Optimize your organization to grow your impact.

At Optimize for Impact, I specialize in providing social impact organizations with the strategic capacity they need to grow and thrive.

Approach:

Every project or engagement is approached through the integrated lens of Strategy, People, and Operations, delivering solutions that foster alignment and sustainable impact for your organization.

Strategic alignment within these three elements ensures the solutions I design are comprehensive, sustainable, and advance the impact you seek as a team or organization.

Services Include:

  • Projects to enhance the effectiveness of your organization or team

  • Interim support or fractional support in operations, talent management, organizational effectiveness, or chief of staff

As needed and appropriate, I also work with trusted partners to ensure the full scope of expertise needed to support your organization is in place.

Interested to learn more about optimizing your team or organization? Let’s chat!

ABOUT ME

Samantha Bray Ader

I am passionate about helping social impact leaders and teams bring their vision to life. With 15 years of experience in the social impact sector, I specialize in talent management, organizational design, operations, strategy, and fundraising. My diverse background has given me a unique understanding of building effective organizations. I have experience building and growing people, operations, and fundraising functions from the ground-up from start-up through growth phases.

I hold a graduate certificate in Designing for Organizational Effectiveness from Northwestern University, where I'm also pursuing an MS in Learning and Organizational Change (2025). Through my education, I have developed a research-backed tool kit of organizational design and effectiveness, change management, and design thinking models and practices to compliment my diverse professional experience.

I reside outside of Chicago with my partner and two daughters and serve as an elected school board member for my local school district.

Does your organization or team need some optimizing?

If any of these sound familiar, I can help!

  • Lack of clarity around organizational or team-level strategy and goals.

  • You have a strategy but your current infrastructure isn’t aligned to support it.

  • Your systems and processes are slowing you down or non-existent.

  • You have a talented team but no infrastructure to support them.

  • Leadership is stretched too thin and stuck in the weeds instead of focusing on strategic priorities.

  • You’re a new organization and don’t have in-house capacity for your internal infrastructure building.