Jeff Donahue

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I work where clarity has collapsed. Politics, business, family, reputation—it’s all the same when the story stops making sense. Most people patch the surface; I dig until the language itself makes sense again.

Clients come to me when the stakes are personal, public, or both. A campaign off-message. A founder out of control. A business that can’t tell its own truth. I don’t sell frameworks or formulas; I rebuild trust through communication that can survive scrutiny.

Everything I do is confidential. Every client walks out with something sharper than they came in with—a story, a plan, or a spine.

Truth first. Spin last.

Jeff Donahue // Clarity Consulting

847-612-1001

donahuejd@gmail.com
 

Some people see data. Some see stories. Clarity Consulting sees the system that connects them. We work from what psychologists call systems-level cognition—the ability to hold multiple layers of cause and effect in view at once and translate them into something usable.

It isn’t about jargon or theory. It’s about pattern translation—turning chaos into coherence. Where others abstract, we articulate. We convert complexity into narrative, rhythm, and direction. We take disorder and make it legible.

Our advantage is structural empathy—the capacity to see and feel how things fit together and then say it out loud so others can see it too.

It’s an approach that cuts through noise, clarifies intent, and turns understanding into motion.

After a public misstep, a midsize firm tried to apologize by committee. Every draft sounded like a hostage letter. I took the mic, wrote one plain-spoken statement, and coached leadership to deliver it like they meant it. The story turned from r-up to clean-up. Clients stayed. The noise died. ...read more

A local political hopeful had the résumé of a savior and the presence of a sleep aid. Every interview turned into a filibuster of bullet points. I rebuilt his message around five sentences and a spine. We stripped jargon, added bite, and gave him a phrase reporters actually wanted to quote. By the next debate, he stopped explaining and started landing punches. Credibility won before the first vote was cast. ...read more

 A fast-growing tech firm set out to turn compliance into confidence—but speed outpaced structure. I was brought in by the founder and board to tighten vision, rebuild workflows, and translate ambition into governance that scaled. We aligned partners, insurers, and investors around one clean story. What began as chaos became credibility—with a profit model that finally had a spine. ...read more

Three generations, one balance sheet, and too many grudges. Meetings were therapy sessions with coffee. I mapped the unspoken alliances, reframed “tradition” as process, and turned personal history into leverage instead of ammunition. They left with a governance plan and, for the first time, a Thanksgiving that didn’t end in a walk-out. ...read more

A legacy nonprofit had become fluent in metrics but illiterate in meaning. Every report sounded like an audit, not a mission.
I stripped the jargon, re-centered their language on the people they claimed to serve, and retrained the board to speak with conviction instead of compliance. Donors came back. So did purpose. ...read more

A brilliant but brittle leader hired me after his board “suggested coaching.” He didn’t need therapy; he needed translation.
I reframed criticism as data and conflict as communication. Six weeks later, his board called to say he was “unrecognizably reasonable.” Progress measured in silence, not applause. ...read more