Change Elemental

What Change Elemental does

Change Elemental is a US-based nonprofit consulting and capacity-building organization that supports social justice movements, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropic foundations. Originally founded in 1983 as Management Assistance Group (MAG), the organization was rebranded to Change Elemental in 2019 to reflect a more explicit focus on liberation-centered transformation. Its work is anchored in the proprietary "Five Elements of Liberating Transformation" framework—Advancing Liberation & Sovereignty, Sharing Leadership & Power, Valuing Multiple Ways of Knowing, Creating & Transforming in Chaos and Complexity, and Practicing Inner Work—which is deployed across consulting engagements, coaching relationships, and cohort-based learning labs.

The organization delivers its work through two primary service lines. The first is customized consulting and coaching engagements covering Transformative Strategy, Values-Aligned Culture, Leadership/Governance/Coaching, Liberated Finance, Learning & Evaluation, and Interdependent Networks. The second is a portfolio of named learning programs and fellowships, including the John W. Mack Movement Building Fellows Program (with the Weingart Foundation, since 2019), the Prefiguring Futures Lab, the Navigating Change Initiative (with Aurora Commons and Ford Foundation), LANE (Leveraging a Network for Equity), Northstar Network, the Intermediary Design Lab, the Network Weaver Learning Lab, and the E3 Creating Conditions Lab. The Karl Mathiasen and Susan Gross Equity & Innovation Fund subsidizes engagements for organizations that cannot afford full fees.

Change Elemental's revenue model is professional-services based, with multi-year customized engagements priced on a quote basis and funded primarily through philanthropic grants (notably Weingart Foundation and Ford Foundation) and direct fees from movement-organization clients. Its go-to-market is community-led: direct outreach and referral within the social justice movement ecosystem, supported by content marketing via blog, Instagram (@cocreatingpower), and publicly shared learning reports. With 1–10 employees based in Washington, D.C., it operates as a small, high-touch consulting practice serving a niche segment of US-based movements, nonprofits, and foundations—primarily in Southern California and nationally.

Name

Change Elemental

Legal name

Change Elemental

Website

https://changeelemental.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1983

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Change Elemental is a US nonprofit consulting and capacity-building organization that provides coaching, strategy, and learning programs to social justice movements, nonprofits, and foundations, grounded in its Five Elements of Liberating Transformation framework.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Nonprofit Consulting

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Organization Design & Change Management Consulting (BPAHACAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Change Management & Transformation Consulting (BPAHAGAC), Change Management & Transformation Leadership (EDABAAAD), Organizational Change & Transformation Coaching (EDABANAG)

Keywords

• Social justice consulting
• Capacity building services
• Movement building consulting
• Nonprofit coaching services
• Leadership development consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Capacity Building & Coaching Services: Change Elemental generates revenue through consulting engagements, coaching services, and capacity-building programs with organizations, foundations, and networks in the social justice movement sector. Services include strategy development, values-aligned culture work, leadership coaching, liberated finance consulting, and learning & evaluation.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Change Elemental provides consulting, coaching, and capacity-building services to social justice movement organizations, foundations, and networks. Its work centers on the proprietary Five Elements of Liberating Transformation framework and includes strategy development, values-aligned culture work, leadership coaching for executive directors and teams, learning and evaluation support, and network/weave consulting. The firm operates as a small, founder-led practice serving mission-driven organizations in the United States.

Product overview

Change Elemental offers a portfolio of capacity-building and coaching services focused on advancing social justice and liberation. The core offerings include Transformative Strategy in Chaos & Complexity, Values-Aligned Culture, Leadership Governance & Coaching, Liberated Finance, Learning & Evaluation, and Interdependent Networks—all grounded in the Five Elements of Liberatory Transformation. These are complemented by the Prefiguring Futures Lab for experiential learning and innovation. Change Elemental also facilitates several named learning programs including the John W. Mack Movement Building Fellows Program, Navigating Change Initiative, LANE, Northstar Network, Intermediary Design Lab, Network Weaver Learning Lab, Network Leadership Innovation Lab, and the Engage Experiment Emerge (E3) Creating Conditions Lab. The organization functions as a consulting and training entity rather than a software product company.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Prefiguring Futures Lab: A generator for power with and power within for advancing liberation and sovereignty. Provides experiences, experiments, and practices for prefiguring liberation.
• Karl Mathiasen and Susan Gross Equity & Innovation Fund
• John W. Mack Movement Building Fellows Program

