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Fathom | A business and design consulting firm

Dedicating time and talents to help communities thrive

Community impact has been present since our founding, and is actually built into the Fathom Consulting mission: to partner with our clients and community to drive meaningful change. Our structured program give employees opportunities to bridge personal passions with professional expertise.

This year, Fathom Consulting celebrates 20 years in business. In addition to happenings planned throughout the year, we’re sharing a series of blog posts celebrating what’s led to our success over the last two decades while looking forward to the years to come.

Our 20th year in business has been one of reflection, celebration, and gratitude—which seems especially apt for the month of November. This is the time of year when we traditionally give thanks … and also give back through our annual team event. In addition to some “off-site” fun and good-natured competition, we dedicate a portion of our event to community impact. This year (to mark our own milestone birthday) we created birthday bags—20 of them!—for children and their families staying at the Ronald McDonald house.

But efforts like this don’t take place once a year. Community impact has been present since our founding and is actually built into the Fathom Consulting mission: to partner with our clients and community to drive meaningful change. To achieve “meaningful change,” we place a priority on maintaining a culture that empowers (and encourages!) team members to dedicate their time, skills, and strengths toward doing something great for others. And last year, we created a structured program for those who are interested in bridging their personal passions with professional expertise. it includes:

Professional involvement

Like many organizations, we encourage our consultants to join professional organizations and regularly attend events. Our team members are involved in (and in many cases, serve on the board of) business and healthcare groups like:

  • American College of Healthcare Executives
  • American Red Cross
  • Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI)
  • Medical Alley Association
  • Minnesota Children’s Museum
  • Minnesota Habitat for Humanity
  • Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA)
  • Minnesota Women’s Economic Roundtable
  • One Heartland
  • User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA)
  • Women’s Health Leadership TRUST (WHLT)
  • Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation (WBL)

It’s also common that these organizations meet in our new office space in the North Loop—that we built out with spaces designed specifically with community gathering in mind.

Social contribution

Outside of the professional community, we recognize team members’ efforts to make an impact in areas they personally care about while still wearing their “Fathom hat.” Sometimes this manifests as an individual employee volunteering, mentoring, or otherwise donating their time and talent; at other times, a small group of Fathom consultants bands together to volunteer, fund a scholarship, or share experiences with others.

Innovation for impact

Finally, team members are encouraged to use skills—such as teaching, facilitating, or consulting—to empower organizations to fulfill their own community impact missions. Fathom Consulting serves in an advisory capacity for Impact Hub MSP and the former Treehouse Health, organizations that exist to make a positive impact on the Twin Cities and healthcare, respectively. Innovating in how we use our talents helps Fathom team members to explore new skills, get energized with new perspectives, and try out interesting ideas that might someday apply to a client project.

Impact for the community ...

Our community impact program is monitored by an internal working group that tracks activities, measures progress against goals, and brings awareness to ongoing efforts.  A few highlights from the last 12 months include:

  • Preparing and serving a healthy meal for families living at the Ronald McDonald House
  • Hosting a day-long meeting of Kata practitioners to learn about scientific thinking
  • Workshopping ideas to increase member engagement at Impact Hub MSP
  • Facilitating a co-creation session with local seniors to find innovative ideas to support those aging at home

… and for Fathom

  • Our commitment to living out our mission of achieving meaningful change in the community has not only been beneficial to others, but has also helped fuel our success as an organization:
  • Aligning work with personal passions has helped employees see their values reflected in their workplace culture—which is key to retaining talented, passionate people.

Stepping outside our day-to-day projects has enabled us to think in new ways, get different perspectives, become exposed to new ideas, and connect to diverse people and ways of working. As consultants, we thrive on that!

When I step back and look at the learning, professional satisfaction and growth, and connections to people (including future clients and employees!) that are a direct result of our community impact initiative, it becomes clear that we are getting out just as much as we are putting in.