Mission Tempo gives small and mid-sized nonprofits across the Greater Rochester and Finger Lakes region affordable, expert help in three areas that keep a nonprofit running — Finance & Accounting, Human Resources, and Marketing & Communications — so leaders can spend less time on administration and more time advancing their mission.

Mission Tempo is built and delivered together by three partners, each bringing different expertise to the table:

• Council of Agency Executives (COAE) — your first stop on the Mission Tempo journey. COAE gets to know your organization, listens to what you need most, and connects you with the right service partner.
• Causewave Community Partners — hosts the Marketing & Communications fractional team.
• Coordinated Care Services, Inc. (CCSI) — hosts the Finance & Accounting and Human Resources fractional teams.

Mission Tempo is an on-ramp, not a one-off fix — a three-year journey that helps your organization build lasting infrastructure. It’s also affordable and local: grant funding lets us offer services at a rate small nonprofits can pay, delivered by people who know the nonprofit sector well.

• Nonprofits located in the Greater Rochester and Finger Lakes region (Monroe, Genesee, Livingston, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates counties)
• Annual operating budget of $5 million or less
• At least one full-time paid staff member
• Current member of the Council of Agency Executives (COAE) — or willing to join before enrolling

COAE is the region’s trusted convener of nonprofit leaders — if you’re not yet a member, the team will help you join as part of getting started.

Organizations are enrolled on a rolling basis as program capacity grows. Enrollment begins with an interest form through COAE, followed by an intake form and a discovery call with the service team lead for the area you’re interested in.

No. We recommend you prioritize the area where you need the most support and build from there.

No. We recommend you prioritize the area where you need the most support. After onboarding and as the program progresses, you may add another service area as long as space is available. The cost share will apply for each subsequent service area.

We have three service areas: Finance & Accounting, Human Resources, and Marketing & Communications. Refer to our menu of services here.

Mission Tempo adds to your team. Your organization gets fractional support, not full time roles. These are expert professionals who become an extension of your team in the areas of Finance & Accounting, Human Resources, or Marketing & Communications, working alongside or augmenting any existing staff you already have responsible for these organizational functions. Not every organization is able to afford a team of expert level staff to carry the weight of any of these areas but the organization still needs them to work well in order for their mission to advance. Mission Tempo can bridge that gap and give your team time back.

No. Mission Tempo is fractional staffing, not a consulting project where a team would work on something independently and deliver it. Each participating organization is assigned the support they need and works with its dedicated fractional team. That fractional team executes the specific items in your workplan in partnership with you — rather than simply advising from the outside. They share the workload so you get real time back to focus on other things. Finance, HR, and marketing need to run well for your mission to move forward, even when your budget doesn’t cover expert staff. Mission Tempo bridges that gap and gives your team time back.

After you’ve moved through the enrollment process, every engagement starts with an assessment of where your organization is today. That assessment shapes a workplan built specifically for your organization, and your fractional team is allocated to execute against that workplan — what you receive is scoped to your needs, not a fixed list of tasks. You can review the types of activities in our menu of services list here.

Mission Tempo works best as a true partnership. Your fractional team does the work, and your organization provides the knowledge and direction only you can give. What we ask is a dedicated point of contact, time up front to complete your assessment and set your workplan, and regular check-ins with the right team members and your fractional team to keep things moving. The more your team shares about how your organization works, the faster your fractional team can find your rhythm and take work off your desk. All of this is guided by goals set forth during the workplan process.

If your needs point toward a larger capacity-building engagement — such as staff restructuring, running payroll, or a full rebrand development project — your service team will recommend the right path and help identify next steps.

Grant funding covers the majority of the cost of every engagement. Participating organizations contribute an annual cost share based on their budget size:

Your annual cost share increases gradually over the life of the program — but so does the value you’re getting. By Year 2 and Year 3, most organizations are running leaner, fundraising more effectively, and relying less on any one person to hold things together. Your actual cost share depends on your organization’s budget size and the program’s available grant funds raised each year.

Mission Tempo is a three-year partnership designed to take your organization from stabilized to self-sufficient: Year 1 (Foundations) builds core systems and structure, Year 2 (Improvements) strengthens and grows what’s working, and Year 3 (Stability & Sustainability) prepares your organization to financially sustain this level of support on its own. Each year is formalized through an annually renewed contract, giving you a natural check-in point to revisit goals and progress.

Mission Tempo is available to eligible nonprofits now.

Every engagement starts with an interest form facilitated through COAE, the region’s trusted convener of nonprofit leaders. From there, you’ll complete an intake form and a discovery call with the service team lead for the area you’re interested in. The team will put together a proposal and contract built around what you need, and onboarding begins with an assessment that shapes your workplan.

COAE, which is independent from service delivery, leads client feedback and evaluation for Mission Tempo — so your experience is measured by a trusted third party, not by the teams providing your support.

The development and launch of Mission Tempo were made possible through the generous support of The ESL Charitable Foundation, The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, The Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation, and others.