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Strategic Advisory — Built Around Thinking, Not Just Deliverables.
Most consultants hand you a report. Dennis hands you a different way of seeing your situation. His advisory practice is built around the insight that the most valuable thing a senior advisor provides isn’t a strategy deck — it’s judgment, pattern recognition, and the ability to frame complex challenges so that the right decisions become clear.
Below are the core areas where Dennis engages. Most client relationships involve several of these working in tandem — because the challenges that matter rarely come in neat categories.
In today’s market, knowing your audience and how to reach them has never been more important. Utilizing tried-and-true research techniques and surveying strategies we can provide answers to your marketing questions. Research and client development are crucial to successful firms continuing success. We can provide the tools for this success with media analysis, competitive analysis–all suited to your individual needs.
DM Baker is also a full-service firm offering many options for your promotion. Message / brand development and delivery is crucial in order to produce the results any firm or organization needs. We are experienced in targeted communication and message development that will fit your goals and your organization’s personality. We have access to numerous media outlets and experts to further compliment our services and provide the best, most diverse marketing mix. Event planning, strategic development and impact giving are areas that enhance our marketing concepts for our clients.
Dennis serves as a trusted advisor embedded in your leadership orbit — not a project vendor but a thinking partner available at inflection points, board moments, and high-stakes decisions. He synthesizes across your operations, your stakeholder landscape, and your sector to offer the view from 30,000 feet when you need it most.
Ideal for:
Founders navigating growth transitions. Nonprofit executives facing governance challenges. Civic leaders preparing for public moments. Organizations at a strategic crossroads.
Messaging is not copywriting. It is the structural work of understanding what you are, what you stand for, and how to make that land with every audience that matters. Dennis builds messaging frameworks from the inside out — starting with organizational clarity and ending with language that resonates, persuades, and protects.
Includes:
– Core narrative and positioning development
– Stakeholder-specific communication frameworks
– Pitch and presentation strategy
– Crisis messaging and rapid-response framing
– Book, media, and public-facing voice alignment
In an era where narratives move faster than institutions, protecting your reputation requires proactive strategy — not reactive scrambling. Dennis advises leaders and organizations on how to build reputational capital before they need it, and how to respond when they do.
Capabilities include:
– Pre-crisis narrative positioning
– Media and stakeholder response strategy
– Board and leadership alignment during reputational challenges
– Long-term trust rebuilding and brand recovery
Great organizations are built on systems, not heroics. Dennis helps leaders design the decision-making structures, mentorship systems, and governance frameworks that allow organizations to operate at their best — even when circumstances are imperfect. This work is deeply informed by his book, Building Your Board of Directors for Life.
This includes:
– Board development and governance advising
– Mentorship system design
– Succession and leadership transition planning
– Organizational wisdom — capturing institutional knowledge before it walks out the door
Dennis has spent two decades building relationships across sectors that rarely talk to each other. His network spans entertainment, tech, government, international NGOs, media influencers, pro-athletes, authors, family foundations, and high-net-worth individuals. He brings this network to bear strategically — not as an introduction service, but as a connector who understands how to activate relationships for mutual benefit.
Examples of connection work:
– Identifying aligned partners and funders for mission-driven organizations
– Opening doors to media, government, and cultural influencers
– Structuring stakeholder ecosystems that create durable organizational value
– Facilitating cross-sector collaborations that wouldn’t otherwise happen
Dennis helps leaders see and seize opportunities that aren’t on their radar yet. Whether it’s a new funding stream, a strategic partnership, a market expansion, or a platform shift, he applies cross-sector pattern recognition to identify what others miss — and then helps build a path to capture it.
Typical applications:
– Revenue diversification and earned income strategy for nonprofits
– Investor positioning and fundraising narrative for founders
– Partnership development and coalition building
– Program expansion and new initiative feasibility
Dennis brings deep, specialized expertise to nonprofits and mission-driven organizations at every stage — from startup to scaling. He has helped raise millions for organizations ranging from $200K to $2B in annual budget. His approach goes well beyond grants: he advises on organizational identity, stakeholder engagement, board culture, and the long-term infrastructure that allows mission to flourish.
Specific services include:
– Organizational creation, structure, and 501(c)(3) navigation
– Board development and best practices
– Capital campaign strategy and major donor cultivation
– Grant-readiness and sponsorship development
– Impact measurement and reporting frameworks
– Strategic use of AI in development operations
“If I had more time I would have written a much shorter letter…”
-Blaise Pascal
Never before has managing and protecting your brand, or even launching one, been so complex and multifaceted.
Successfully navigating this dynamic landscape requires a cohesive vision and expert guidance by a PR team whose core consideration is your image and reputation, wherever and however they appear.
Our national and international messaging initiatives build and sustain efficient, effective business outcomes using communications strategies and techniques in: brand positioning and refinement, traditional public relations, crisis management, shield creation, online PR, social media, publicity generating events, and marketing communications.
Every brand has a story … one that resonates with, engages and motivates customers and influencers and consumers. We will help you identify and communicate yours.
Non-profits come in many shapes and sizes with goals and objectives as complex and different as those of individuals. Helping non-profits realize their goals and understanding how to implement campaigns for education and development is a key benefit. We provide organizational creation, management, strategic development assistance and counseling to a large but diverse group of non-profit organizations. DM Baker has secured millions of dollars in funding for non-profits that range in size (annual budget wise) from $200,000 to $2 billion.