Nonprofits, Foundations, and Professionals

Welcome! If you’re here, you’re probably exploring growth and change for yourself and/or your organization. You’ve come to the right place. I’m Adrianna Silver, your collaborator for change. As a proven strategist, facilitator, and coach I help clarify your bold vision and illuminate the path to get there.

With over a decade of experience in nonprofit leadership, coaching, facilitation, and strategic planning, I provide you with the tools to move from theory to action and results. Holding both systems and human-centered approaches in my work, we will design a future that adapts to you.

Today’s the day to bring your vision to life. Email me now and let’s get started.

Coaching

Conflict? Decision paralysis? Unsure where to start? As your coach, I help you gain clarity for big and small goals alike and get to action that serves future you. Your resilience, confidence, and resourcefulness will be leveling up along the way making challenges of the past small hiccups (or even opportunities!) for future you.

Facilitation

Growth and learning are vulnerable. No matter the content, I hold space that remains accessible, inclusive, and invigorating while inspiring a learning journey of curiosity and action. With a robust toolbox of facilitation tools and activities, I will customize a workshop or series that supports your goal, whether that is leadership development, action planning, or conflict navigation.

Strategic Planning and Change Management

Change is hard. Even the good kind asks us to open ourselves up to unknown experiences. As I support you in building out your strategy we will consider the vision as well as the culture and systems needed to sustain it. From collaborative design sessions and evaluation systems to learning frameworks and performance management, I am beside you, with the tools and support you need to bring your vision to life.

Experience & Education

  • 2016-present

    A decade of diverse roles means I have invested a lot of myself into Chicago Cares, boasting an exceptional return on that investment.

    Chicago Cares called me into the strategic work of community-driven collective impact and moving power through equity frameworks.

    From being trained in transformative leadership practices to supporting multiple generations and networks of leaders in their growth, the mutuality of my many roles with Chicago Cares is evident. Externally not only have millions been invested in collective impact efforts in historically divested communities, but tens of thousands of volunteers were cultivated to move from savior-driven service to movement solidarity, aligned to the ethos that “those closest to the challenge are closest to the solution.”

    Currently, I proudly support in the adoption and execution of a new strategic plan as the Senior Director of Community Strategy & Innovation.

  • 2023-2025

    Facilitating the collaborative design of a comprehensive strategic plan for Wild Earth introduced me to a passionate team of staff, leadership and board members. I provided learning frameworks, evaluation systems, individual coaching, and action planning for Wild Earth to embrace a clear and adaptable future.

  • 2023-2025

    Developing systems and people in a rapidly growing and evolving environment as the Senior Director of Community Relations & Program Design was a gift of growth for me. Decidedly impactful inside and out of the organization, my work saw leaders cultivated and program systems yielding deeper impact for a network of over 300 community partners serving New York City.

    I still enjoy supporting innovative efforts of New York Cares from afar.

  • 2019

    As a consultant, I collaborated in designing a community-impact conference for 25,000+ Starbucks managers from North American locations. The impressive event meant engaging dozens of organizations in developing workshops within defined scopes as well as supporting the facilitation of a leadership training for 1,000+ participants.

  • 2013-2014

    As a young Executive Director I enjoyed developing and fundraising for a large scale community festival celebrating local art as well as a community-driven art gallery on the sought after gallery walk in Nashville’s Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood. Multiple artists from the neighborhood succeeded in selling works of art with no commission charge.

    During this time I also swum in the deep end of nonprofit operations, from board management to financial oversight, an experience that influences my practice some 14 years later.

  • 2012-2013

    My first real exposure to nonprofit life, I served as Americorps VISTA for the organizations’s Home Energy Savings Program.

    I learned about scaled systems for impact and grant reporting while retrofitting 100s of homes with efficient materials, lowering annual costs for historically divested families.

  • 2016-current

    -Co-active Coaching
    -Crucial Accountability
    -Tipping Point Change management
    -Crossroads & AORTA anti-racism
    -Kotter’s Change management
    -MEL
    -Iterative Evlauation
    -Restorative Practice
    -Collaborative Design Facilitation
    -Conflict Navigation and Goal-driven Communications
    -Project management systems

  • I owe my liberal arts degrees all the credit for helping me explore how ethics and systems can work together for community-driven impact.

    2007-2011
    Double-BA
    Philosophy and Literature
    Western Kentucky University

    2021-2022
    MA (partial completion)
    Comparative Literature
    Northwestern University

I am available for limited consulting engagements. If your project is more than I can commit to at the moment, I am always happy to refer to a trusted colleague. You’re not alone in change.

I am currently based in Chicago, IL and offer support locally, virtually, and travel as needed.