Shannon Parris Consulting

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Shannon Parris Consulting Through practical, equity-driven strategies, Shannon Parris Consulting propels nonprofits and small businesses by uplifting the people who power them.

Growing organizations often reach a point where leaders are expected to manage increasingly complex people challenges wi...
09/30/2026

Growing organizations often reach a point where leaders are expected to manage increasingly complex people challenges without dedicated People Operations expertise or the capacity to build the systems needed to support a healthy workplace.

👉 Traditional consulting provides recommendations.

👉 Traditional HR often provides either executive-level leadership (at a cost many small organizations can't justify) or administrative support without the strategic leadership to strengthen the organization.

🌟 A Fractional People Operations Partnership bridges both strategy and ex*****on.

It provides responsive support for today's people challenges while simultaneously building the infrastructure, leadership practices, and systems that create long-term organizational capacity.

The goal isn't just to solve today's problems. It's to leave the organization better equipped to handle tomorrow's.

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👋 Hi, I’m Shannon. I help nonprofits become great places to work. Sometimes that requires new processes. Other times, a new operating system.

đź“Ś I'm currently accepting new nonprofit clients for Q1 2027. Reach out if you'd like to explore working together.

[Image Description: Graphic on a teal background with the title "Fractional People Operations Partnership" in white serif text and a small hummingbird logo above it. An arrow points down to an illustrated white truss bridge, with the label "Strategy" on the left end and "Ex*****on" on the right. The center section of the bridge is highlighted in pink, showing the partnership as the link between the two.]

09/28/2026

Do you have a go/no-go organizational value that you use to decide who to work with?

Mine is an asset-based approach to capacity building, labor, and organizational intelligence.

I've noticed that one of the strongest determinants of success for my neurodivergent clients is how they answer this que...
09/25/2026

I've noticed that one of the strongest determinants of success for my neurodivergent clients is how they answer this question: Are we trying to change this about you, or are we learning to accommodate you?

🚨 People who are determined to contort themselves to fit into spaces that weren't built for them will fail. Full stop.

And not because they're failures — because trying to be someone you're not isn't sustainable or healthy or kind.

But being able to be your whole self?

✨ That will set you free. ✨

[Image Description: Photo of Shannon Parris with shoulder-length dark hair wearing a teal turtleneck, looking at the camera with a slight smile, in a room with a sunburst mirror and a woven wall hanging in the background. Overlaid text reads: 'Are we trying to change this about you, or are we learning to accommodate you?' with 'learning to' and 'accommodate' highlighted in pink. A small hummingbird logo appears in the top right corner.]

All organizations experience people-, process-, and growth-related challenges.🌟 Every workplace challenge is an opportun...
09/23/2026

All organizations experience people-, process-, and growth-related challenges.

🌟 Every workplace challenge is an opportunity to strengthen the organization. 🌟

The difference between organizations that remain reactive and those that become sustainable is whether they use those challenges to strengthen their systems, leadership, and capacity.

👉 My approach views employee experiences and feedback as valuable operational intelligence and builds organizational capacity with a four-phase process.

Some people think of capacity building as creating (or funding) new roles.

I think that misses several important steps.

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👋 Hi, I’m Shannon. I help nonprofits realize their visions and achieve their goals. That often requires removing constraints and adding efficiency so they can increase their capacity sustainability.

đź“Ś I'm currently accepting new nonprofit clients for Q4 2026. Reach out if you'd like to explore working together.

[Image Description: "Infographic titled 'My Approach to Capacity Building' showing a four-tier pyramid diagram. From bottom to top: Tier 1, Assessment — understand where demands, resources, and systems are aligned and where they aren't. Tier 2, Address capacity constraints — strengthen the infrastructure, processes, and practices that are limiting effectiveness. Tier 3, Add or increase efficiencies — improve workflows, clarify responsibilities, and create systems that reduce unnecessary strain. Tier 4, Make informed staffing decisions — determine whether additional staff, different role structures, or redistribution of responsibilities are needed. A small hummingbird logo appears at the bottom.”]

09/21/2026

Consultants need consultants!

I wouldn’t be where I am today without the fantastic community of consultants around me, including:

- Local consultants I collaborate with, like Jackie Baker, Brynn Elcock, and Jessica Gullickson (and many more I’ve met through Elevate NP SWPA)

- Consultants I’ve met through Nonprofitist, Constellation, and Consultants for Good, like Jami Yazdani and Rachael Dussuau

- Allison Davis and attendees of her inimitable Sales Roundtable

- Other nonprofit professionals I’ve met throughout my career who have taken the leap, like Andy Hoover

I’m proud and grateful to work among so many powerhouses and can’t wait to see how we’ll help each other next!

What would you do if your staircase was missing a stair? Step over it, right? 🪜You'd do it intentionally at first until ...
09/14/2026

What would you do if your staircase was missing a stair? Step over it, right? 🪜

You'd do it intentionally at first until the map in your brain updated and you no longer even needed to think about it. You'd just know that that stair isn't there.

You'd put up a sign or make a disclaimer anytime you had visitors.

You'd notify your homeowners insurance agency so they could charge you extra for having such a hazard in your house.

