1:1 Strategy Coaching
For people building something that has to work — a nonprofit, a business, a program, a next chapter.
Every engagement starts with a 60-minute Roadmap Session · $75The Roadmap Session
One hour, built entirely around what you submitted in your application — not a script, not a template. You leave with a written runway whether or not you ever hire me. It costs $75, and that is the whole transaction.
What you leave with
- A one-page written runway — your goal, the three moves that get you there, and the order to make them in. Sent within 48 hours.
- The real bottleneck named. Most people arrive with a symptom. We find the constraint underneath it.
- A first action you can take that week — something concrete, not “think about your positioning.”
- An honest read on whether coaching is what you need. Sometimes it's a hire, a tool, or six months of patience instead.
Why the application comes first
- An hour is short. If I spend the first twenty minutes learning what you do, you lose a third of the session.
- Your answers get read before we meet — so we open on your actual problem, not your background.
- It filters honestly in both directions. If I'm not the right person, I'll tell you before you spend an hour finding out.
- The form takes about eight minutes. It's the only unpaid work I'll ask you to do.
How It Works
Apply
Tell me what you're building, what's stuck, and what “working” would look like six months from now.
Roadmap Session
Pay the $75 and pick your time. We meet for an hour — I've already read your application. Your written runway lands within 48 hours.
Choose Your Runway
If coaching is the right call, I'll recommend the Sprint or the Build and tell you why. No pressure either direction.
Get to Work
Sessions get scheduled around your calendar. Notes and next actions land within 24 hours of each one.
Building Your Theory of Change
Most coaching starts with goals and ends with accountability. That skips the part that decides whether anything changes. We build a theory of change for your work — the causal chain from where you are to what you want — then find the place it's actually breaking. Five phases, each grounded in something that has been tested.
Destination
Backwards mapping · Theory of Change“What has to be true, and in what order?”
We start at the long-term outcome and work backwards, naming every precondition that has to hold before it's possible, and the assumptions sitting underneath each link. Most plans fail at an assumption nobody wrote down.
You end this phase with a pathway, not a to-do list.
Diagnosis
COM-B model of behaviour change“Why hasn't this moved already?”
Stuck work is rarely a knowledge problem. Behaviour change research locates the break in one of three places: you lack the skill, knowledge, or bandwidth to do it (capability), your environment — calendar, systems, or the people around you — won't let it happen (opportunity), or you don't actually want it enough to spend what it costs (motivation).
Almost everyone assumes their problem is motivation. It is usually opportunity. You haven't raised your prices because nothing in your week is structured to make that conversation happen, not because you lack the will or the number.
Design
Self-Determination Theory“What are we actually building?”
Change holds when the person making it has autonomy over the plan, the competence to run it, and support around them while they do. That's why I don't hand you a strategy. We build yours, across the four domains below.
A plan you own is a plan that survives the first hard week.
Commitment
Goal-setting theory · Implementation intentions“When, exactly, and what happens if it slips?”
Specific, demanding goals with real feedback beat “do your best.” That finding is fifty years old and still holds. And intentions phrased as when this happens, I will do that outperform ordinary goals by a wide margin, because they hand the decision to your calendar instead of your willpower.
Every session closes with one, written down, including what you'll do when it slips. It will slip.
Evidence
Indicators · Iteration“Is the theory holding?”
A theory of change is a hypothesis, not a promise. We name the leading indicators — the early signals that tell you it's working before the outcome arrives — then check them and revise the map.
This is also what a funder is asking for when they ask how you know it works. You'll already have the answer.
Grounded in: Theory of Change (Weiss; ActKnowledge & the Aspen Institute) · the COM-B model of behaviour change (Michie, van Stralen & West) · Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan) · goal-setting theory (Locke & Latham) · implementation intentions (Gollwitzer). Standard tools in motivation science and program evaluation, used here on your business rather than a classroom.
Four Domains
The method is how we work. These are what we work on, and almost every organization I've sat with is stuck in one of them.
Price
What you charge, how it's structured, and whether the model can carry the work. Tiered pricing, revenue mix, and the number you've been circling for a year.
