"Thaler is a communications genius with an uncanny ability to help us apply her brilliant insights to help solve our problems. I could not imagine writing a more heartfelt recommendation for someone in this field. Thaler is a strong leader with an insanely great ability to see 'through' a problem or challenge and create a story-based communications strategy to tackle the issue."

"She is fun to work with and obviously bright but not ego driven. It has been a privilege to work with her each time we have hired her. What I love most about her is that much of what she does is value-driven. She has a strong set of personal values that drive her life and for which I have great respect. Thaler is the real deal."

George Heindrichs
President and CEO
Intrado

 

"WOW is the first thing that comes to mind. WOW, what a session that was. I'm sure you felt it too, but I can confirm that everyone loved your session and the time they had with you. It was thought-provoking, it was imminently applicable and it was fun, great job."

James Heffernan
The Jedi Group Consultoria
Brazil

 

"Enterprise has always struggled with how to communicate with individual donors. Our main challenge was how we take the extremely complicated and multifaceted work that we do and make it accessible to individuals not working in our field. Thaler immersed herself deeply in Enterprise’s work and in our culture to develop messages that would work for us. She taught us to acknowledge who we are and all of our complexities. Through her work, Thaler provided us with a framework that is enabling us to effectively communicate our core beliefs and messages in a way that resonates with many donor audiences. Our staff, our board and our volunteers learned a great deal about how to effectively communicate with donors. It's been inspiring to see people transformed through the process."

Vicky Hernandez
Director of Fundraising and Public Relations
Enterprise Community Partners, Inc

 

All of Third Wave's staff really appreciated Thaler's workshop, and we all felt that she did a wonderful job taking us through the material and addressing our (many) questions along the way! I would highly recommend Thaler to
any organization looking to develop their communications skills in a
wide variety of areas. She is extremely knowledgeable and a pleasure
to work with!

Tara Ellison
Deputy Director
Third Wave Foundation

 

"Just wanted to send a quick e-mail to thank you again for the really excellent training. You were phenomenally well prepared. On Friday one of the staff members thanked me. She admitted she had been sort of dreading it in part because she expected some generic unhelpful training. She said she was so pleasantly surprised by how much you knew about our organization and how tailored the training was to our work. Of course, I was not surprised. You were really terrific."

Lynn Paltrow, JD
Executive Director
National Advocates for Pregnant Women

 

"I asked Thaler to help me moderate a panel for a professional organization I belong to. Sounds simple, doesn't it? I plotted out what I wanted to say, wrote down my introductions and connections between panelists but it sounded flat. Thaler's suggestions made the panel come to life and she allowed me to enjoy my role. Her help gave me the confidence I needed and now I look forward to my next moderating or speaking role. And I will certainly call upon Thaler again for her help."

Joan Allman
First Vice President
Ambac

 

"You're absolutely right; this story sharing does matter a great deal. Donors responded immediately!"

Nancy Biberman
Founder and President
Women's Housing and
Economic Development Corporation (WHEDCo)

 

"Thaler helped me relax and realize that being myself on camera was not only possible, but powerful. Her coaching helped me uncover the stories at the heart of my approach to cooking and hospitality. Working with Thaler helped me with a presentation to American Express customers, and it helps me each time I do interviews and prepare to step outside of the kitchen – including my appearances on Iron Chef America and Top Chef."

April Bloomfield
Executive Chef
The Spotted Pig and The John Dory

 

"Your questions were so insightful that they got us to the heart of values and concepts almost immediately, and I can't remember when I more enjoyed a conversation."

"So it was even more enlightening when you took what you had learned from that conversation with me and those with other board and staff members and shaped them into programs for all of us on how to better present the mission of our organization to listeners of every kind – reporters, potential contributors, web-site readers and even someone with whom we share a quick elevator ride. In the process, we even learned how better to communicate among ourselves."

"I think your skill has a lot to do with how well you listen. By example and straightforward feedback, you have helped us listen better as well. "

Rabbi Jack Moline
Chair
Interfaith Alliance

 

"Thaler Pekar is one of the ablest and most professional people I have worked with in the academic and foundation worlds. She is all the things you want when you hire an expert to assist with an important project, in my case increasing the impact in this country and abroad of the Ford Foundation's grantmaking in the field of religion.

"Thaler is highly intelligent and very skilled in communications and media work. When I send her to work with demanding grantees, they invariably speak enthusiastically about her ability and how much she helped them. Some of these grantees are bestselling, internationally known authors and senior Harvard faculty with high expectations.

"She is not only fully reliable in terms of getting work done, but she is also scrupulously ethical and attentive to my needs and time. Working with her always makes my job easier and more effective, which is the best thing a consultant can do."

Constance H. Buchanan
Former Senior Program Officer
The Ford Foundation

 

"Thaler, what impressed me about your talk was the strategy and structure you brought to what, for many of us communications types, is an intuitive endeavor. Many of us are natural storytellers, and we do it by feel...without really analyzing how. I think you helped us to know, in a deeper way, what we’re doing. You seem to be the rare natural athlete who can coach."

