FAQs

It depends on your needs, but typically we can place an expert with most organizations in as quickly as a few days. Our quick turnaround time is among the best in the industry.  If a more urgent need arises, we also have consultants able to jump in with new engagements immediately – on the same day or within 24 hours.

Our team acts as a thought partner to you from the beginning to determine what type of resources you are looking for and how long we anticipate the engagement lasting.  If your needs change, we have the flexibility to shift course during an engagement to make sure you have the right expertise on board for the right amount of time.

All of our client engagements begin with a detailed conversation so we can get to know your business and help you determine the resources you need. We’ve helped clients in a wide variety of industries narrow down exactly the skills and expertise they are looking for, and we welcome the opportunity to speak with you about your needs and help you navigate the process.

Many of our clients set out to fill a short-term role but are so impressed with our experts that they make an offer for a full-time position. In this case, your organization simply pays Canopy a finder’s fee. This process allows you to gauge the capabilities and cultural fit of an expert before making a commitment to a full-time hire.

We are proud of our team of more than 100 experts, and a large portion of them have held C-suite roles in the corporate world. Give us a call to discuss the skills and experience you are seeking and we can help you find the best person for the role.

We have a number of clients who have needed this functionality from our team, and we are proud to offer a diverse group of talented experts who can easily work together to get the best results for your business or nonprofit.

We think of ourselves as the inverse of a standard recruiter. A recruiter seeks to fill a specific role by casting a wide net among a sea of professionals (many of whom they don’t know and find only on LinkedIn). Alternatively, most of our experts come to us from professional referrals — our team personally meets with each expert and puts them through a rigorous vetting process, trains them on the Canopy values and then seeks out opportunities that fit their skill set and passions. Our process is a personal, relationship-driven one where we get to know your business needs and introduce you to someone from our team with the right combination of skills and experience. If you are looking to make a full-time hire, our model allows you to “try out” an expert to determine his/her capabilities and cultural fit before you commit to bringing someone on board long term.

Over the years, we have found that the best people come to us by word of mouth. Top performers tend to get noticed, and thankfully we have many industry contacts referring the best of the best to us. We’ve been in business in the Denver area for more than a decade, and we have established contacts in every corner of the business and nonprofit worlds.

All of our experts have an average of 10 – 15 years of professional experience at some of the nation’s top companies and cultural institutions, so we know they are capable of doing the work. But more than that, we look for people with impeccable recommendations, a top-notch education, and a can-do team oriented style so that we can confidently recommend them to any of our clients.

We only accept a fraction of the candidates who apply, so we’ve found that our vetting process is one of the industry’s most rigorous. We start with an online questionnaire, then conduct an in person interview and ask each applicant to complete a cognitive and personality screening test. We also offer group trainings and professional development opportunities so that our team continues to deliver best-in-class work, but our process is primarily relationship-driven as we have found that collaborating directly with our clients to find just the right person yields the best results.

Most of our experts are located in the Denver Metro Area, but many are also sprinkled around the country in Seattle, Washington, DC and other metro areas and most of our experts are available for engagements that require travel to other cities for face-to-face meetings.

Based on the scope of work, the process can look different for each arrangement, but whenever possible, we encourage our clients and experts to regularly meet in person. Most of our experts do a significant amount of the work from their home office and schedule weekly or bi-weekly meetings with clients in person. However, some of our experts fill gaps in full time roles (maternity leaves or interim roles) and these experts work from the client office on a daily basis.

We encourage feedback from clients throughout the process, and we are always available to provide support and guidance. We maintain a regular cadence with each client throughout the engagement to ensure the work is going smoothly. More formally, we also send a brief survey link to collect feedback on a consultant immediately after each monthly invoice.

We realize that when we have such a strong team of experts, sometimes our clients want to hire them permanently! That’s okay, and we’ve made the process easy by allowing our clients to hire their expert in exchange for a reasonable finder’s fee.

This is an area where Canopy shines. We work hard to ensure that every client is not just happy but thrilled with the work of their expert. Along with handling the on-boarding paperwork and billing, we check in regularly and act as a sounding board throughout the process. We are here to increase or decrease the scope, as necessary, and also to assist with expanding or contracting the team of experts as new needs arise.

We bill most of our clients monthly with net 15-day payment terms and ask for payment online via Bill.com. Of course, if your organization requires a different billing set up we are always flexible and happy to accommodate that.

Most of our experts bill on an hourly basis or a monthly retainer, but we also conduct many projects on a fixed fee basis when such an arrangement is most logical. We work with our clients up front to understand the billing style they prefer and then structure the arrangement to best meet these needs.

We quote you with a market-based hourly or fixed fee rate for your expert and that’s all you pay! There are no hidden fees and no extra charges to utilize our team to connect you with vetted experts and manage the process of working with them.

Please fill out our online consultant intake form [here]. If you’re a highly qualified consultant in your field with at least a decade of experience, we’d love to hear from you. Once we connect, we’ll review your resume and get in touch. 

In our experience, people choose their line of work because it’s where their passion lies, but after years in the corporate world, some find they spend a significant portion of their time doing other tasks that don’t align with their passion. Choosing to be an independent expert at Canopy allows a highly qualified professional to focus specifically on doing the work they truly love, but without the daily grind of the corporate world.

We may be biased, but we think the benefits are pretty extraordinary! Our experts tell us what they love to do—what genuinely fuels them—and we do all the rest. We connect them with clients looking for their skills and knowledge, and then we handle all of the paperwork and billing. They can spend more time on their passion and less time building a consulting business. And, through our quarterly social and professional development events, our experts get to connect with other highly qualified professionals even outside of their industry, which greatly expands their professional network.