Connecting Dots & Strategies
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Three ways to work together. One system underneath.

Every engagement runs on the Navigating Change framework: seven domains deciding whether a community investment moves from idea to impact. Start free, scale when you are ready, or learn the method yourself this fall.

Please note: Connecting Dots and Strategies LLC operates independently of the Houston Land Bank and does not accept Harris County engagements at this time.

Which fits you?

Foundation or community investment funder

Placing place-based capital, aligning stakeholders.

Readiness ScoreInvestment MapExecutive Advisory

Public agency, land bank, or CDC

A project is stalled between vision and implementation.

Readiness ScoreInvestment MapFunding Navigator

Nonprofit, faith institution, or CDC hunting funding

Real programs waiting on real dollars.

Readiness ScoreFunding Navigator

Executive already mid-decision

You need judgment now, not a full engagement.

Executive AdvisoryReadiness Score

Conference organizer, board chair, program lead

Booking a speaker or building a learning program.

SpeakingBook Series

Step 01

Assess

The Readiness Score shows you where you stand. Free, 15 minutes.

Learn about the Readiness Score

Step 02

Decide

The Investment Map turns competing priorities into a decision your board and funders stand behind. 90 days.

Explore the Investment Map

Step 03

Fund

The Funding Navigator finds the funding, scores your readiness, and prepares the applications. Modular and done for you.

See the Funding Navigator
Coming Fall 2026

Learn

The Navigating Change Series puts the full framework in your hands. Seven volumes.

Join the launch list

Diagnostic, Free, Available Now

Navigating Change, Readiness Score

A conversational assessment that scores your organization's ability to move ideas into implementation across Mission, Research, Stakeholders, Advocacy, Real Estate, Funding, and Legacy. About 10 to 15 minutes. Personalized report at the end.

Take the assessment

What you walk away with

  • An overall readiness score and tier
  • Seven category scores with rationale
  • Strongest area, biggest risk, biggest opportunity
  • A recommended focus area and next step
  • A personalized summary you can download

Your score comes with a recommended next step. For most teams, the gap is either the decision or the dollars. We built an engagement for each.

Weak on alignment? See The Investment MapWeak on funding? See The Funding Navigator

Flagship Engagement. Fixed Scope.

The Investment Map

An AI-powered decision engagement for organizations funding place-based change. Stakeholder-aligned. Funder-ready. Accountable.

90days
Christa Stoneham on a call reviewing investment strategy
Photo credit: Rious Photography

The problem

You hold the budget and the will to move. What you lack is a defensible path. Competing priorities pull in different directions. Stakeholders are not aligned. The tradeoffs stay unclear. Plans sit while neighborhoods wait.

Who this is for

Foundations and community investment organizations putting capital into place-based development, and the public-sector partners who move alongside them. Built to serve the residents and neighborhoods every dollar is meant to reach.

The 90-day arc

1–30

Days

Discovery

Goals, stakeholders, opportunities, and risks, mapped.

31–60

Days

Scenarios

Options weighed side by side, choice documented.

61–90

Days

Roadmap

Alignment secured, implementation pathway locked.

What is included

  1. Community Investment Discovery

    Working sessions plus a written assessment of goals, stakeholders, opportunities, and risks.

  2. Decision Environment

    A custom scenario tool built on your data. Compare investment options side by side, with cost per outcome. A hosted link your team keeps, with board-ready exports.

  3. Stakeholder Map and Engagement Sequence

    Decision makers, community voices, partners, and blockers, named and ordered.

  4. Implementation Roadmap

    Phases, partner roles, funding sequence, and execution steps for the year after the decision.

  5. Strategic Advisory

    Working sessions and office hours across the engagement.

Why this works

  • Speed. AI builds the scenarios in days, not quarters.
  • Judgment. Two decades of deals, capital, and community practice shaped this system, and I lead every engagement personally.
  • Voice. Community priorities sit inside the decision, not after the fact.

The outcomes

  • A decision your board and funders stand behind: where to invest, at what level, in what order.
  • One shared picture: staff, board, funders, and community on the same map and the same numbers.
  • A roadmap ready to execute the day the engagement ends.
Book a discovery call

Funding Service. Modular. Done for You.

