WHO WE ARE
Believers.
Builders. Partners.
Criterion partners with organizations to uncover strengths, clarify direction, recognize opportunity, and translate vision into practical pathways forward.
We bring experience, research, strategic perspective, and specialized expertise to the work. Our clients and their communities bring knowledge of their own people, history, culture, relationships, and aspirations.
The strongest work happens when those forms of expertise come together.
BUILT TO SEE THE WHOLE PICTURE
Context changes the answer.
Mission-driven organizations do not operate in isolation, and neither do their challenges.
Every organization enters an engagement with its own strengths, history, relationships, resources, ambitions, and place in the world. Understanding where an organization is now is essential to determining where it can go next.
Criterion begins with discovery. We listen to the people closest to the work, examine what is already strong, and look beyond the organization itself. Environmental scanning, organizational positioning, and market research help us understand the economic, social, competitive, philanthropic, and community conditions shaping the work.
Because revenue, communications, strategy, governance, programs, relationships, and organizational capacity influence one another, what appears to be one problem may be connected to something larger.
That matters even more in a world where disruption is increasingly common.
Built for the Work
Right expertise. Right engagement.
Criterion is designed to bring the right expertise to each engagement.
Some projects call for one experienced advisor. Others require multiple perspectives, disciplines, or
specialized capabilities.
We build around the needs of the work—drawing on Criterion’s core team and trusted specialists
when additional expertise will strengthen the engagement.
The work determines the team. Not the other way around.
Experience matters.
So does perspective.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE WORK
Criterion is led by professionals who understand mission-driven organizations from the inside.
Nicole Miller-Coleman,
MA, CNP, CFRE
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
With nearly three decades of nonprofit experience and more than 25 years in fund development, Nicole works alongside organizations to align strategy, communications, and resource development to strengthen both mission and long-term sustainability. Her approach is grounded in the belief that thoughtful planning, clear communication, and respect for people, culture, and community create stronger organizations and greater impact.
Expertise:
Organizational Strategy & Planning
Revenue & Fundraising Strategy
Grant Program Development
Strategic Communications & Messaging
Kathy Nicholas,
MA
Kathy has created programs, impact events, and communications strategies for a broad range of cause-based organizations including EOD Warrior Foundation, Polar Bears International, and TEDxSanDiego. Her consulting work is informed by her master’s degree in nonprofit leadership from the University of San Diego and the unique experience of working for small start-ups and global nonprofits, cultivating collaborations and community-based solutions.
SENIOR CONSULTING PARTNER
Community Engagement
Capacity BuildingÂ
Donor Stewardship
Storytelling for Impact
Expertise:
A better path starts with seeing the whole picture.
THE WORK IS CONNECTED. SO IS OUR APPROACH.
Criterion looks beyond the immediate challenge to understand the broader organizational context.
We listen, investigate, and work alongside clients to understand what is already strong, where things are getting stuck, and what needs to be built, strengthened, aligned, or reconsidered.
Because strategy, revenue, communications, programs, governance, and stakeholder relationships influence one another, we resist solutions that address one part of an organization while ignoring the rest.
And because no two organizations are the same, the strongest solutions reflect the organization, its people, its history, and its community.
Clients and communities hold
expertise Criterion does not.
WHAT GUIDES THE WORK
Principles in practice.
