Supporting leaders to move from planning to results through relationship-based advisory and management consulting.
Strategic Planning
Your organization needs a direction that everyone can get behind.
​
Your board wants a strategic plan. A funder is asking for a proposal before they'll commit. Or your team knows things need to change but hasn't aligned on what that looks like.
​
You get a plan your team and funders can act on: clear priorities, defined roles, and a shared sense of direction. Built through working sessions where the people doing the work shape it.
​
Strategic planning. Facilitation. Implementation planning.
Financial Advisory
Your project needs the financial picture to move forward.
​
You have a development concept, a new program, or an investment decision that needs credible numbers before funders, boards, or partners will move. Maybe you're applying for capital funding and need a proforma, or you're evaluating whether an initiative is financially sustainable.
​
Your decision-makers get a financial picture they trust: budgets, cash flow projections, scenario analysis, or a business case that stands up to scrutiny. This works for housing organizations costing a build, cooperatives planning an expansion, or investors evaluating a portfolio.
​
Financial modelling. Business cases. Feasibility analysis. Social finance advisory.
Change Management
Your organization is going through a change and people need to come along.
​
You're restructuring roles, merging programs, introducing new systems, or trying to improve how your team delivers its work. Leadership sees the logic, but the team is uncertain. The real risk is losing people in the transition.
​
You get a transition your team understands and supports: roles and processes that reflect the new direction, shaped by the people who will live with the change. That could mean redesigning how work flows through your organization, building a culture of continuous improvement, or helping leadership through the human side of restructuring.
​
Change management. Organizational restructuring. Operations improvement. Process redesign.
Network Development
You're trying to get separate organizations to work together toward a shared goal.
You've got multiple organizations around the table. Everyone agrees on the broad mission, but there's no structure to sustain the work beyond the next meeting. Coordination keeps falling to whoever has capacity that week.
​
What you build is a collaborative structure that holds: shared governance, defined roles, and a rhythm of connection that sustains itself. This is patient, relationship-intensive work. It takes longer than a strategic plan and produces something more durable: organizations that trust each other enough to act together.
Network development. Coalition facilitation. Multi-organization governance.
Social Procurement
Your procurement or investment can be creating community outcomes.
​
You're involved in a public contract, a capital project, or a funding program where the money flowing through the work could be creating local jobs, training opportunities, or pathways for underrepresented businesses. You know the potential is there, but you need a framework that makes it concrete and measurable.
​
You get a structured approach that connects procurement decisions to community results: clear targets, reporting mechanisms, and a plan your team can implement on their own terms. This applies whether the mandate comes from a community benefit agreement, a funder requirement, or your own organizational values.
​
Social procurement strategy. Community benefit frameworks. Workforce development planning.
About Me.
Darcy Penner is a Winnipeg-based management consultant working with organizations across Manitoba's nonprofit, cooperative, government, and private sectors. He partners with leaders on decisions that cut across governance, finance, and operations. These are organizations where the outcomes matter to staff, funders, and communities.
​
Before consulting, Darcy spent over a decade in network management, policy, and community finance. That included seven years at a national community economic development network and governance of a community development financial institution. That experience grounds his practice in how organizations actually work: board dynamics, funder relationships, coalition politics, and the operational realities that determine whether good plans get implemented.
darcy@darcypenner.ca 431 441 9172
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Selected Work
-
Built a business plan for a community land trust working through fundamental questions about its structure, governance, and financial sustainability. Delivered scenario analysis, 10-year projections, and strategic priorities.
-
Co-authored the national Primer on Trade Agreements for Social Purchasing, now maintained by Buy Social Canada as their standard reference. The document cleared a persistent misconception that Canadian trade law prohibits social purchasing.
-
Project managed the Manitoba Social Enterprise Strategy, a three-year sector development initiative co-created by community organizations and the Government of Manitoba. The strategy invested $670K in building the province's social enterprise ecosystem, engaging over 400 organizations.
-
Guided a regional community economic development network through organizational restructuring during COVID, including transitioning their annual conference to virtual delivery. Over 250 participants attended, with the majority reporting stronger collaborative connections than prior years.
-
Managed finance and administration for a mixed-income housing developer with $165M+ in active development. Handled multi-funder compliance across federal, provincial, and municipal programs. Projects included joint venture partnerships, transitional housing, and affordable rental developments.
-
Worked with a coalition of 12 organizations, including construction trades and social enterprises, to shape the City of Winnipeg's social procurement policy. Council adopted the resulting action plan unanimously.
-
Governed a $30M+ capital construction program for a social services organization providing emergency shelter and transitional housing in Winnipeg. The program included a new shelter brought from concept to opening in 21 weeks during COVID.
-
Chaired governance of a community development financial institution that deployed $3.4M in loans and loan guarantees, unlocking $41.5M in total community financing. Each dollar invested generated $12.30 in community impact.
Credentials
​​Education:
MBA, Royal Roads University (Organizational Change Management)
Project Management Certificate, UBC Sauder School of Business
LEAN Green Belt, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
BA Honours, Political Science, University of Winnipeg
Yvonne Prefontaine Memorial Award
​
Board:
Main Street Project (Vice-President, 2019-2024)
Jubilee Fund (President, 2016-2018)
​
Copyright © 2026 Darcy Penner Management Consulting Inc.