How CBI Helps Non-Governmental Organizations

Whether tackling a controversial local issue, advocating for national policy, or managing internal operations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) sometimes find themselves inadequately resourced to achieve their desired outcomes. Without experience in designing complex public processes, NGOs often meet challenges when partnering with other groups to promote action across boundaries and achieve specific goals.

Our Areas of Expertise

Land Use and Development

CBI helps public officials, developers, mediators, and other constituents balance social, political, economic, environmental, and health concerns in resolving land use disputes.

Natural Resources and Environment

CBI specializes in environmental planning, public land, air pollution, and water management. Combining process skills with technical acumen enables us to manage multi-party negotiations in the public arena.

Social Policies and Programs

CBI designs public input processes, administers meetings, and enables groups to achieve consensus on issues such as housing, criminal justice, and diversity.

Case Studies

Considering Mediation in Environmental Justice Cases
February, 2008
CBI and Justice and Sustainability Associates have sought to prepare trainings and case studies that can benefit those seeking environmental justice across the U.S.
Food and Farm Policy Project
July, 2008
The Farm and Food Policy Project (FFPP) was established to allow participating organizations to work collaboratively to advance four interlocking policy initiatives. The initiatives were designed to unite diverse constituencies and to help build a more sustainable food and agriculture system in the United States. The Project had four broad goals: 1) promote new agricultural markets and rural entrepreneurship, 2) enhance the economic viability of small- and moderate-sized family farms and ranches, 3) reward environmental stewardship, 4) combat hunger by increasing access to healthy food through community food systems.
Improving Permitting Process Efficiency in Delaware: A Look at the Role of Facilitation in Policy Dialogues
November, 2009
In 2009, the New Castle County Executive (Delaware) and several private parties engaged the Delaware Public Policy Institute and Consensus Building Institute to convene a policy dialogue on improving the County’s application and permitting process for land use and development.
Facilitating a Collaborative Research Process: The Hudson River Sustainable Shorelines Project

CBI assists the Hudson River Sustainable Shorelines Project to facilitate a complex research and stakeholder engagement process with the aim of promoting sustainable shoreline management in the face of sea level rise and more. This collaborative project will gather, synthesize, and distribute ecological, engineering, economic, management, and regulatory data on how best to manage the Hudson River shoreline.

 


Our Services

CBI helps leaders, communities, organizations, and governments worldwide find better ways to work together on important public issues. We offer in-depth knowledge of group dynamics, multiparty negotiations, and intercultural interaction. Using mediation, facilitation, and a range of specialized tools we have developed for assessment, evaluation, process design, we help our clients integrate thought and action to achieve wiser, more stable, and fairer results.

Facilitation

With expertise in group dynamics and many years of facilitating meetings and problem-solving processes of various kinds, CBI helps constituents identify, implement, and evaluate shared objectives.

Mediation

CBI’s professional mediators establish a collaborative environment, avoid escalation, and create value—leading to more efficient, wiser, and more stable results.

Research and Evaluation

CBI engages in cutting-edge research and evaluation, engaging stakeholders in goal setting, data collection, analysis, reflection and practical problem-solving.

Stakeholder Assessment

CBI has helped define the practice of stakeholder assessment for many global, national, state, local, and inter-organizational disputes.

Tailored Training

Our tailored workshops address your negotiation challenges, combining a robust model with context-specific materials.

Select Clients

American Cancer Society
American Society of Clinical Oncologists
Association of International Petroleum
Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies
Center for Public Resources
Central Advisory Council, Chicago Public Housing Residents
Centre for Dispute Resolution (U.K.)
Chesapeake Bay Trust
Delaware Public Policy Institute
John F. Kennedy Library
Land Trust Alliance
Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions
National Science Foundation
Nature Conservancy
New Hampshire Public Defenders
Northeast Midwest Institute
Sonoran Institute
The Glynwood Center
Water Environment Research Foundation
WWF - World Wildlife Fund / World Wide Fund For Nature

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