About Throughline Consulting
Throughline Consulting was founded in 2026 to provide strategic grant consulting for nonprofits filling the gaps left by federal policy changes and funding cuts. We help organizations most impacted to build sustainable grant funding strategies in a landscape that keeps shifting under them.
About Nicole →
Nicole Verdes (they/them)
Nicole's career has been defined by one specific and hard-won skill: building the grant strategies that allow under-resourced organizations to do the work they were meant to do. As a grant writer for San Diego Pride, they wrote some of the organization's largest grants in its history. The opportunity to apply that skill in a consulting model — where they can bring it to bear for multiple organizations simultaneously — is exactly the kind of evolution she's been working toward.
They previously served as the inaugural Executive Director of a nonprofit focused on collecting and preserving queer and trans history in the San Diego–Tijuana region, where they tripled the organization's annual operating budget over the course of their tenure.
In addition to that role, they have served on the Executive Committee of the San Diego LGBT Community Center's Young Professionals Council, as a member of the Steering Committee for Rising Arts Leaders San Diego, on Diversionary Theatre's Community Advisory Council, as a California Archives Coalition member, and currently serves as board treasurer of Moxie Theatre. They have presented on topics such as Youth Archival Futures at the ALMS Conference in Berlin and served as a panelist for the California Arts Council's Administrators of Color Fellowship initiative. Nicole holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sociology and a grant writing certificate from San Diego State University.
Connect with Nicole on Linkedin.
Who We Serve & Values
Throughline Consulting operates from the starting point that every human being deserves dignity.
We prioritize working with nonprofits serving queer and trans communities, immigrant and refugee communities, BIPOC-led organizations, small arts and culture nonprofits, organizations serving women fleeing domestic violence and people experiencing homelessness, nonprofits advocating for youth, and programs with a focus on accessibility.
We understand that some systems are designed to cause harm to the communities we serve. Because of that, we don't work with programs that collaborate in any way with immigration enforcement or other entities that perpetuate harm to these communities - at our discretion.
A Note on AI
Throughline Consulting does not use AI to write grant applications or grant reports. Every proposal and report we produce is written by a human, grounded in your organization's voice, mission, and story.
At times, we use Instrumentl, a grant research platform, to help identify potential funders for our clients. Instrumentl's matching feature uses AI to analyze funder data against an organization's mission and priorities, which helps us surface relevant opportunities more efficiently. We use this tool strictly for funder research and prospecting, never for drafting content. The writing itself is always ours.