Over the last 15 years, Doug Carpenter and Brian Sullivan have become increasingly more involved with a variety of civic efforts of Memphis on many different levels. One of their non-profit clients suggested that the agency explore non-profit development consulting as an additional service. Non-profit development consulting is an area that is uniquely aligned with communication so this seemed like a natural area for expansion for the agency.

After extensive research the agency not only found confirmation of a significant need in the market, but also found that traditional development consulting was not fully meeting the communications and execution needs of non-profits. It was clear that unrealized opportunities could be captured by operating a non-profit development consulting practice along side a full-service communications firm.

It was also evident that the full capacity of the service would only be realized under the leadership of an experienced, committed and focused development professional. They found this experience in Jim Duncan and formed cs duncan, a full-service non-profit consulting division of carpenter|sullivan|sossaman.