Kronley & Associates is highly regarded for the careful attention we pay to the specific needs of each client. Every client is valued as a unique entity, and trusting relationships are at the core of our engagement with each. In building and sustaining these relationships, we avoid canned approaches and one-size-fits-all answers while emphasizing both responsiveness to client concerns and flexibility in addressing them. As a result, we collaborate with our clients in developing targeted solutions to persistent issues, in charting creative pathways to change and in developing deep understanding about the impact of possible strategies on goals and outcomes.

The relationships that develop between Kronley & Associates and its clients are cemented by the skills and experience that the firm brings to bear on its engagements. Framing issues, research and fact-finding, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and accessible report preparation and presentation are hallmarks of our work. These attributes have resulted in major assignments, which have garnered significant results and have had deep impact. These include:

• Providing a West Coast-based afterschool organization with strategic and business plans that enabled it to expand nationally and develop new sources of support
• Developing a strategic plan for a racially-divided Mississippi school district that resulted both in a new, more inclusive, curriculum and passage of the first bond referendum to support the city’s schools in more than 40 years
• Advising an Ohio education reform organization on a fundamental change in  strategic direction and the content of programs to support its new approach; the resultant strategic plan is credited with having a “profound bearing on the future of (the County) and the statei”and enabled the organization to develop and monetize new services
• Advising a leading Midwest cultural organization on expanding its operations and providing funding, communications and branding strategies to support the change
• Advising major corporations on how their foundations and charitable giving programs can improve the company’s bottom line; this work led to, among other things, Kronley & Associates’ development of a series of workshops and seminars, entitled “Appreciating Assets,” for company-sponsored foundation leaders and the adoption of new charitable approaches by several companies
• Assisting acquirers of community hospitals in Arkansas and Illinois in creating community foundations that conformed to legal requirements and promoted brand recognition and goodwill that grew out of the charitable enterprise
• Developing a strategic plan for a large family foundation that, among other things, resulted in new synergies between the foundation and the charitable activities of a family-owned professional football team, enabling more investment in early childhood, education and after-school experiences
• Advising a Colorado energy entrepreneur about strategies for a family foundation to create and invest in asset-producing enterprises in low-income communities
• Advising a foundation created by an association of trial lawyers about changes in programs and organization that would ensure more positive recognition, increased capacity, and greater grant impact
• Developing, for a public charity, analyses of the state of higher education desegregation in the South and what is required to propel it, some of our recommendations were adopted in Maryland, Kentucky and Virginia; at the same time, the client was able to build on the model we provided to produce a series of follow-up reports over several years that earned significant national recognition and increased financial support.

 

 

News & Announcements

Linda Hall Library Embraces Transformation

The Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering and Technology is internationally renowned among scholars and researchers. It has not been as well-known in Kansas City, its home, where it has often been referred to as a “hidden jewel.” Library trustees and staff determined to intensify and enhance the Library’s local impact as it increases its engagement with a world-wide constituency. Kronley & Associates developed a comprehensive strategic plan that provided a pathway for the Library to make fundamental changes enabling it to build on historic strengths while promoting contemporary relevance to an expanded audience. The plan was adopted; Kronley & Associates is now advising the Library on its implementation.

  

Education Law Center Seeks Educational Justice

Since its founding in 1973, the Newark, N.J-based Education Law Center (ELC) has pursued fair and equitable school funding and effective school reform. Lauded as the “tip of the spear on educational equity litigation,” ELC deploys additional interrelated approaches that build on its courtroom expertise – advocacy, research, partnerships, and training among them – to ensure educational rights for students in New Jersey and throughout the nation. Its upcoming fiftieth anniversary provides a suitable moment for the organization to develop a new strategic plan. Kronley & Associates will advise and assist ELC in this critical endeavor.

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Builds Community Capacity

Two core initiatives at the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation are Entrepreneurship and Education. The Foundation, through a third program, Kansas City Civic, addresses other critical issues affecting the lives and well-being of Kansas Citians that fall outside the core areas. The firm has advised the Foundation on possible investment areas for Kansas City Civic, including out-of-school time, work-force development, neighborhood cohesion, and non-profit effectiveness. Kronley & Associates also suggested metrics that might be used to assess the progress and success of investments in the foregoing and other areas.

 

Kronley & Associates Assesses Design Thinking in Educational Settings

Design thinking is rooted in efforts to promote more creativity in business. It is a multi-step problem- solving method that begins with empathy for those affected by the solution, fosters brainstorming in teams, and leads to prototype development and testing. Design thinking is increasingly utilized by non-profit organizations and has garnered increased attention in schools and school systems. The Atlanta-based R. Howard Dobbs, Jr. Foundation supported a collaborative of local independent and public schools in the Atlanta K-12 Design Challenge (AK12DC). Kronley & Associates was asked to evaluate the effort and to make suggestions about how the Challenge might incorporate lessons from its activities and have greater impact. The firm’s detailed review resulted in findings and strategies to embed design thinking in schools, build learning communities in diverse educational settings, support collaborative innovation, and ensure ongoing effective assessment of the initiative.

 

University of Tennessee Chattanooga Introduces Engaging Academic Programs

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) is a metropolitan university serving a diverse student body and a varied population in parts of three states. Like other leading metropolitan universities, UTC is inherently entrepreneurial; it has explicitly adopted an innovative, service-driven approach that looks for competitive advantage while adding value to student learning and community well-being. The university places a premium on developing, implementing, and marketing high-quality, high-demand programs. UTC has engaged Kronley & Associates to advise and assist it in this endeavor by testing new academic programs that advance the university’s entrepreneurial, community-responsive design. Kronley & Associates has reviewed, assessed, and made recommendations to UTC about new programs that include master’s degrees in data analytics, social work, public health, physician’s assistantship, design, and a Ph.D. in Learning and Leadership.

Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum Pursues Program Expansion

Presidential libraries vary in size, content, and how they treat history. In keeping with the wishes of the thirty-third president, the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum emphasizes education, candor, and fact-based decision-making. It seeks to inculcate these attributes in its programs. Kronley & Associates advised the Library about aspects of program modernization and acquisition, initially by assessing the feasibility of the Situation Room Experience, an interactive simulation focusing on role-playing to promote leadership development, teamwork, informed decision-making, and familiarity with certain historical events.  The firm analyzed the costs and benefits of the program to the Library and made in-depth recommendations about how the Library might leverage the Situation Room Experience to add significant value to the community while distinguishing itself from other cultural institutions and presidential libraries.