Andy Bates is a Senior Director at S.I.R., where he leads and supports community development initiatives for nonprofits, cities, and state agencies navigating change and complex social and economic challenges.
Andy brings extensive experience helping public-sector and nonprofit clients align economic growth strategies with the community systems required to support residents—particularly in areas such as workforce participation, human services coordination, and community resilience.
At S.I.R., Andy has led and supported work for organizations including Serve Virginia, 211 Virginia, state and local human services agencies, workforce training and development organizations, and economic development entities. This work has included helping communities strengthen service delivery systems, improve coordination across agencies, and better connect economic opportunity with the support structures that enable people to participate fully in the workforce and local economy.
Andy also brings experience helping communities manage the implications of significant economic change—supporting local leaders as they plan for the downstream impacts of major investment, industrial growth, and demographic shifts on housing, workforce systems, infrastructure, and quality of life. His approach emphasizes practical strategy, cross-sector collaboration, and implementation grounded in local capacity and realities.
He is valued for his ability to work comfortably across the community development ecosystem—helping leaders see how the players, programs, and priorities fit together rather than treating them as separate efforts.
Andy helped create and advance the Virginia Community Engagement Index, a statewide effort to better understand and track volunteerism, civic engagement, and community priorities—work that supports more effective outreach, stronger partnerships, and better-aligned community strategie
Outside of work, Andy is deeply interested in how communities function at the human level—how systems, institutions, and relationships shape opportunity and resilience over time.
Andy Bates
Managing Partner
Conveying the Heart:
One thing that always bugged me about traditional business writing or reports is how formulaic, and even robotic, they can feel. It’s almost as if some people actually want you to throw that report in a drawer and never look at it again.
I believe all writing should have some heart in it, and so I make it my business to care about what our clients care about just as deeply as they do — and to speak to them in ways that will resonate long after they’ve read our findings or strategic plan