You'd wrap your kids in bubble wrap and install permanent baby gates at the top and bottom of the stairs.

You'd create a hammock under the missing stair to catch any dropped objects or unlucky pets.

You'd bend over backwards, create infrastructure to accommodate, tell all your people how to stay safe, and pay extra for living with a missing stair.

Right? ...RIGHT?! đź‘€

If you're thinking, “No, Shannon, you silly goose, I wouldn't do any of that. I would simply fix the stair” — I think you're onto something.

So why is it when organizations have a person who is “a missing stair,” they do what amounts to the list above instead of replacing them?

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👋 Hi, I’m Shannon. I’ll say the quiet part out loud. Sometimes that’s what it takes to make nonprofits great places to work.

đź“Ś I'm currently accepting new nonprofit clients for Q1 2027. Reach out if you'd like to explore working together.

[Image Description: A graphic featuring pink abstract staircases on a light gray background with thin geometric lines. Overlaid text reads, “what would you do if your staircase was MISSING a stair?” in dark teal and magenta typography. A small hummingbird illustration appears above the staircase.]

In a Harvard Business Review article published in 1963, Peter F. Drucker addressed "useless efficiency," the idea that's...
09/08/2026

In a Harvard Business Review article published in 1963, Peter F. Drucker addressed "useless efficiency," the idea that's useless to do something effectively that you shouldn't be doing in the first place.

This is why I don't automatically help my clients with the things they think they need help with. This is why I almost always recommend starting with an assessment of some kind.

In my three years of consulting, I've learned that there is almost always a *real* problem under whatever the presenting problem is.

I want to solve real problems. Anything else is a just a band-aid.

If you want to nerd out on the HBR article I mentioned, a link is in the comments.

[Image Description: A person in a pink sweater holds a folded white paper displaying a quote by Peter F. Drucker in teal and pink typography: “There is surely nothing quite so USELESS as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.” The paper rests on a blue background.]

Many nonprofit organizations have come to recognize the prevalence of disability, including disabilities that aren’t rea...
09/03/2026

Many nonprofit organizations have come to recognize the prevalence of disability, including disabilities that aren’t readily apparent, among their staff, volunteers, board members, and clients. But accessibility practices haven’t always caught up to this change in awareness. It’s time to ask: how can organizations better recognize, support, and learn from employees with disabilities? And what does authentic leadership look like for organizational leaders and managers with disabilities?

This webinar will explore what it takes to create truly inclusive and accessible workplace environments and how leadership is strengthened by disability and the full range of identities we bring to our work. Centering the voices of leaders with lived experience (Chaz Kellem, Dr. Angelica Perez-Johnston, Justin Tapp, and me), panelists will share how disability shapes their leadership, the barriers that persist in hiring and career advancement, and the cultural and structural changes that have made the biggest difference in their careers.

Together, the conversation will examine what truly inclusive organizational leadership looks like and what it will take to get there. The link to register is in the comments!

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Part of the Race + Disability Initiative, a partnership of FISA Foundation, The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation

[Image Description: Shannon Parris, a millennial Korean woman, smiling at the camera in front of a dark pink backdrop. She has shoulder-length black hair and is wearing a deep teal mock turtleneck. There is a small hummingbird logo representing Shannon Parris Consulting at the top left corner and a logo for the Race + Disability series in the bottom right corner of the photo.]

I've been thinking a lot about how leading and managing are two separate skills (or separate groups of skills).I think t...
08/27/2026

I've been thinking a lot about how leading and managing are two separate skills (or separate groups of skills).

I think they're both taken for granted in the nonprofit sector. Individual contributors who are technically skilled are often given people to manage and lead, as a next step in career progression, even if they don't want to or feel unqualified to take on this responsibility.

🔹 They're thrust into these roles without formal training and often don't even know the definitions of leading and managing. They're not taught that managing and leading are skills, so they don't spend time or effort on developing them.

🔹 They manage and lead by default, rather than with intention, and their employees' work experiences depend on what kind of people the leaders are, rather than on organizing principles and values.

👉 This can lead to toxicity and dysfunction because the strengths and struggles of a leader inevitably work their way into the organization's culture in the absence of clearly defined and operationalized values.

It doesn't have to be this way.

If we're going to invest in our own and others' development of leadership and management skills, we first need to understand what they are.

đź”— There's a great article from the Economic Times that can help us do just that. A link to the article is in the comments.

[ID: A graphic featuring a glass chess set on a chessboard, divided vertically into two contrasting sides: a teal-blue background on the left and a light gray background on the right. Frosted and transparent chess pieces face each other, with a knight and rook prominently positioned in the foreground. Overlaid text reads, “Leaders Shape Management,” followed by: “While there is some overlap between the two roles, they are fundamentally different in their focus and skills. – Economic Times (link in the comments).”]

08/24/2026

A recent meta-analysis reviewed 60 years of role stressor research and identified role ambiguity as the most damaging role stressor of all.

In terms of nonprofit capacity building, this means that role ambiguity is the biggest constraint on capacity. Creating role clarity removes this constraint and increases the capacity of an organization.

To learn more, check out the link in the comments!

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Pittsburgh, PA

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+14127480480

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