About

Northbound Ventures Consulting, LLC was established in September 2013 by co-founders Holly Fowler and Scott Richardson. We are a small, woman-owned consulting firm based in Montpelier, Vermont, where our work revolves around food systems, outdoor recreation, and community economic revitalization.

Mission

Our mission is to assist strategic change initiatives and inform development decisions aimed at improving social wellness and creating equitable opportunity for economic prosperity.

Services

Our core services include in-person and remote facilitation, strategic planning, social enterprise and network development, business management consulting, community engagement, research design, data analysis, and impact evaluation. Typical project deliverables include field-building, market analyses, feasibility studies, business plans, financial scenario models, food system and food program assessments.

Our Clients

We work with organizations, municipalities, state and federal government, food policy councils, regional planning commissions, economic development agencies (e.g., CDCs, CDFIs) and foundations.

Our clients often have ambitious goals to improve health and economic outcomes for low-income, underserved populations and areas. We are accustomed to working in places with deep and myriad challenges (e.g., high housing vacancies, limited industry and jobs, historical and systemic racism, environmental injustice, generational poverty) and likewise with multiple stakeholder groups holding diverse agendas. Northbound routinely supports communities nationwide to develop community action plans that center equitable development. 

Below is a list of communities with which we have worked since 2013, many of them through the U.S. EPA Local Foods, Local Places and Recreation Economy for Rural Communities technical assistance programs. Each community represents collaboration with many cross-sector partners.

Communities Where We’ve Collaborated

  • Columbiana, Alabama

  • Fayette, Alabama

  • Anchorage, Alaska

  • Sacramento, California

  • Bridgeport, Connecticut

  • East St. Louis, Illinois

  • Peoria, Illinois

  • Springfield, Illinois

  • Evansville, Indiana

  • Gary, Indiana

  • Indianapolis, Indiana

  • Louisville, Kentucky

  • Frankfort, Kentucky

  • Biddeford, Maine

  • Freeport, Maine

  • Lewiston-Auburn, Maine

  • Baltimore, Maryland

  • Boston, Massachusetts

  • Chelsea, Massachusetts

  • Holyoke, Massachusetts

  • Lawrence, Massachusetts

  • Lowell, Massachusetts

  • New Bedford, Massachusetts 

  • Pepperell, Massachusetts

  • Pittsfield, Massachusetts

  • Somerville, Massachusetts

  • Springfield, Massachusetts

  • Detroit, Michigan

  • Pelican Rapids, Minnesota

  • Saint Paul, Minnesota

  • Kansas City, Missouri

  • Gorham, New Hampshire

  • Haverhill, New Hampshire

  • Las Vegas, Nevada

  • Grants, New Mexico

  • Cortland, New York

  • Malone, New York

  • Poughkeepsie, New York

  • Beverly, Ohio

  • Coshocton, Ohio

  • Lawrence County, Ohio

  • Tulsa, Oklahoma

  • Wyandotte Nation, Oklahoma

  • Cottage Grove, Oregon

  • John Day, Oregon

  • Aliquippa, Pennsylvania

  • Erie, Pennsylvania

  • Indiana, Pennsylvania

  • Johnstown, Pennsylvania

  • Woonsocket, Rhode Island

  • Marshfield, Vermont

  • Martinsville, Virginia

  • Northern Neck, Virginia

  • Unincorporated King County, Washington

  • Charleston, West Virginia

  • Charles Town, West Virginia