Meet your strategic partner
Meet Afton DeVos
Afton DeVos partners with nonprofit leaders to build organizations where people flourish and missions advance. With twenty years of lived experience scaling nonprofits, she brings the clarity, structure and coaching that transform reactive teams into resilient ones.
Afton launched her consulting practice in 2022 after sixteen years in nonprofit development and operational leadership roles including organizations like Gilda’s Club and Kids’ Food Basket. That depth of experience leading through complexity, scaling an organization and building teams that sustain the work gives her a perspective uncommon among consultants.
Her calling is simple: to remove barriers to human flourishing by strengthening the leaders and teams who do that work.
Driven by Values
Experience as Expertise
Afton believes every person carries inherent dignity and wisdom worth hearing. Leading with curiosity, she honors lived experience as expertise, and builds equity into how decisions are made, so the insight of staff and community members shapes the work from the first conversation to the boardroom.
What this looks like with you: Afton starts by listening. Your team and community help shape the plan, and you lead with their insight behind you.
Everyday Excellence
Afton helps leaders choose with courage and conviction, stewarding time, energy, and resources toward what matters most. That takes honest conversations, the kind many avoid, held with humility and care. Every yes is also a no.
What this looks like with you: Honest questions, clear priorities, and a plan that says no to good things so you can say yes to the best ones.
Brave Yeses & Brave Noes
Afton brings her best thinking, creativity, and care to every engagement. Excellence isn’t reserved for big moments; it shows up in the preparation, the details, and the follow-through. She holds high standards and extends grace, because the people doing this work are human, and their best may look different from day to day.
What this looks like with you: Thorough preparation, thoughtful follow-through, and grace for the realities of your season.
Lighthearted & Wholehearted
Afton brings her whole self to the work, with a healthy dose of humor. She looks for moments of joy, delight, and celebration to share with the teams she serves.
What this looks like with you: Serious work, real progress, deep belly laughs, and wins we can celebrate along the way.
MORE ABOUT AFTON
Education & Credentials
MPA in Nonprofit Leadership, Grand Valley State University
BA, Butler University
Everything DiSC Practitioner
Board Service
Children's Healing Center
Grand Rapids Christian School
Writing
Taking Heart
Substack on leadership, resilience and faith
How We Work Together
Every engagement starts with understanding where your organization is and where you want to go. From there, Afton works alongside you to build a clear strategic plan, align your team and establish the structures that sustainable growth requires.