Anthony D’Angelo
Director, Operations
St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center Foundation

 

"I want you to know that your session could not have come at a more appropriate time. I received a wonderful honor last Friday night. The alumni association of Nebraska Wesleyan University awarded me the Medal of Honor at dinner during the Homecoming Festivities. I had to give a 3-minute "speech" when I received the award. I had my remarks planned, in fact had submitted them to the alumni committee. I did not feel good about them, but just okay. I attended your breakout session, and when required by you to give a three minute speech, I told the story of Robbie. I decided to throw out the remarks I had prepared for the award ceremony. Instead, I told the story of Robbie almost exactly as I told it in your session. I only added that I was grateful to NWU for encouraging my dream to be a teacher and giving me the knowledge and teaching me the skills, which prepared me to work with an incredible little boy. I told the story in more detail but it was easy for me to tell, even in front of 250-300 people. I was the last to receive an award, and therefore, the last to speak. Ms. Pekar, I felt wonderful after telling the story because I felt it was a way to honor a courageous, delightful little boy, a little boy who loved every minute of life, no matter how short that life was. Many people came up to me after the event and told me how they were touched by the story. Some had tears in their eyes. A physician told me "thank you" for telling the story. He said, he knows how it feels to be with a child like Robbie."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Lindy Garner Mullin
Nebraska

 

"I was most impressed with your session last week at the NJ NonProfit conference. I’ve sent your PhilanTopic post along to people at a couple of organizations that I work with. I think your work gets to the heart of what “Story Sharing” is all about – the people who work with and for Non-Profits and what happens in their lives as a result. The more we share and understand each other, the more we can live together successfully, and after all, each of us is just one great story after another!"

Dave Gilbert
CPCU
Insurance Consulting for Non-Profits

 

"Too often, the biggest way for non-profit organizations to throw away money is to spend it on communications consultants. Thaler, however, possesses the integrity and intelligence to ensure high return on your investment."

Suzie Armstrong
Former Vice President
Interfaith Alliance

 

"We hired Thaler to run a strategic communications training component of a national/international physician advocacy leadership program. Not only did she receive great reviews from the participants (neurologists from more than 20 states and 4 other countries), her dedication to really understanding our needs before the program was truly impressive. Thaler did something that is not typical of outside consultants -- she showed real intellectual curiosity in our issues and the challenges faced by our physicians. She was able to not only train the participants, but tie the training very effectively to issues that make them tick. That's a value-added that is hard to come by."

Eric Hauth
Program Director, Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Forum
American Academy of Neurology

 

"I was at the leadership conference last year and thought your presentation was incredible, and this year was even better. I really appreciate that you work hard to continually better the presentation."

Jess Barber
Eastern Virginia Medical School

 

"Thaler is a quick study and a valuable strategic intellectual resource. She doesn't work in a cookie cutter manner like many seasoned consultants sometimes do, but instead jumps in with both feet and has a unique ability to sort through complexity to get at the root of an issue or problem and then work quickly to help address it. She's a solution provider!"

Becky Lentz
Former Program Officer
Ford Foundation

 

"I have had the pleasure of working with and learning from Thaler over a period of several years. With no reticence, I consider her to be the brightest and most trustworthy communications expert with whom I have worked. Thaler is good both with ideas as well as with methods of implementation. She is skilled in framing a message and inculcating the disciplined delivery of that message. Most recently, Thaler assisted Interfaith Alliance with a communications audit and the subsequent development of an insightful, practical strategic communications plan. She has been extremely helpful in our launch and now in our production of Interfaith Alliance's radio show, State of Belief, on Air America Radio. Thaler consistently exceeds my expectations of a consultant in terms of her availability, commitment, energy and a desire both to learn about the organization and to enable others to know and appreciate the organization. She is highly respected by, and works well with, our Board, our staff, our local members, our communications media, and our audiences."

Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy
Interfaith Alliance and Interfaith Alliance Foundation

 

"The exercises were great, providing an immediate opportunity to practice using the messages Thaler helped us craft. Learning from other people's presentations was also helpful. There was a lot of opportunity to talk about content, and the issues our organization is concerned with. Very good blend of didactic training and participation. Another plus: Thaler is so familiar with our organization's work and mission and passionate about these issues - she made this focused, productive, engaging and inspiring."

Lydia Pace
University of California San Francisco School of Medicine
Harvard School of Public Health

 

"Thaler Pekar has been a steadfast and reliable force in our fight to end the use of high stakes tests as the sole determinant for graduation from high school. I have come to appreciate her straightforward and honest approach in all of our dealings.

"Thaler always keeps you on message even when you desperately want to veer away from it. She also has a gentle but firm touch in helping you see your mistakes in order to make your communication even stronger.

"We won the initial battle and we did so with the public relations help of Thaler's smarts, dedication, commitment and friendship."

Jane Hirschmann, Co-Chair
Time Out From Testing

 

“Thaler Pekar has provided my organization with strategic and practical advice on our public relations and press work. I find Thaler amazingly smart, strategic, honest and diplomatic. She moves quickly and shares her wisdom readily. When she's not sure what she thinks, she reflects and considers. Her instincts are solid and she always responds to our ideas (whether they're good or bad) in a way that puts the organization first.”

Leanne A. Grossman,
Former Director of Communications
Global Fund for Women

 

"Your session was engaging and extremely valuable. Everyone in attendance benefited tremendously from your insights and expertise, and I'm certain that participants will be able to put your ideas to good use right away!"

Linda M. Czipo
Executive Director
Center for Non-Profits

 

"Working with Thaler is WONDERFUL!!!! She and her team are beyond compare! Thaler understands the story angles and she gives concrete, practical advice that is easily translated into improved media presence and confidence. She and her team, by far, are the only people I want to work with."

Vanessa Cullins, MD
Vice President for Medical Affairs
Planned Parenthood Federation of America