Services
Cognfy draws on nearly three decades of experience in technology and public sector human services. We favor small, focused teams and practical solutions. Every project ships with an emphasis on clean design, reliable performance, and respect for the people who use it. Technology should serve people first, not the other way around.
Human Services Consulting
Cognfy's consulting practice is led by a licensed social worker with over a decade of progressive leadership in public sector human services. That experience includes directing municipal aging, youth, and early childhood programs, managing departmental budgets of several million dollars, securing federal, state, and foundation grants, and overseeing complex social work operations including crisis intervention, case management, and community resource coordination.
This background allows Cognfy to offer consulting that goes beyond technology. Engagements in this area include program design and evaluation, operational assessments, workflow analysis, community needs assessments, Title III compliance and nutrition program planning, and strategic planning for departments preparing to expand or restructure services. Cognfy understands how these programs actually run, how they are funded, and what staff and communities need from them.
Consulting is scoped by the hour or as a flat fee assessment. Deliverables are written and formatted for direct use in grant proposals, budget requests, board presentations, or internal planning documents.
Grant Development Support
Cognfy provides technical and programmatic content for competitive grant applications at the federal, state, and foundation level. This includes needs assessments backed by local and federal data, program design narratives, logic models, evaluation plans, budget narratives, and technology infrastructure descriptions. The work is grounded in direct experience securing $1.5 to $2 million annually in grant funding for municipal human services programming.
Grant support can be engaged as a standalone service or bundled with a consulting or technology engagement. When technology is part of the proposed project, Cognfy develops the system architecture, data management plan, and budget line items alongside the program narrative so that the technical and programmatic components are consistent and defensible.
Custom Software Development
Cognfy builds software for organizations that serve people. Projects are scoped with specific deliverables that are agreed on before work begins: case management systems, outreach platforms, resource directories, scheduling tools, intake and compliance forms, and reporting dashboards. Every engagement covers the full development lifecycle, from discovery and design through development, testing, deployment, and staff training.
Projects are priced at a fixed amount with delivery tied to milestones. The total cost is established before work begins, and deliverables are documented at each phase. This structure works well with programs funded by grants that operate under defined expenditure timelines. There are no hourly engagements with open end dates. The scope is written, agreed upon, and held to.
Cognfy has built production systems for crisis intervention coordination, automated senior wellness checks, bilingual SMS outreach, volunteer route scheduling, emergency assistance distribution, and congregate and home delivered meal program operations. The portfolio provides specifics on individual projects.
Ongoing Support & Maintenance
For organizations already running custom software, whether built by Cognfy or inherited from a previous vendor, ongoing support is available as a monthly retainer. This covers bug fixes, feature additions, security updates, hosting management, and data backup.
Support agreements include defined response times and a set number of development hours per month. This gives program staff a predictable resource for technical issues and minor enhancements without initiating a new procurement for every change.
How to Get Started
Initial consultations are provided at no cost. The first conversation focuses on understanding the organization's needs, existing systems, timeline, and budget. From there, Cognfy provides a written scope of work with defined deliverables, timeline, and total cost before any commitment is made. There is no obligation to proceed, and the scope document can be used independently for internal planning or procurement.