We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sonia Daniels, PhD. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sonia below.

Sonia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry

As a social impact strategist, consulting with new and scaling nonprofit organizations, one of the biggest trends in the nonprofit and social impact sector is understanding and being able to demonstrate the sustainability of your nonprofit’s program. If you are an organization that is seeking fiduciary support from donors/investors, funders, and grantors, expect them to ask you how you are currently funding your programs and/or how you plan to continue funding your programs once the funding stream has ended.

This is highly important because it speaks to the bigger picture of how you are managing and administering your nonprofit organization. Are you collecting, managing, and evaluating your organization’s data? Are you currently, properly, managing your organization’s funds? Are your nonprofit’s programs viable, sustainable, and actually close a gap or fill a need, and can this be backed by data?

As a consultant to nonprofits at S. Daniels Consulting, we absolutely adore nonprofit founders and executives and thoroughly enjoy supporting the growth and development of nonprofits by providing support to their communities. We also enjoy working with corporations who are seeking to institute social impact programming, internally-for their team members, or externally-to support the communities around them.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Dr. Sonia Daniels and I am the owner and lead social impact strategist at S. Daniels Consulting. I am first-generation college graduate who obtained a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in General Studies in Arts and Humanities, a Master’s degree from the University of New Orleans in Public Administration in Nonprofit Management, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Southern University and A&M College in Public Policy.

I was raised to be passionate about serving my community and I was actively involved in a plethora of community initiatives as a teenager which sparked my interest in pursuing a career in Public Administration and Public Policy.
After working over 10 years in the public sector, I grew frustrated with seeing the same issues over and over plaguing social impact organizations and limiting their success and reach to the community. In 2017, I had the idea to start S. Daniels Consulting, LLC to provide organizations with guidance on how to efficiently work through roadblocks and amplify impact. We work with our clients to evolve their ideas and concepts into outcomes by ideating strategies for their organizations that create lasting impact.

I am a first-generation business owner and I hope to encourage and inspire others to step outside of their comfort zones and achieve their wildest dreams. When I’m not working, I enjoy the arts, traveling internationally, and trying new foods.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Currently, we are proud that the majority of our new clientele is directed to us via referrals. This means that our current and former clients appreciate our expertise and the high quality of our work so much that they are willing to promote our services to their networks. The remainder of our work is through contracts or subcontracts with other firms who we have developed a relationship with whether through social media or other networking opportunities.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I am a fan of Shark Tank, specifically watching Mark Cuban navigate business. Shark Tank is super helpful to me in understanding the language of business and how to verbalize the most important aspects of my business when it comes to pitching or closing deals. It’s been fun learning about valuation, market position, and all the specifications of my business in regard to the consulting industry.

I also enjoy watching various Youtube channels like Earn Your Leisure and Anthony O’neal when it comes to not only learning about business but also learning about financial literacy and investing since personal finance has a huge impact on business finances.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sdanielsconsulting.com
• Instagram: www.instragram.com/sdanielsconsulting
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/s-daniels-consulting/