Farnam Associates has supported many organizational strategic
planning processes over the years in a variety of ways.
Jim Farnam has a depth of understanding of organizational and
programmatic issues based on his over 40 years in the field of
planning and nonprofit consulting. He approaches each assignment by
listening carefully to the needs of the client and then designing a
process and product to meet their unique needs.
One specialty is in facilitating board planning sessions that help to
address either a particular issue or to provide a brief review of the
organization’s direction short of a full strategic planning process.
Often in connection with a strategic or community planning process,
we help clients respond to grant opportunities. Over the years we have
helped clients prepare many major, successful federal or private grant
applications yielding in excess of $412.5 million ( see listing of
grants here)
Recent Work in Fund Development: In 2014-20, the Farnam Associates
team took on the lead role in writing 19 major federal or state grants
or state proposals related to the Greater New Haven region that
brought in a total of $40.7 million. These projects included:
- Two proposals under the Apprenticeship Connecticut Initiative of
the Department of Labor that resulted in $3.95 million in funding to
support training in the manufacturing and hospitality sectors
(Workforce Alliance, 2019, 2020) .
- Proposal to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to create
a Center for Prevention and Early Trauma Treatment for Young
Children (Child First, Inc., $3.0 million, 2020)
- Application for federal funding to the U.S. Department of Labor
for a Ready To Work Partnership grant to enable long term unemployed
persons to gain skills to reenter the labor market (Workforce
Alliance, $5.49 million, 2014).
- Applications for federal funding to the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services for the United Way of New Haven Early Head Start
expansion under the Child Care Partnership grant program ($905,000
in Year 1; present value of $7.3 million over first 10 years).
- Applications to the U.S. Department of Justice for six grants
related to recidivism reduction and crime reduction for safer
neighborhoods totaling $3.34 million.
Farnam Associates has extensive experience in supporting complex,
multi-party community planning processes aimed at community
improvement across areas of workforce development, education, health,
and community development.
After heading the City’s Office of Downtown and Harbor Development
where he guided comprehensive planning for the harbor area and
downtown, Jim Farnam has led a series of major planning efforts in New
Haven and Connecticut over the last 20 years. For additional
information, please visit Projects.
Farnam Associates has a keen interest in community data systems and
related technological innovations. In 2003, Jim Farnam helped found
DataHaven, a community indicators web portal for Greater New Haven, CT
(the Regional Data Cooperative of Greater New Haven had been formed in
1992, but was reconfigured as DataHaven in 2003 following a planning
session facilitated by Farnam). In 2008, DataHaven became a member of
the National
Neighborhood Indicators Project. In 2010, Holt, Wexler, &
Farnam Associate Mark Abraham, who had been helping to run the
project, left the firm to assume the role of the Executive Director of
DataHaven.
Jim Farnam helped found and until February 2014 served as Project
Coordinator for the Connecticut Data
Collaborative, successfully securing a line item in the
Connecticut state budget to support the Collaborative that has thrived
and assumed the role of the Connecticut State Census Data Center. He
was a founding member of the Open Indicators Consortium which
partnered with the UMass Lowell Computer Science Department to develop
the Weave data visualization platform. He also served from 2011-2012
as Manager of the Community Indicators
Consortium, an international learning community of community
indicators practitioners, government data providers, and academics
studying the field.