Silos solve pieces.Systems solve problems.
We help governments, foundations, family offices, NGOs and corporations connect the people, programs and money that siloed work keeps apart. We take ideas all the way to measurable impact, then keep refining until the outcomes hold.
Good programs, working alone
Fragmented funding
Agencies and funders invest in separate pieces of the same problem, each with its own rules and reports.
Duplicated effort
Partners compete for the same dollars and the same people, and gaps between programs go unseen.
Results that end with the grant
Without shared ownership and infrastructure, progress stops when the funding cycle does.
The biggest risk right now is doing nothing
Siloed systems are expensive to keep, expensive to maintain, and they create bigger problems that cost even more to fix later. Governments, foundations, family offices, NGOs and corporations are all paying for the same broken systems. If a change can’t show a return, it shouldn’t happen. So we start with the numbers.
We pay for the same problem again and again
Hunger shows up in the health budget, the school budget and the emergency room. When programs work alone, each one pays for the consequences of the others, and no one sees the full bill.
Waiting makes the bill bigger
Every year an outdated system is patched instead of fixed, the cost of repair grows: lost farmland, aging infrastructure, rising chronic disease and programs that never reach the people they were built for.
Change has to pay for itself
We build the business case before the plan: what the current system really costs, what the new one will save or earn, and how quickly the return shows up, in this budget cycle and the next ten years.
One system problem. Every sector paying for it.
Tax dollars should buy results, not repeat costs. We show where spending in one department creates savings or costs in another, so public budgets fund what works and stop paying twice for what doesn’t.
Philanthropy can fund the shift, not just the patch. We help foundations invest in the connections between grantees, so the system improves instead of grantees running to keep up with it.
Patient capital can take the long view systems change needs. We build the case for investments that return financially and change how the system works, with the numbers to prove both.
Stop running harder just to stand still. We help nonprofits move from programs built around old systems to partnerships that shrink the problem, and show funders the difference.
Profit depends on the resources underneath it. We show the short-term returns and the long-term risk in your own numbers, so sustainability is a business decision, not a donation.
No farms, no food. No resources, no profit.
Sustainability is not charity, and it isn’t optional. No business can manufacture without raw materials, no community eats without farms and farmers, and no budget balances while the problems keep growing. Protecting the resources everything runs on is how profits, public budgets and missions all survive the next decade.
From ideas to impact, and back again
Ideas become strategy. Strategy becomes action. Action becomes impact. Impact becomes insight that sharpens the next round. We stay with the work through every stage, so it keeps moving toward the outcomes you want.
Ideas
Map the system, bring the right people together and agree on what matters most.
Systems Scan · ConveningsStrategy
Turn ideas into a shared plan with goals, owners, governance and a budget.
Silo-to-System StrategyImplementation
Turn the plan into work plans, partners, infrastructure and capital that run on Monday morning.
Implementation supportImpact
Track the outcomes agreed at the start, so results show up while the work is running.
Outcomes frameworkReporting
Build the data systems that connect programs, then report where money went, what it returned and what it saved elsewhere.
Data systems · Impact reportingAnalysis
Review all of the work, keep what works, fix what doesn’t and feed it back into strategy.
Learning reviewsStage 6 loops back to Stage 2. Every cycle sharpens the strategy and moves the work closer to the impact you set out to make.
The right people in the room
Good outcomes start with knowing who needs to be in the conversation and making it easy for them to show up.
Structure that frees people up
Clear agendas, roles and decision rules let groups spend their energy on the work, not the process.
Plans that survive Monday morning
Strategy only matters if it turns into owners, timelines and next steps people actually follow.
Five practices, one team
Systems Strategy
- Systems Scan: map gaps and overlaps in 6 to 8 weeks
- Silo-to-System Strategy and 3-year roadmap
- Portfolio reviews and collaborative fund design for funders
Food Systems Design
- Regional food system assessments
- Food hub and distribution center planning, from site to capital stack
- Food is Health and SNAP incentive program design
- Farmland access and farmer pipeline models
Community Building
- Stakeholder mapping and outreach plans
- Initiatives alignment convenings that connect separate programs
- Coalition and collective impact design, from common agenda to backbone
- Partner networks and technical assistance for small organizations
Facilitation & Convening
- Meeting and retreat facilitation
- Community and stakeholder convenings for 20 to 100+ people
- Advisory board and commission support
Data Systems, Reporting & ROI
- Shared data and IT systems that connect agencies, partners and programs
- Outcomes frameworks agreed before the work starts
- Investment tracking that shows where every dollar goes and what it returns
- Cross-program ROI: when food costs rise in one budget, see the savings in health, housing and other programs
- Dashboards, funder reports and learning reviews that feed the next strategy
Show what every investment returns across the whole system
Siloed budgets hide the payoff. A dollar spent on healthy food can show up as savings in health care, emergency services or housing support. We build the data systems that make those connections visible, so leaders can defend the investments that work.
Track the investment
Connect budgets, grants and program data so every dollar can be followed to the people and places it reaches.
Measure across programs
Follow outcomes beyond the program that paid for them, into health, housing, workforce and public safety.
Prove the return
Report system-wide ROI to boards, funders and the public, and use it to decide what to grow, fix or stop.
Built for everyone who funds and runs the system
Governments
Federal, state and local agencies making tax dollars work across departments instead of paying twice for the same problem.
Foundations & family offices
Philanthropic and patient capital that wants to change how systems work, not just fill the gaps they leave.
NGOs
Nonprofits ready to stop keeping up with broken systems and start working together to shrink the problem.
Corporations
Companies that need resilient supply chains, healthy communities and a business case for sustainability that pays.
We have built these systems ourselves
in city, county and federal funding for a market and distribution center in a West Charlotte food desert
square feet of food infrastructure: commercial kitchen, wholesale, retail and teaching space
urban farms built in the Charlotte region, with farmer apprenticeships and farmland access programs
founding of Carolina Farm Trust, a regional food system effort from farmland to plate
Who you’ll work with
Zack Wyatt
Founder & Principal · Systems Strategy & Food Systems
Founder, President and CEO of Carolina Farm Trust. Zack has spent a decade building local food infrastructure, from farmland access and farmer apprenticeships to a publicly funded distribution center, and financing it across public, philanthropic and private capital.
Community building & facilitation
Zack works with a certified facilitator and community builder who brings more than a decade of experience connecting governments, nonprofits and residents: collective impact and coalition design, facilitated convenings from small boards to 100+ people, stakeholder and public engagement, and shared measurement across partner networks.
Tell us what isn’t connecting yet
A 45-minute discovery call is free. We will listen, ask a few hard questions, and tell you plainly whether we can help.
Based in Cornelius and Charlotte, North Carolina. Working with partners in the US and Europe.