Systems
The operational spine: CRM, pipeline, intake, handoffs. The difference between a thing that runs and a thing you run. Including where AI genuinely helps and where it doesn't.
Scale
Growing from one site to many without losing what made it work. I've done this from a single Philadelphia storefront to campuses across the country.
Evidence
Knowing whether it worked and being able to show a funder. Focus groups, evaluation design, and turning what you learn into the next decision.
Pick Your Runway
Both are 100% personalized — there is no curriculum, no module one. The difference is depth and how much of my attention you get between sessions.
For one clear problem. You know what's broken. You need a strategist in the room to help you fix it and move on.
- Three 60-minute strategy sessions
- Paced over roughly six weeks
- Written notes and next actions within 24 hours of each session
- Your Roadmap runway as the working agenda
- Email access for scheduling and quick clarifications
For building the thing, not just deciding about it. You leave with working documents, not only clarity. This is closer to fractional strategy than to coaching.
- Seven 60-minute strategy sessions
- Paced over roughly four months
- Async support between sessions — voice or email, answered within two business days
- Built deliverables — your pricing model, systems map, scaling plan, or evaluation framework, drafted with you and yours to keep
- Document review — send me the grant application, the pricing page, the org chart. I mark it up and we work from the markup
- Written mid-point review at session four — what's moved, what hasn't, what changes
- A 30-day check-in after we finish, at no extra cost
Both packages are paid in full up front. All payments are final.
Finding the Right Fit
There's no wrong answer here — only the question of whether this is the right support at the right moment. Here's how to tell.
You'll get a lot out of this if
- You're a nonprofit founder or executive director past the idea stage and deep in the work of making it last
- You run a business or work for yourself, and you've suspected for a while that you're undercharging — you're ready to find out
- You lead a program inside a larger institution and you want it to grow without losing what makes it good
- You're moving into something new and you want real strategy behind the move, not just a sharper résumé
Something else may serve you better right now
- If you'd rather hand the work off than build it together — what you may need is a great contractor. Say so in your application and I'll point you toward people I trust.
- If what you're carrying is heavier than strategy — this work is operational and financial by design. Support for the personal side is worth having too, and I'm happy to suggest where to look.
- If you need an answer this week — the pacing here is deliberate, because changes that hold need a little room to take. Bring the timeline to your Roadmap Session and we'll figure it out together.
- If you're right at the beginning — the Roadmap Session was made for exactly this stage. Come take the hour, leave with the runway, and come back for coaching when there's something to build on.
Not sure which side you land on? That's a good reason to book the Roadmap Session rather than a reason not to.
Alliyah Yvette Francis, M.S.Ed., J.D., PMP
The distance between where someone starts and where they could go is rarely about talent. It's about who had a map. I've spent my career building those maps — and the organizations that hand them out.
I founded and lead Thrive Philly, a nonprofit I grew from the ground up into a multi-program organization with a physical community hub and 26+ cross-sector partners. I've led a $4M+ portfolio at a research lab, designing equity-centered programs that have reached 30,000+ students across more than 20 states.
I'm an executive who can do both halves of the job: set the vision and raise the capital, then design the program that actually delivers on it. Governance, strategy, and equity aren't separate lanes to me — my path has taught me to hold them together.
Bridging gaps, building futures.
Ready to put that to work on your own map? Start with the $75 Roadmap Session — one hour together and a written runway within 48 hours, whether or not we go further.
Questions
What is your approach actually based on?
Why does the Roadmap Session cost $75?
Why do I have to apply before booking?
The Build costs more per session than the Sprint. Why?
How quickly do I have to use my sessions?
What if I need to reschedule?
Can I upgrade from the Sprint to the Build?
What's your refund policy?
Can I pay in installments?
Is what I share confidential?
Do you work with organizations, not just individuals?
Where do sessions happen?
Book Your Roadmap Session
Three steps: create your Thrive Club account, submit your application inside your portal, and pay the $75 Roadmap Session fee to complete it. Your application isn't finished until the fee is paid.
Questions first? info@thrivephilly.org