Propelling Good is a woman-owned, family-operated consulting firm focused on helping Non-Profits and Educational Institutions move further, faster towards their Purpose by FINDING & DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP, and STRENGTHENING FUNDRAISING EFFORTS. Communities around the world rely on Non-Profits and Educational Institutions to help them not only survive, but ideally thrive.
As such, our LEADERSHIP and FUNDRAISING work begins and ends with a focus on impact. Essential to finding the ‘right’ leader(s) as well as bringing in more dollars is a clear, compelling, and measurable mission, coupled with aligned organizational values, goals and strategies. Whether you’re a seasoned executive of a long established organization, or a first-time principal, leadership can be tremendously challenging and isolating, especially for women and diverse individuals. We’ve been there, and we’re here to help you help others.
Services
We offer a range of services to help ensure your intended IMPACT
FUNDRAISING
We will help you diagnose the state of your fundraising efforts, and then help you compete with the best, who are proving their model with stories grounded in data, activating a network of supporters, building and managing high functioning systems, and developing strategies that offer multiple pathways to goal.
EXECUTIVE SEARCH
We offer an end-to-end service, starting with helping you understand the profile of leader that will help you serve your community best, then design the process and build the diverse pool that will help us hire and onboard that ‘right fit’ leader. To ensure their ongoing success, we offer coaching for the newly hired leader, as well as change management support for the entire organization.
Program Data Strategy
Without a clear, compelling and measurable mission, and aligned organizational strategies, it is nearly impossible to see our intended impact, let alone raise the dollars we need to support our work. We will diagnose your current state, and help define your inputs, activities, and outputs, as well as measure your outcomes and impact.
Executive Capacity
We know how challenging and isolating leadership can be, not only for the ED/CEO, but for the entire leadership team. We offer coaching for individuals and teams who want to GROW: establish clear goals, assess the current reality, move from scarcity to abundance options, and develop multiple ways forward.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Old ways won’t open new doors! In an ever changing world, it is critical that entire teams keep learning and growing, especially when it comes to our individual and collective leadership. We offer one-off workshops as well as longer term consulting, designed to meet the unique needs of your organization and community.
About the founder
Jessica Zander’s lifelong goal has been to help as many people as possible reach their full potential. She began her career teaching adults how to read at her local library, designing and teaching a leadership course for k-8 students with special needs, and teaching family literacy at the Jane Addams Hull House in Chicago.
Early in her career Zander joined Teach For America as a high school special educator in St. Louis, Missouri, then served as a special education coordinator at an elementary school in Gary, Indiana. After observing the many inequities and injustices facing her students and their families, Jessica left the job she loved in the classroom to lead the Teach For America Alumni Network in Chicago, so she could propel the trajectory of thousands of social impact leaders across the country. She and her team designed and led programs that helped over 200 individuals become school leaders, over 1500 teachers grow in their classroom careers, and hundreds more run for office, start their own non-profits, utilize their legal expertise to advocate for children – and so much more.
After several years of leadership at Teach For America, including serving as Chief to Staff to the Executive Director, Zander then took her passion for propelling social impact leaders to New Leaders as the Executive Director of External Relations, managing the Midwest and West Coast regions. In her role, she raised millions of dollars, secured long-term partnerships with school districts, and developed multiple volunteer boards.
Most recently, Jessica Zander has been bringing her unique expertise of helping her peers thrive personally and professionally by founding her first company, Propelling Good. She is advising and training hundreds of leaders across such industries as education, non-profit, pharmaceuticals, engineering, technology, politics, fashion, and music. Each of her clients has the same dream she has – they seek to make a positive difference in the world.

Jessica studied the history and impact of institutionalized racism and sexism at the Kinsey Institute and School of Sociology at Indiana University in Bloomington. She is also an 1871 mentor, co-founder and senior advisor at mwseq™ a music tech start-up, a development committee member at The People’s Music School, and a yoga instructor for Mission Propelle – a girls empowerment program.
She and her partner in life (and sometimes even business), Keith Zander PhD, live together in Elmhurst, Illinois with their preschooler, Jack and lab-pit puppy, Buster. Dr. Zander leverages his background in Community Psychology, Program Evaluation and Predictive Analystics to support Jessica as her part-time Chief Knowledge Officer. The two of them have dedicated their lives and careers to leveraging their own privilege to advance opportunities for others, as well as serving as loving and supportive members of their families and communities.
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