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Nicole & Co.
About the firm

Boutique by design. Built for the village.

A. Nicole & Company is a strategy and resource consulting firm founded on a simple premise: mission-driven leaders deserve consultants who move with the same care they bring to their communities.

Queen Poole, Founder of A. Nicole & Company

Queen Poole

Founder & Principal

Based in

DC · Baltimore

Education

University of Denver

The founder

A note from Queen.

A. Nicole & Company did not begin as a consulting firm. It began with stories.

I started this company because I have always believed stories matter — especially the ones that are often overlooked. My earliest work focused on helping individuals, organizations, and communities tell their stories with honesty, dignity, and purpose.

Over time, I noticed something bigger happening. The right story could unlock funding. It could shift how a community understood an issue. It could influence policy, attract partners, strengthen movements, and inspire people to take action. Again and again, I watched storytelling become a catalyst for real change.

By 2024, it became clear that the work had grown beyond storytelling alone. The leaders and organizations I worked with didn't just need help telling their stories. They needed help building the strategy, partnerships, funding pathways, and infrastructure that would allow those stories — and their missions — to thrive.

That realization transformed A. Nicole & Company into what it is today: a strategy, communications, and resource advisory firm operating at the intersection of storytelling, strategy, and opportunity.

We partner with nonprofits, businesses, corporations, coalitions, public-facing institutions, and mission-driven leaders who understand that meaningful impact requires more than good intentions. It requires clear strategy, trusted relationships, sustainable resources, and a story people can believe in.

Our work includes strategic communications, community engagement, funding and resource intelligence, stakeholder engagement, leadership advising, and capacity-building support designed to help organizations grow their influence and strengthen their impact.

Over the years, I've advised coalitions on positioning, supported organizations in securing funding opportunities, planned convenings that brought people together around shared goals, developed communications strategies that amplified community voices, and helped leaders connect their vision to meaningful outcomes. Most recently, my work contributed to efforts that helped secure more than $100,000 in grant funding for a community-based organization.

At our core, we still believe stories matter. We simply understand now that the right story, paired with the right strategy, can change far more than a narrative. It can change outcomes.

A. Nicole & Company exists to help make that happen.

If your work is the kind that needs to outlast the season, we’d be honored to help build what comes next.

— Q.Queen Poole, Founder & Principal
What we hold

Four values. No exceptions.

These aren't aspirations on a wall. They're the operating principles every engagement is measured against.

I

Proximity over polish

The closer we sit to the people the work serves, the better the strategy will be. We listen first. We design from the ground up.

II

Resource as inheritance

The village has always provided. Our job is to map what is already in your reach and build the bridges to access it.

III

Pace that protects

We move quickly when the work demands it, and slowly when the work deserves it. We do not confuse urgency with importance.

IV

Honesty as a deliverable

Clear feedback. Clean handoffs. Real numbers. We name the hard things because the work depends on them.

Our partners

Who we partner with.

We work best with leaders who have already done the hardest work — naming the mission. From there, we build outward.

  • 01Founders and Executive Directors of community-based nonprofits
  • 02Coalitions of three or more partner organizations
  • 03Faith-rooted and culturally-rooted initiatives
  • 04Funder collaboratives and intermediaries
  • 05Boards rebuilding strategy after a leadership transition
  • 06New ventures incubating inside an established nonprofit
Begin

If this sounds like home, let’s talk.

A 30-minute discovery call is the easiest way to know if we’re right for your next chapter. No pitch, no pressure — just a real conversation about the work.

Most engagements begin with a 30-minute fit conversation. No pitch. No pressure.