Contracting with Confidence: Best Practices for Contracting with Clients

Contracting with  Confidence:
Best Practices for Contracting with Clients

Monday, November 16, 2026
10:00 - 11:00 am CT
Virtual Zoom Event

There are so many ways to approach contracting with clients. And so many questions to consider. Questions like:

• Is your contract language adequately protecting you?
• Should you bill by the hour or the job?
• How do you handle a client’s preferred contract?
• What if an engagement goes wrong? How will you untangle things and still get paid for what you’ve done?
• What if the engagement goes so right that the client wants more of you, and more, and more?

Come get the answers to these and other questions from Kelly Kleiman of NFP Consulting, Kelly was once a lawyer and nonetheless has made every contractual error imaginable. Some people can only learn from painful experience, but you can skip the painful part while benefiting from Kelly’s experience. Come prepared with questions.

Kelly Kleiman

Kelly Kleiman, a lawyer educated at the University of Chicago, has spent more than 30 years in the nonprofit sector. She founded NFP Consulting in 1988 after serving as Executive Director of the Chicago Children’s Choir and Assistant Dean of IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. Earlier in her career she practiced real estate and zoning law with the firm of Rudnick & Wolfe, now DLA Piper. Through her consulting practice Kelly helps nonprofits with fundraising, strategic planning, Board development and the use of high-skills volunteers. She also frequently serves as interim Executive Director for nonprofits undergoing leadership transition. Details at NFPConsultingChicago.com/

Kelly co-founded the Association of Consultants to Nonprofits, ACNConsult.org, and served for several years as its President. She has taught professional development courses for the Axelson Center, the Association of Volunteer Administrators, the United Way of Lake County, the College of DuPage, and other educational and professional organizations. She wrote advice and commentary for nonprofits online as The Nonprofiteer from 2010 to 2014.

Please contact ACN Association Manager, Jennifer Heffernan, at execdirector@acnconsult.org if you have any questions.