Products and services

• Consulting and Capacity-Building Services
• Leadership Coaching
• Learning and Evaluation Support

Quantifiable outcome

• 40 movement leaders strengthened across 3 cohorts in John W. Mack Fellows Program over 6 years
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Weingart FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019Since 2019, Change Elemental has partnered with the Weingart Foundation to design and facilitate the John W. Mack Movement Building Fellows Program. Together they co-create a transformative learning space that centers care, collective well-being, and liberatory power for movement leaders across Southern California. The Weingart Foundation provides funding while Change Elemental provides program design and facilitation.
• Aurora CommonscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerChange Elemental partnered with Aurora Commons to develop and launch the Navigating Change initiative in 2021, with support from the Ford Foundation's Civic Engagement and Government program. The initiative explores how groups in the civic engagement field are building power and adapting to changing conditions.
• Building Movement ProjectminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerChange Elemental identifies Building Movement Project as a partner organization that develops research, tools, training materials, and opportunities for partnership to bolster nonprofit organizations' ability to support the voice and power of the people they serve.
• Social Transformation Project & Northstar NetworkminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerChange Elemental identifies the Social Transformation Project and Northstar Network as partners working toward building long-term power together through visioning, strategizing, experimenting, and muscle-building grounded in rigor and radical hope.
• Racial Equity ToolsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerChange Elemental references Racial Equity Tools as a partner resource that offers tools, research, tips, curricula, and ideas for people working for racial justice, available online and free to users.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Direct peers

• Movement Strategy Center: A national center that provides coaching, training, and capacity-building support to grassroots organizing groups and movement leaders. It directly competes for the same foundation-funded capacity-building engagements and shares Change Elemental's focus on liberatory, BIPOC-centered leadership development.
• Center for Story-Based Strategy: A training and consulting organization that helps movements develop narrative strategy, messaging, and campaign design. It is comparable in that it offers cohort-based learning labs and capacity-building services to social-justice organizations, addressing a related but adjacent consulting niche.
• Building Movement Project: A national nonprofit that develops research, tools, and training to build the capacity of nonprofits and the people they serve, with a focus on movement and equity-centered organizational practice. It is directly comparable to Change Elemental's values-aligned culture and capacity-building offerings and is identified as a partner in Change Elemental's ecosystem.
• Ayni Institute: A social-justice capacity-building and consulting organization that supports movement leaders, networks, and organizations with strategy, facilitation, and organizational development. It is a direct peer given overlapping consulting/coaching practice, similar values-aligned framing, and comparable target customer base of foundations and movement organizations.
• Grassroots Policy Project: A movement-support organization providing strategic consulting, training, and capacity building to grassroots groups and networks. It is directly comparable in service mix (strategy, leadership development, network weaving) and target customers (movement organizations and funders).

Broad incumbents

• FSG: A global social-impact consulting firm that advises foundations, corporations, and nonprofits on strategy, evaluation, and collective impact. It is a broader incumbent in social-sector consulting, with overlapping services in strategy and learning/evaluation but operating at a much larger scale and with a less movement-specific orientation than Change Elemental.
• TCC Group: A consulting firm focused on the nonprofit and philanthropic sector, providing strategy, evaluation, and capacity-building services. It is comparable to Change Elemental in offering organizational development and learning/evaluation work but serves a wider range of nonprofit clients without Change Elemental's liberatory-transformation framing.

Others

• Borealis Philanthropy: A philanthropic intermediary that pools resources from multiple funders to support social-justice movements, including racial equity and LGBTQI organizing. It is thematically adjacent as a movement-infrastructure ecosystem participant that both funds and partners with organizations like Change Elemental's clients and network.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/cocreatingpower
• Xx.com/cocreatingpower
• Facebookfacebook.com/ChangeElemental
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/change-elemental

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Change Elemental