Clayton Lord

Clay crafts strategic, actionable, well-defined roadmaps and communications strategies to drive transformational change. With skills in strategic planning, project management, communications, fundraising, grantmaking, and evaluation, he takes complicated, thorny questions and translates them into impactful, action-oriented outcomes for decisionmakers, donors, advisors, and community leaders. QUESTIONS CLAY LOVES TO ADDRESS “Our goals are complex. How do we craft action plans, design projects, and implement evaluation protocols that make our path forward clear and our success as certain as possible?” “The problems we’re trying to address require short and long-term plans and sustainability models. How can we make incremental change and set up for lasting transformation?” “How can we work to become future oriented and proactive instead of reactive?” AREAS OF EXPERTISE 1. Strategic Planning and Communications * Strategic advising on issue areas, throughlines of work, and impact * Strategic planning, trends analysis, impact measurement * Long-term communications planning and implementation 2. Partnership/Movement Building and Coalition Development * Grassroots coalition building and maintenance * Coalition-based activism strategy and implementation * Cross-sector partnership development 3. Professional Development * Platform/technology creation and management * Training/education curation (digital, boutique, large-scale) * In-person speaking and training 4. Research, Evaluation, Meaning Making * Qualitative and quantitative research * Translation to achieve advocacy and policy outcomes * Measurement, evaluation, and learning 5. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion * Design and implementation of cultural equity policy and practices * Training and cross-team learning BACKGROUND Clay served as a Vice President for Americans for the Arts, a national nonprofit organization designed to ensure the arts are recognized as integral to the lives of all people and communities. He led teams of up to 10, built and maintained coalitions of 2,300+, and oversaw budgets of up to $2.5m to drive efforts to align mission, goals, and program outcomes with field and national need. His expertise is in meaning making, strategic planning and communications; granting and resource distribution; project management; evaluation; coalition creation, including among funders and corporations; public policy; and field education. Clay is a proud gay husband and father, as well as a painter, quilter, prolific traveler, and writer. He lives with his husband and daughter in Maryland.