Engagement Models
Two different capabilities.
Strategy & Communications.
AI Capacity Building.
These aren't alternatives you pick between. Strategy & Communications is Sam's own judgment, applied to your organization — that judgment doesn't get handed off, whether it runs ongoing or scoped to a single project. AI Capacity Building and Change Management is something else entirely: building your own team's capacity to run an AI-enabled operating layer, for whatever function you run — also available ongoing or project-based. Many organizations need more than one of these, at the same time.
● Capability 01
Strategy & Communications
Place Fractional functions as your organization's Chief Strategy & Communications Officer — setting narrative and advocacy strategy, running government and coalition engagement, and producing the collateral a full department would, at a fraction of the cost and with none of the hiring risk. Available two ways:
Embedded Strategy & Communications Executive
Ongoing fractional retainer
Runs on an ongoing basis, for as long as you need C-suite-level strategy and communications leadership. The tooling isn't the value here — the fractional strategist's judgment is. This is the model currently running at a national arts and culture association.
Project Based Strategy & Communications
Defined-scope engagement
Applies the same judgment to a single defined engagement instead of an ongoing retainer — a repositioning campaign, a fundraising push, a testimony cycle, a sponsorship or messaging toolkit build. Clear scope, clear start and end, same caliber of work as Embedded, just not open-ended.
What this draws on
- Advocacy infrastructure & interactive tools
- Government affairs
- Organizational identity & positioning
- Website design & development
- Executive narrative & thought leadership
- Conference program & large-scale event architecture
- Corporate, philanthropic & government partner engagement
- Partnership architecture
- Board & governance advisory
Every one of these still runs through the same AI-enabled operating layer — full department capability, at a fraction of the overhead.
Scoped and priced by which of these you engage.
● Capability 02
AI Capacity Building and Change Management
Not comms. Not strategy — that stays exclusive to Strategy & Communications, because it's judgment that can't be handed off. This is a different capability: implementing Place Fractional's AI-enabled operating layer inside your own organization, for whatever function you run — programs, operations, finance, anything — so your team builds the capacity to work this way itself. Available two ways:
Embedded AI Capacity Building and Change Management
Ongoing fractional retainer
Place Fractional stays on as an ongoing resource for how your organization uses AI — not a one-time build, but continuous support as new functions want in, new tools emerge, and the system keeps evolving with you.
Project Based AI Capacity Building and Change Management
Four-stage AI adoption engagement
A defined engagement with a clear end point — your team builds the capacity to work this way itself, rather than watching it get done for them.
How the Project Based engagement runs
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01
Assess
A full read of where AI could actually help your team — and where it shouldn’t. Not every tool is right for you, and chasing the wrong ones wastes capacity instead of building it. Current workflows, tooling, staff readiness, and the gaps actually worth closing.
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02
Design
The AI-enabled workflow gets architected for your function, whatever it is — tool selection, process design, and the guardrails that keep it trustworthy.
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03
Implement
Tools get configured and staff get trained hands-on, working the system alongside your team until it’s second nature, not a one-time demo.
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04
Sustain
The documentation, ownership, and internal practice that keep the system running and improving long after the engagement ends.
What this draws on
- Single source of truth
- Synthesis & drafting
- Build & deployment
- Capture & intelligence
- Production
Scoped and priced by which of these you engage.
● Before you ask
The questions everyone has.
What is your pricing?
Scoped to what you actually need, not a flat package — see “What this draws on” under each capability above. The number depends on which capabilities you engage and how ongoing the work is. That gets figured out in the first conversation, not guessed at on a webpage.
What does the first month actually look like?
Every engagement starts with a conversation, not a proposal. From there: an audit of what exists, a real read of your decision landscape, and a working stakeholder map — with validated draft work moving within the first few weeks, not after a long onboarding period.
How is this different from our own team just using AI tools?
AI can draft. It can’t validate against real relationships, real political terrain, or three decades of judgment about what actually lands with a specific decision-maker. The tools are the same ones described on How This Works — the difference is who’s driving them.
What if I already have a communications staff?
No problem — most clients don’t have a full strategy and communications department, but plenty already have some staff doing pieces of this work. Embedded functions as senior strategic leadership working alongside them — setting direction and raising the level of the work, not replacing anyone.
● Next
Which model — or models — do you need?
Every engagement starts with a conversation about your terrain, not a sales pitch about ours.
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