Our members are the heart of SBAIC. Each organization brings unique expertise, fresh perspectives, and a shared commitment to advancing international assistance. This month, we are introducing you to one of our newest members, Feeney Advisory LLC.
Feeney Advisory LLC, SBAIC’s newest member, was founded in early 2025 to deliver strategic advisory to small businesses, governments, corporations, and individuals working in international development. The firm offers specific short-term advice and guidance on:
- Business development
- Government outreach
- CV development
- Selection of best qualified consultants
- Maximizing utilization of the resources that relevant memberships provide
- Mentoring for leaders and staff
What are the biggest challenges in international assistance?
Assistance terminology has changed. U.S. Government (USG) entities and other traditional players (including multilateral organizations, private donors, and NGOs) are re-positioning to better engage and cooperate with countries and organizations that need financing, technical assistance, and humanitarian aid. The challenge for small businesses is identifying the most effective, impactful, and efficient ways to achieve new and stronger partnerships and deliver results. These partnerships must be nurtured on multiple fronts to develop fully and thrive.
In addition, as small businesses compete to win contracts, they need to construct and polish individual biodata and CVs to achieve the highest possible scores. Often the turnaround time is very short on a bid and may require targeted additional support.
How can your organization help?
Feeney Advisory LLC can serve as a short-term catalyst for small businesses — including new small businesses — to better identify and understand the playing field. This often requires brainstorming, rapid response networking, and intelligence gathering to identify the players and potential partners. In addition, we have a wide, already established network and relationships with many businesses that have worked with USAID and other clients.
How can the U.S. Government better leverage small businesses to achieve its international assistance goals and make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous?
Small businesses bring entrepreneurship, unique expertise, and energy to achieve federal government goals. The USG needs to expand its awareness of the wealth of expertise offered by U.S. small businesses.
Small businesses can facilitate governmental awareness in multiple ways. For small businesses working outside of Washington, D.C., engagement with state and local level business councils and trade offices can strengthen access to the USG — including the Departments of State, Agriculture, and Commerce — and foreign countries. Small businesses can also connect directly with their members of Congress. Advocacy organizations, such as SBAIC are very well positioned to assist small businesses in connecting with both USG executive and legislative branch officials to leverage small business to achieve international assistance goals.
What are the benefits of small business contracting?
Often small businesses offer niche, hard to find skills and experience. Small businesses can perform either as prime or subcontractors. If large contractors find and deploy small business talent, they can expand work capacity, impact more beneficiaries, and increase profits.
By combining and sharing resources, individual small businesses can compete from a stronger base. Through pooled procurement, they can access high quality legal, contracts and grants, finance, procurement, communication and other necessary skills and services.
About the founder
Feeney Advisory founder, Paula Feeney has more than 40 years of experience in direct engagement in international development. She served as a USAID Career Foreign Service Officer/Senior Foreign Service Officer and as USAID’s Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Europe and Eurasia Bureau, directing and overseeing multimillion-dollar programs in health, economic growth, governance, energy, environment, disaster response, post-war reconstruction, and cash transfers. In addition, she has worked as a Senior Advisor, Business Development at multiple international development consulting firms including Deloitte, Emerging Markets Group, Cardno, and DT Global.
Throughout her career in government and the private sector, Ms. Feeney’s work has included a focus on small businesses. She has represented her corporate employers at many of USAID’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Annual Conferences, match-making events, and training seminars. She has also planned, executed, and hosted almost 30 small businesses at a Cardno Small Business Conference which involved two panels of CEOs speaking on the role of small business as primes and small businesses as subcontractors. Representing Cardno and DT-Global, Ms. Feeney attended many monthly meetings, planning sessions, and events of the Professional Services Council’s CIDC (Council for International Development Companies), actively engaging with senior executives and senior company representatives and Board Members.
