Lon worked with us at the Humanitarian Leadership Academy, part of Save the Children, on a process consultancy programme for our pool of coaches. The coaches were humanitarian leaders supporting people and teams working in some of the most difficult and complex contexts around the world.

Lon brought a calm, thoughtful and very human presence to the work. He created a space where participants felt able to pause, reflect and look more closely at the dynamics beneath the surface of their coaching conversations. The programme helped our coaches strengthen their process consultancy approach: listening more deeply, resisting the urge to jump too quickly to solutions, asking better questions, and supporting others to find their own insight and direction.

What stood out was Lon’s ability to combine depth with practicality. He was attentive to the realities of humanitarian work and the pressures leaders are often carrying, while still offering gentle challenge and fresh ways of thinking. His contribution helped our coaches build confidence in working with complexity, uncertainty and change in a more grounded and relational way.

We really valued Lon’s work with us and the care, experience and integrity he brought to the programme.

Lon Swartzentruber worked with our board and Executive Director to help us reach a more strategic level, clarify roles and responsibilities, and define a set of board values that would guide our future work.

He was an excellent listener who posed insightful questions that caused us to see ourselves in new ways. Lon was always prompt, responsive, and supported us in reaching the goals we set together. I am grateful for his skill and partnership that helped us imagine transformational change.

Sometimes, as a nonprofit leader, one needs to make space to question things. How am I leading? What is the true potential of our organization? What is it about my personal experience that drives me to be passionate about this work?

These are the things typically questioned with other nonprofit leaders during happy hour, but those quickly turn into complaint sessions. Engaging Lon Swartzentruber to facilitate that sort of inquiry for both our leadership team and our board was a much more effective use of our time! After working with Lon, we all came away with a better understanding of how our personal strengths added to our mission, and more importantly, gave the board and senior staff permission to think beyond "the way we have always done things."

Under Lon's guidance, our leadership team grew closer and our board started thinking more courageously about our impact as an organization. If you are looking for someone to challenge your assumptions, push you to dig deeper, and help you envision a better and brighter future, Design Group International will help you find your way there.

Grandville Calvin Christian School partnered with Lon to clarify our mission and core values and then to develop a new strategic plan.  Lon worked with us to engage our staff, Board, and parents in a months-long process of developing both broad strategic goals for the future and specific tactics and action items to achieve those goals.

We appreciated how the process began with them not only listening to us but also involved an intentional process of listening to our community.

Following the adoption of the strategic plan, Lon also worked with us to frame a fundraising campaign to support the goals of the plan. He helped us to establish a framework for the campaign and to begin to re-engage our community in a culture of philanthropy that has led to positive donor engagement. Lon listened first and asked good questions to help guide us to a clear direction for the future of our schools.

Lon took the time to explore what ‘transition’ meant to me, even when I didn’t know what it all meant at first. By using a process approach, Lon created space to pose questions, to help me get at what I really wanted to accomplish through my founder transition and succession plan.

Instead of bringing a canned approach, Lon walked alongside me to discovery my pathway forward as it was being revealed. In doing so, Lon helped me use my skills and gifts in analysis that I’m most comfortable with to develop the plan that I needed. At the end of the day, this was my transition, and this approach made it much more personal and tailored to me.

Lon also helped me think through and develop a timeframe for transition that I could tackle. Rather than being overwhelmed by it, Lon helped me realize that I was already part of the way through my transition and that it was a process and not a single event or point in time.

Our next step was to break down my ‘job description’ into components. We went from an unwritten role to defining several roles, including Founder, CEO, as well as President, all of which was extremely helpful. In addition, I’ve appreciated Design Group International’s faith-based approach to everything they do. Lon is very comfortable to work with and someone that I had no problem sharing confidential information with.