Meeting Facilitation for Small Teams and Groups Rates
Meetings for Small Teams and Nonprofits Rates
Meeting Facilitation for Small Teams and Nonprofits
This document presents two structured meeting facilitation and mini‑retreat options designed to support small teams and nonprofits seeking clarity, alignment, and meaningful progress. These formats were developed after years of working with mission‑driven groups and noticing consistent patterns in the challenges they face and the outcomes they hope to achieve. Each option is intentionally designed to respect limited budgets and capacity while still providing a high‑quality, efficient facilitation experience.
What follows is an overview of the two retreat formats, including how each one gathers input, engages participants, and supports productive decision‑making. The descriptions are meant to help you determine which approach best fits your organization’s needs and how you prefer to structure your time together.
Both options will help you gather information, albeit through different mechanisms and in different depths. Further, both options are suitable for an undetermined number of participants - either format is effective for a large or small group. In terms of formatting, both options are designed as half day (3 - 3.5 hours) engagements; however, option 2 works best as a 4-hour engagement. I do not offer 2‑hour retreats because they rarely give groups enough time to reach meaningful outcomes. In my experience, two hours is just enough to get started — not enough to finish.
If you decide to work with me, I will need the following information:
•Details about the space (anticipating set up).
•Will a computer and projector be available? If not, am I able to bring my own?
•A max number participants.
In addition to requiring the aforementioned information, I recommend the following for both meeting formats:
•Limit your organization’s ongoing business to 30 minutes in order to maintain focus and stay on schedule.
•Access to the meeting space 30 - 45 minutes before meeting begins in order to set up.
Option 1: Choose Option 1 if you want a fast, energetic, low‑prep session.
Cost: 1,400
Your organization must purchase your own event supplies.
Supplies Needed: flip charts (with adhesive), flip chart markers, notepads, pens, sticky notes, & sticky dots.
Cost: $1,600 (This is the cost if I purchase the event supplies.)
Meeting Structure:
- Setting Expectations and Tone
We would begin with a welcome, a clear statement of the purpose of the session, and an overview of the process. This ensures participants understand how their input will be used and what outcomes to expect. - Live Idea Capture (brainstorming)
There questions that will be asked will be focused on getting the participants to share how they think the organization should and shouldn’t operate. - Theming & Prioritization
As ideas are created, volunteer co-facilitators may be asked to cluster similar ideas into themes.*Org volunteers as co-facilitators will take the feedback from the Step 2, Live Idea Capture, and put that information into clusters. The purpose of putting information in clusters is to visually demonstrate the prevalence of ideas and identify nuances. Further, the benefit of utilizing chapter volunteers is that it will create more opportunities for participation, buy-in, and mutual accountability.Depending on time (and ideally), we will create a priority map. - Small-Group Action Sprints
Participants will break into small groups and will work a theme and will write their answers on a flip chart. - Commitments and What You’ll Walk Away With:
Each group shares its top 2–3 action points. As a whole group, we identify any quick wins that can be acted on immediately and note which items require further planning. - Meeting Wrap
Option 2: Choose Option 2 if you want deeper insight, data‑driven discussion, and structured problem‑solving.
Cost: $2,724
Your organization must purchase your own event supplies.
Supplies Needed: flip charts (with adhesive), flip chart markers, notepads, pens, sticky notes, & sticky dots.
Cost: $2,974
This is the cost if I purchase the event supplies.
The Difference Between Options 1 and 2:
Option 2 includes pre‑work, data analysis, and a customized presentation, which increases both preparation time and the depth of the session. In an effort to further save on costs, copies of the presentation from Step A will be provided electronically; however, your organization may opt to cover the costs of providing paper copies during the event.
- Pre-meeting Survey
The purpose of the survey is two-fold. First, it gives each respondent, including those who will not be in attendance, an opportunity to engage. Second, it serves as a lure to get members to attend. All responses must be submitted 10 days before the engagement because I need time to analyze the results and create a presentation. The survey will also include questions about participation for this event and specifically advise participants that the amount of materials purchased for the meeting will depend on their responses; thus, it is critical for them to be clear about their intent to participate.I will design a 10 - 15 question survey in conjunction with your leadership team. I will submit 10 - 15 questions to you, and you will determine whether you want to change any of the questions to address specific challenges in your organization. Although the survey is fully customizable, the question limit is 15.
Meeting Structure:
- Setting the tone & clarifying expectations:
We would begin with a welcome, a clear statement of the purpose of the session, and an
overview of the process. This ensures participants understand how their input will be used
and what outcomes to expect.
2. Discuss survey and utilize problem-solving work groups methodology:
Review presentation of survey results during the meeting. After the presentation, we would break
into problem-solving groups to address issues that were surfaced during the survey presentation
and during the discussion. Each group would be tasked with focusing on the problem assigned to
their group. Alternatively, we could set up each station so that it features a particular problem and
ask people to work on the problem that they are most interested in solving.
- Commitments and What You’ll Walk Away With:
This step and amount of time that we spend in the discussion and problem-solving groups
depends on a pre-planning meeting/discussion. In particular, I would need to know more
about your process for implementing suggestions: is the purpose of the meeting is to
creating final solutions that will be implemented or will the responses be treated as
suggestions that will serve as recommendations for a future meeting? This decision affects how
much time we allocate to problem‑solving vs. discussion.
- Meeting Wrap
Conclusion
These two facilitation and mini‑retreat formats were developed to give small teams and nonprofits clear, practical options for engaging their members, gathering meaningful input, and moving forward with confidence. Whether your organization prefers a fast‑paced, in‑the‑moment session or a more structured, data‑driven approach, each format is designed to support productive conversation and help your group identify actionable next steps.
As you review the options, consider the level of preparation your team prefers, the type of insight you want to gather, and the depth of discussion you hope to achieve. Both formats can be adapted to your organization’s goals and will provide a focused, intentional space for participants to contribute and collaborate.
If you’re ready to schedule a retreat or would like to discuss which option best fits your needs, please reach out. We look forward to supporting your team’s progress and helping you create a meaningful, well‑structured experience.
Differences Between the Two Options:
| Option 2 $2,724 - $2,974 |
Option 1 $1,400 - $1,600 |
|
| Pre‑work | Providing feedback on survey questions and encouraging participants to complete it.
|
No pre‑work. All input is captured live during the meeting. |
| Purpose of Pre‑work | Engage all members, lure attendance, gather data to shape meeting content, and plan materials based on participation responses.
|
N/A |
| Main Activity | Review survey results, then break into problem‑solving groups to address issues surfaced in survey/discussion.
|
Live brainstorming on prompts. Give all attendees opportunities to contribute and keep energy high. |
| Commitments | Depends on pre‑planning: clarify whether solutions will be final or recommendations for future. | Report‑back from each group with top 2–3 action points; identify quick wins and items needing further planning.
|
| Volunteer Needs | None.
|
Yes, depending on the number of participants. |
| Supplies | Yes, and the survey tool will help you determine the number of participants. | Yes, and the amount of supplies should anticipate the greatest likely number of participants.
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| Ideal When… | You want to include voices of non‑attendees, have time to analyze data, and want structured problem‑solving on pre‑identified issues. | You want to maximize in‑room energy, adapt to what emerges in the moment, and avoid heavy pre‑meeting prep and minimize costs. |