonprofit consultant?
The thing that I have found most surprising as a consultant is what a fresh set of eyes can really do for an organization. Going into an organization and not knowing the history is really fun because there is no limit on the questions I can ask - often questions that have never been asked or questions that people were too afraid to ask. Having someone ask the right questions is so important. 

We created a service within the company called the Organizational Health Screening to allow us to work with clients briefly to just ask all of the right questions in a short period of time. Think of it as an annual physical from a doctor, or an inspection at the mechanic to ensure everything is running the way it should.

What do you do when you’re not working? 
When I am not doing consulting, I am doing lots of other things related to nonprofit. I teach courses online at Arkansas Tech University in nonprofit management and leadership, study Nonprofit and Philanthropy Leadership in the PhD in Leadership Studies program at the University of San Diego, and conduct research for The Nonprofit Institute at USD.