FAQ
How soon can Advantage Consulting be available to assist us?
To ensure that we are a good fit for your organization or project, it is important for us to schedule our free initial phone or video call to review the goals of your consulting needs, the timeline for the work, funding available to cover our consulting fees and to determine roles of all stakeholders involved. Based on this initial conversation, Advantage Consulting prepares a draft proposal of our services and our fees within usually a week of the call. After you have reviewed our proposal, we can hold a second phone or video call and finalize a decision on moving forward with a contract for our services or not.
We specialize in providing external evaluation services for SAMHSA-funded projects. While we are interested in discussing any projects, we are currently interested in increasing our SAMHSA external evaluation services.
What areas in the country do you provide consulting services?
Most of our services can be provided anywhere in the country. We build in travel costs to our services to ensure we are able to meet with clients onsite as needed during the course of managing a project. However, most of our work has been done by video conference calls. Our main office is located in Atlanta, Georgia. Depending on the complexity of a particular project we often hire local subcontractors to help us manage such projects. We currently have projects nationwide: San Diego, New Orleans, Washington, DC, and Atlanta, GA.
What is the cost of your services?
Our usual hourly rate for our consulting services is $125 an hour. However, depending on the complexity of the project (conducting original research, major citywide or statewide initiative implementation), our rate may be higher. Since most of our projects are not where we reside, we build in travel costs for flights, car rental, hotel, and meals. We use federal reimbursement rates to typically determine our per diem and travel costs
How will I know who from Advantage Consulting will be directly working with our organization?
Based on who is available from our firm, Mr. Hassan will typically take the lead on an evaluation project and Mr. Mathew George, a Senior Associate in the firm, will take the lead on a strategic planning project. We may also hire a subcontractor to provide coordination support. If the project is implemented over multiple years (such as a SAMHSA-funded project), we may hire a local evaluator to provide local support. We also make sure that Mr. Hassan regularly visits local projects and we build in travel costs that meet the needs of each project.
How can we receive a sample of the firm’s work as well as any relevant references?
We provide some samples of our work for each of our service areas. You can see the description of our services through the website’s menu. After we conduct a free initial consultation call, we can provide a more specific work sample as well as the most relevant references for you to contact. You can also review Our Clients page to see the various types of organizations we have served since our firm began providing consulting services in 2008.
Do you assist with writing grant proposals for funding a project?
Advantage Consulting does not provide grant writing or marketing services. We do provide technical assistance in writing a grant proposal and we can provide content recommendations for your proposal’s evaluation section. Depending on your needs, we can refer you to some of our colleagues who provide grant-writing services. One of our main partners who provides fundraising support is the Strategic Funding Group.
