Welcome, consultants, trainers, coaches, and other capacity-building providers!
We're so glad you're interested in applying to CORE! (However, CORE is not accepting applications at this time.)
Here is a summary of the steps involved, with a more detailed narrative below. If you were an applicant in 2013 and participated in a Learning Conversation, you do not need to complete this application again. We will be contacting you to invite you to participate in an abbreviated process to meet our current Connectors and update us about your interest and availability.
The Steps and Timeline for applying:
The Detailed Narrative:
We understand that CORE isn’t for everyone. To make the best use of your time and ours, we ask that you be clear about our eligibility criteria, areas of focus, and confidentiality policies before you submit an application. If you have questions, submit a request through the website and we’ll respond promptly.
Each consultant or consulting group who would like to be in the pool to be recommended to eligible organizations must fill out an application. Applications are due by noon on Friday, Sept. 5, 2015.
In filling out your application, please keep the following in mind:
1. CORE doesn’t take the broadest view of consultants and their work. We don’t expect to know everything you’ve ever done, are qualified to do or could do in a pinch. Instead, we explore great matches, so we take a deliberately appreciative (and also narrower) view in the questions that follow.
2. Your responses need not be perfect. As part of the CORE process, you will explore your responses further in a Learning Conversation with two trained CORE Connectors. Early next year we will incorporate the information we learn about you and your work into a simple portfolio format and ask your permission to keep that compilation on file as we assess the fit with future capacity-building requests. In other words, your answers here represent the beginning of a process, not the end.
3. Your responses should stand alone. While you will submit a resume with your application, we ask that you provide complete responses to our prompts without referring to your resume or website. Write here what you most want us to know, expecting that this may be the only information some CORE participants learn about you.
After you submit the application, we will confirm your eligibility to participate, and send an email with a link to a payment screen. All eligible participants—the organizations seeking capacity building support and the consultants/trainers offering such support—are asked to pay an application fee of $50 to defray costs of the process. An exception is if you were an applicant to Round 1 or Round 2 of CORE's matchmaking program and paid your $50 fee, you do not need to pay again this round.
Eligible consultants who complete the application and payment will be contacted to schedule your 60-90 minute Learning Conversation. Once you complete your Learning Conversation you will be in the pool for consulting matches. Other trained Connectors will also meet with organizational applicants, to better understand their needs, and to discern how ready they are to engage a consultant. The Connectors will then come together in a facilitated process to share what they've learned and decide on the best recommendations. Each organization deemed ready for a capacity-building project will be given a list of 2-3 consultants we believe to be a good fit to help them meet their capacity-building aspirations.
We will also select some of the organizational applicants for our “Assisted Contracting” phase. These organizations will be provided with an initial $500 grant to be used as an honorarium to pay the consultant of their choice to work with them to develop a more detailed work plan and budget for their capacity-building project, using our required questions. Once they submit this plan to us, they will be eligible for consideration to receive up to $5000 in matching funds to help them pay for the work. We will also be following up after the project is complete to learn how it went.
Here is a summary of the steps involved, with a more detailed narrative below. If you were an applicant in 2013 and participated in a Learning Conversation, you do not need to complete this application again. We will be contacting you to invite you to participate in an abbreviated process to meet our current Connectors and update us about your interest and availability.
The Steps and Timeline for applying:
- Review our definitions, eligibility criteria, and confidentiality policy.
- Download the consultant application at the bottom of this page.
- Fill out and submit your application (by noon on Sept. 5)
- Submit your resume (by noon on Sept. 5)
- Wait for us to confirm your eligibility (by Sept. 10)
- Check the list we send you of trained Connectors and let us know of any confidentiality concerns (by Sept. 15)
- Pay your $50 application fee (by Sept. 17) (waived for consultants who applied and paid a fee in 2013)
- Make yourself available to meet with assigned Connectors for your Learning Conversation (between Sept. 29-Oct. 17)
- Wait to hear from us whether you've been recommended to any organizational applicants in this round (early December)
(Each organization will receive names of 2-3 recommended consultants, and it will be their choice whether to follow up with you.) - Respond to any organizational requests for a meeting/interview (December/January)
- If selected by an organization, work with them to develop a work plan and budget for the capacity-building project (by Feb. 15, 2015) and, if the project is funded, to complete the work on the agreed-upon timeline (by Fall 2015). Participate in an evaluation with CORE of your experience upon completion of the project.
The Detailed Narrative:
We understand that CORE isn’t for everyone. To make the best use of your time and ours, we ask that you be clear about our eligibility criteria, areas of focus, and confidentiality policies before you submit an application. If you have questions, submit a request through the website and we’ll respond promptly.
Each consultant or consulting group who would like to be in the pool to be recommended to eligible organizations must fill out an application. Applications are due by noon on Friday, Sept. 5, 2015.
In filling out your application, please keep the following in mind:
1. CORE doesn’t take the broadest view of consultants and their work. We don’t expect to know everything you’ve ever done, are qualified to do or could do in a pinch. Instead, we explore great matches, so we take a deliberately appreciative (and also narrower) view in the questions that follow.
2. Your responses need not be perfect. As part of the CORE process, you will explore your responses further in a Learning Conversation with two trained CORE Connectors. Early next year we will incorporate the information we learn about you and your work into a simple portfolio format and ask your permission to keep that compilation on file as we assess the fit with future capacity-building requests. In other words, your answers here represent the beginning of a process, not the end.
3. Your responses should stand alone. While you will submit a resume with your application, we ask that you provide complete responses to our prompts without referring to your resume or website. Write here what you most want us to know, expecting that this may be the only information some CORE participants learn about you.
After you submit the application, we will confirm your eligibility to participate, and send an email with a link to a payment screen. All eligible participants—the organizations seeking capacity building support and the consultants/trainers offering such support—are asked to pay an application fee of $50 to defray costs of the process. An exception is if you were an applicant to Round 1 or Round 2 of CORE's matchmaking program and paid your $50 fee, you do not need to pay again this round.
Eligible consultants who complete the application and payment will be contacted to schedule your 60-90 minute Learning Conversation. Once you complete your Learning Conversation you will be in the pool for consulting matches. Other trained Connectors will also meet with organizational applicants, to better understand their needs, and to discern how ready they are to engage a consultant. The Connectors will then come together in a facilitated process to share what they've learned and decide on the best recommendations. Each organization deemed ready for a capacity-building project will be given a list of 2-3 consultants we believe to be a good fit to help them meet their capacity-building aspirations.
We will also select some of the organizational applicants for our “Assisted Contracting” phase. These organizations will be provided with an initial $500 grant to be used as an honorarium to pay the consultant of their choice to work with them to develop a more detailed work plan and budget for their capacity-building project, using our required questions. Once they submit this plan to us, they will be eligible for consideration to receive up to $5000 in matching funds to help them pay for the work. We will also be following up after the project is complete to learn how it went.
You've reviewed all the materials and are ready to apply.
CORE is not accepting applications at this time.
CORE is not accepting applications at this time.

core_consultant_application_round_3.docx | |
File Size: | 186 kb |
File Type: | docx |