Advisory Services
Beyond full-scale projects, we offer two more ways to bring an outside systems perspective to your work: a single diagnostic session, or an ongoing advisory partnership.
Where would you like to start?
The Working Session
A single, focused session where a Fifth Scope partner reviews one specific piece of your program or proposal and provides actionable feedback.
This is a structural review, with an eye for the whole strategy. You send us the materials to be reviewed in advance. We review the way a program officer, an evaluator, or a skeptical coalition partner would and we come to the call with findings, questions to consider, and any gaps identified.
Who this is for
An ED who wants to pressure test a strategic plan, annual report, proposal, or other major strategy or impact product before it goes out the door.
A team mid-build on a theory of change or logic model who suspects there’s a gap between their outcomes and their activities but can’t see it from inside
A government agency or board who needs a check on their evaluation criteria and logic for an RFP to ensure they’re attracting and identifying strong, well-aligned bidders.
An intermediary heading into a multi-stakeholder process (e.g., a merger, a contested funding decision, a coalition launch) who needs the power dynamics, sequencing and facilitation plan mapped before they walk into the room
A leader looking for a gut-check on their facilitation methodology who wants to ensure their process leads to the intended outcomes
A new executive who wants to audit the operational model they’ve inherited before deciding on their next move, and before taking accountability for what wasn’t theirs
What we review
Logic models & theories of change
do the activities actually produce the stated outcomes, or is there a leap of faith buried in the middle rows? Are the assumptions named or hidden?
Stakeholder maps
who has power that isn’t shown, whose absence will get flagged, and what happens if the sequencing is wrong
Proposals, Annual Reports, and Strategic Plans
- Does it communicate intended impact?
- Are priorities justified or just asserted?
- Does it reflect the processes through which you actually do the work?
- Is the narrative backed by the data?
- Are there gaps between what was promised and what is evidenced?
- Does it speak effectively to the intended audience?
Methodology
is the evaluation design able to answer the questions it claims to answer; are the data sources credible to a skeptical reviewer
Community engagement processes
is the engagement structured to produce real input, does it incorporate inclusive engagement practices? Does it seek to identify feedback loops?
Format
- Document(s) submitted 1 week in advance (20 page max)
- 90-minute working session (video), partner-led
- You leave with a marked-up copy of your materials and a short written summary (1–2 pages) of recommendations and next steps
flat fee
Advisory Retainer Services
For teams with a desire for oversight and light-to-medium touch guidance on more complex and/or long-term processes.
10 hours/month
3-month minimum
Best for an organization moving one significant body of work through a full arc — a proposal cycle, a strategic planning process, a program redesign. You want a consistent outside perspective at each stage of the process, not a one-time check at the end.
min $7,500 engagement
15 hours/month
3-month minimum
Best for an organization running multiple design processes or engaging with multiple stakeholders. You gain an outside perspective that helps keep coherence in mind, surfacing assumptions and asking questions those deep in the daily work may miss.
min $11,250 engagement
20 hours/month
6-month minimum
Best for an organization embarking on long-term and/or complex systems challenges. You’re looking for an embedded advisor to guide how you’re thinking, not just what you’re producing. You want an unbiased systems expert to help shape the design from the earliest stages rather than react to what’s already in motion.
min $30,000 engagement
Why a retainer instead of repeat review calls
Design and stakeholder challenges don’t resolve in a single sitting. A diagnostic catches what’s wrong during a moment in time, while a retainer keeps a systems-level perspective in play as things evolve. You have trained eyes ready to surface the assumptions and blind spots that otherwise tend to build up over weeks, meaningfully impacting outcomes. The value moves beyond repeated scrutiny of an artifact to continuity of judgment across a process in motion.
Where this doesn’t fit
if you need us to write the logic model, ToC, or engagement plan from scratch, that’s a project-based scope, not a review retainer. We’re happy to talk about that separately.