What are we trying to accomplish at Rachel Cahill Consulting?
Welcome to our new blog!
We hope to use this space to help current and future partners learn more about us, our philosophy, and our work. For the last seven years, Rachel Cahill and team have been working hand-in-hand with local, state, and national anti-hunger organizations as consultants, thought partners, and “do-ers” to help expand organizational capacity for high-impact policy advocacy. As Rachel’s team has grown, it's more important than ever to be clear about what we are trying to accomplish and why we are seeking to do so as a consulting firm (vs. as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization).
What we do
Rachel Cahill Consulting, LLC (RCC) is a boutique policy and advocacy consulting firm based in Cleveland, OH. The RCC team supports anti-hunger advocates through customized coaching and training, technical assistance, strategy development, and project management to maximize their impact. The RCC team is known for our deep expertise in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), track record of administrative advocacy effectiveness, and expertise operating in politically conservative environments. If you work at a non-profit organization that believes strengthening SNAP is a critical strategy for ending hunger, we want to support you!
Why we do it
RCC exists to add capacity to the many mission-driven organizations who are fighting every day to end hunger and poverty in the United States. In the near term, the RCC team is laser-focused on making our nation’s most important anti-hunger program, SNAP, the most effective, accessible, and equitable program it can be in every community. In the long term, we are committed to helping to build political will for a society and economy without food insecurity, so we no longer need programs like SNAP to supplement low wages. We firmly believe it is possible to live in a society that ensures every human being has enough nutritious food for an active and healthy life.
How we do it
Two things the anti-hunger advocacy space desperately needs more of: resources and capacity, especially at the state and local levels. Sadly, we don’t currently have the level of staffing and depth of expertise necessary in every state and U.S. territory to advocate for high-impact policy changes. Local organizations are starved for resources, and when one experienced advocate leaves, years of accumulated knowledge disappears.
As consultants, we step in to help organizations accomplish ambitious goals when existing advocacy teams do not yet exist or are over-capacity. Some projects last 4-6 months, while others last 2-3 years. In every project, our goal is to help support and grow local policy advocates so they are well-equipped to lead SNAP policy advocacy efforts for years to come. We are deeply committed to diversifying the anti-hunger policy advocacy sector and elevating the voices of advocates with lived expertise who have been sidelined or tokenized in the past.
Outside of our client work, we also advocate for long-term investments in local advocacy ecosystems that are essential for meaningful and lasting change. Because we are “organizationally agnostic” in the anti-hunger space, we can clearly see where additional resources are most needed to advance equitable access to SNAP and when fresh strategies and tactics need to be explored. (I’ll be writing more on this in a future blog post!)
We are proud of the work we do and grateful to be able to partner with anti-hunger champions around the country. Please subscribe to our blog below to learn more about our work, our partners, our rockstar team, why we love administrative advocacy, and more!