We are Connective Bridge Strategies. Straightforward, honest, philanthropic practitioners.
Our
Values
Candor
Good decisions depend on good information. We share what we see directly and honestly, including the difficult tradeoffs and hard truths that shape strong strategy. Our perspective is shaped by experience on both sides of the funding relationship, as the practitioners who deliver the work. That unique perspective offered to our clients a level of insight and directness few advisors can, naming what matters early and advising with clarity rather than caution.
Trust
We are entrusted with sensitive information across funders, nonprofits, and public agencies, and we treat that responsibility as the foundation of our practice. We hold confidences, disclose conflicts, and act with the integrity that long-term partnerships require.
Stewardship
We approach every engagement as stewards of the resources involved, public and philanthropic alike. Our work is built to be accountable, compliant, and durable, ensuring that funding translates into measurable, long-term impact.
Rigor
We ground our strategy in the realities of budgets, timelines, and the environments our clients operate in. Practitioner experience keeps our counsel practical, credible, and ready to withstand scrutiny.
OUR PEOPLE
Our team of professionals are practitioners who have worked every side of the funding relationship.
Harmony Rhodes
Principal Consultant
Harmony Rhodes is a strategist dedicated to advancing opportunity. With over 15 years of experience, she brings a practitioner's perspective to systems-level change bridging on-the-ground realities, philanthropy, and policy to create the conditions for communities to thrive. She has worked as both funder and grantee, and got her start as a youth grant recipient.
Most recently a Program Officer at Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Harmony stewarded over $30 million portfolio spanning education, youth development, economic mobility, health, environment, and civil society. Earlier, at the DTE Foundation, she helped direct a $40 million multi-state COVID-19 rapid-response initiative. She has also administered federal funds giving her fluency across philanthropic, government, and community systems. A trained fundraiser and instructor with Grand Valley State University's Johnson Center for Philanthropy.
Barry N. Checkoway
Senior Advisor
Professor Barry Checkoway is an internationally-recognized scholar and practitioner on youth empowerment, neighborhood development, and community change. His projects and publications draw on work with grassroots groups, community agencies, and government programs in the South Bronx, Detroit, Mississippi Delta, central Appalachia; and in South America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, with support from the World Health Organization, Ford Foundation, Kellogg Foundation and other institutions.
He worked with the White House in 1990 to launch AmeriCorps, then served as founding director of the Michigan Neighborhood AmeriCorps Program, Edward Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning, Michigan Youth and Community Program, and Youth Dialogues on Race and Ethnicity.
Our Home
harmonyjrhodes@gmail.com
(734) 309-0474
1420 Washington Blvd #301
Detroit, MI 48226
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