Third Plateau is a full service social impact consulting firm.
We bring diverse expertise, fresh insights, and a collaborative spirit to help funders, nonprofits, and other social change organizations more effectively drive impact.
We believe that complex social change requires new ideas, a deep understanding of people and systems, and a commitment to continuous learning.
Our PhilosophyProven Expertise
See what leaders from nonprofits, government agencies, and other organizations with a social mission say about working with our team.
"Third Plateau partnered with us to design and carry out a rigorous, robust program evaluation, giving us actionable information about what we could celebrate, where we might improve, and changes we might make to deepen participant and partner experience."
Kate Belza O’Bannon
Chief Strategy Officer, Repair the World
"Our partnership with Third Plateau helped us create a framework from which we could revise the fund’s mission in response to the current social, political, and economic issues impacting the communities we support."
Luisa Adrianzen Guyer
President, Penney Family Fund
"Thanks to Third Plateau, we now have a 360-degree understanding of the community’s priorities and opportunities that will help inform communal planning and expand JUF’s impact in the region for the coming years."
Michelle Lawner
Associate Vice President, Planning and Allocations, Jewish United Fund
"I have truly benefitted from the dynamic professional coaching provided by Third Plateau, which has helped me develop and strengthen my emotional intelligence and self-awareness as a leader, as well as hone the management of my team which includes complicated interpersonal relationships."
Lionel C. Johnson
Pacific Pension Institute
"We see Third Plateau as a trusted thought partner and ally to the work that we're doing in the Sacramento region. I have high confidence in their ability and expertise. They will knock any engagement you have with them out of the park."
Niva Flor
Chief Impact & Strategy Officer, Sacramento Region Community Foundation
"After our work with Third Plateau, we really ramped up our ability to expand organizational capacity, moving from just one part-time paid employee to two full-time employees and are about to hire a third."
Kate Sonka
Executive Director, Teach Access
"Third Plateau have been indispensable over the past five years in rallying an ever-more vibrant network of advocates, commentators, scholars, NGO leaders, funders, and politicos who are committed to working on a transpartisan basis to strengthen U.S. democracy."
Daniel Stid
Former Director of U.S. Democracy Program
"Third Plateau provided a safe space for me to think creatively and expansively as a social entrepreneur. They asked me the hard questions that helped me refine my idea and articulate the change I wanted to see in the world in a way that it could be shared with others. The business plan we created was catalytic for our work, capturing our strategy to disrupt the way philanthropy relates to and invests in Indigenous Peoples and serving as a tool for us to attract significant investment.”
Nick Tilsen
President & CEO, NDN Collective
"Since I began working with Third Plateau, I’ve gained a level of strategic clarity about my philanthropy that I couldn’t have imagined."
Rachel Pritzker
President & Founder, Pritzker Innovation Fund
"The landscape research and stakeholder interviews Third Plateau conducted created an evidence base for our idea, giving us confidence that our services were being responsive to real gaps and needs in the field."
Liz Welch
Managing Director, Population Change Institute