The Funding Navigator

We find the funding, score your readiness, and prepare the applications. You receive finished documents, never software to learn. Buy one module or all three.

3modules
Christa presenting a funding strategy session
Photo credit: Eduardo Hernandez Lopez

The problem

Grant deadlines drive your calendar instead of your mission. Your team applies to what appears rather than what fits, and the opportunities matched to what you are ready to win pass by unseen. Meanwhile the writing falls on whoever has the least room to carry another deadline.

Who this is for

Nonprofits, public agencies, community development corporations, land banks, faith institutions, and place-based organizations with real programs waiting on real dollars.

The three modules

bought in any combination

Readiness and Onboarding

One-time

A deep intake builds your organization profile and scores what you are ready to win and manage. You receive a written profile and a readiness scorecard with your funding tier and the gaps to close. Everything else runs on this.

Grant Radar

One-time snapshot or ongoing weekly report

A nationwide search for mission-aligned funding, matched to your organization and readiness tier, with fit scores, deadlines, and links. Your pipeline arrives instead of being hunted.

Application Support

Per opportunity

For a chosen grant, the full package: a strategy and fit call, the written draft, and the budget, from a foundation letter of inquiry to a full federal proposal.

Full-Service Retainer: all three, ongoing, for organizations pursuing funding continuously.

How we work

Ethics-first, relationship-first.

  • We prepare, you submit, so your name stays on your funder relationships.
  • We never contact funders on your behalf.
  • Post-award compliance and reporting stay with your team.
  • We never price as a percentage of the award, which violates professional ethics codes and gets rejected by funders.

The outcomes

  • You know exactly what you are ready to win before a single application goes out.
  • A steady pipeline of matched, scored opportunities with deadlines and links.
  • Submission-ready applications, written and budgeted, delivered as finished documents.

The Investment Map decides where to invest. The Funding Navigator wins the funding. Start where your gap is.

Book a discovery call

Executive Community Investment Advisory

Ongoing counsel for leaders navigating live decisions: a board vote, a funder negotiation, a site under contract, a public process about to turn. Structured working sessions and direct access, scoped to your season. For leaders who have been through an engagement, or whose situation calls for judgment before anything else.

Start a conversation

When this fits

  • A decision is live and the stakes are high.
  • You need a thought partner, not a full engagement.
  • You have already been through an Investment Map or Funding Navigator engagement and want continuity.

Coming Fall 2026, Waitlist Open

Navigating Change, Book Series

The Navigating Change Series puts the full method on paper: Mission and Vision, Research and Historical Context, Stakeholder Mapping, Advocacy and Activation, Real Estate and Development Pathways, Fundraising and Capital Strategy, and Succession and Legacy Leadership. Each volume pairs the framework with exercises, worksheets, and interviews from the field. Built for the leaders doing the work, not watching the work.

7volumes

Be first to know when Volume One ships.

The seven volumes

  • Mission and Vision
  • Research and Historical Context
  • Stakeholder Mapping
  • Advocacy and Activation
  • Real Estate and Development Pathways
  • Fundraising and Capital Strategy
  • Succession and Legacy Leadership

Speaking & Partnerships

Bring the framework to your stage.

Keynotes, panels, board retreats, and executive sessions on navigating change in community investment. I speak to housing, philanthropy, government, real estate, and higher education audiences nationwide.

Inquire about speaking
Christa speaking to a live audience
Photo credit: Eduardo Hernandez Lopez

Signature talks

  • Reclaiming the Redline: rewriting the map of community investment
  • From Vision to Implementation: the seven domains of readiness
  • Aligning Capital with Community: what funders and leaders both miss
  • Building a Legacy System: succession planning for civic infrastructure

Selected engagements

  • 2024U.S. Housing & Community Development ConferenceSpeaker
  • 2023Housingpalooza, Houston Association of REALTORS Housing SymposiumPanelist
  • 2022Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference, Center for Community ProgressSession speaker
  • OngoingBoard of Directors, Center for Community ProgressNational platform