Contact Information

11472 Fairfield Rd. West
Suite 302
Minnetonka, MN 55305
952-595-0432
612-964-4389 (Mobile)

Mission statement

       To help mission-driven organizations create clearer visions, more effective strategies and improved organizational structures.

Vision statement

       After collaborating with Sandra Larson Consulting, organizations will improve their ability to affect mission-driven change for their customers and other stakeholders.

Value Proposition     

       Sandra Larson Consulting will only accept assignments with charitable partners whom we believe can benefit from our collaboration. In our expectations and charges we will honor the limited time and resources the organization can reasonably expect to spend on such contracts. In all matters we will, to the best of our ability, give objective and honest recommendations. We will only contract with organizations who will, in turn, give us their open and honest cooperation as well. We enter all contracts with the goal of enhancing the mission-driven results of the client organization.

Biography

       Sandra Larson has over 35 years of leadership experience within the public, nonprofit and private sector. Her most recent leadership assignment was as development director for the Minnesota Planetarium Society.

       Her current focus is on interim work either as a temporary employee or as a consultant in the area of management and development improvement.

       She initially assumed responsibilities for the Minnesota Planetarium Society as a consultant in 2005. The Society incorporated in 2003 as the nonprofit organization to plan for and build a new science center in Minneapolis, its major feature to be a digital 3-D planetarium. Over her 4 year tenure she:

• Secured 2 million dollars from corporate, foundation, and individual sources along with in-kind business services and earned income from the Society’s start-up ExploraDome Program and funding for capital campaign planning.
• Helped expand the board of directors from 8 to 14 and recruited 50 program volunteers.
• Helped plan, fund and carry out a new science program that in its first 2 ½ school years served 50,000 children and adults in 123 schools in Minnesota, in conjunction with 2 staff members.

Prior to 2003 Larson was employed by ADC Telecommunications, Inc. There she:

• Developed, incorporated and headed the company’s charitable foundation which was endowed by the company for 20 million dollars.
• As executive director, she developed 23 corporate community giving sites, 9 of which were in foreign offices of the company.
• Served as director of corporate community relations, creating volunteer programs, policies and a scholarship fund for employee children around the world.    

Before 1998, Larson most recently directed, built and incorporated the Management Assistance Program (MAP) for Nonprofits, Inc. There she:

• Built MAP into one of the largest management support organizations in the country, providing management and technical assistance to nonprofit agencies.
• Larson led MAP for 14 years, during which time she designed and directed services to 2,000 nonprofits in the Twin Cities’ metropolitan area
• Larson led MAP in partnering with more than 40 leading for-profit corporations, helping their employees and retirees share their expertise as volunteer consultants or board members to nonprofit organizations.

Prior to leading MAP's expansion, Larson directed and developed the Neighborhood Involvement Program (N.I.P.) a South Minneapolis multi-service nonprofit. There her accomplishments included:

• Established the second professionally staffed Rape and Sexual Assault Center in the United Stated.
• Created the state’s first privately funded legal advocacy program housed in the Hennepin County Courts.

Prior to her 6 years as executive director of N.I.P, she:

• Headed the area of law enforcement planning for the State of Minnesota Crime Control Board.
• Developed a police community relations program for the Maryland Human Rights Commission

 Larson’s community activities include serving as:

• President of the United Way Council of Agency Executives (Minneapolis)
• A founding board member and secretary of the Management MBA Program and Management Center of the University of St. Thomas and the Minnesota Council on Nonprofits
• Adjunct professor at the Center for Nonprofit Management at the University of St. Thomas
• Executive committee member of the National Executive Service Corps
• Treasurer of the New Dance Ensemble
• Advisory board member for the Union Institute, a national nonprofit think tank
• President of the Friends of the Minneapolis Library, where she assisted in the capital campaign efforts to fund to the central library.
• Currently a board member of St. Steven’s Human Services.

Larson's eduction includes:

• A master’s degree in social work and community planning from the University of Maryland
• A bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Minnesota.

She has run for political office and stays active in politics. Larson is also a published poet and stargazer.