Fundraising, Strategy, and Governance

Clients

Strategic Planning

When was the last time you looked at your current strategic plan? A great plan is a living document that guides you, your staff, and your volunteers in the decisions you have to make every day as you pursue your mission.

My last strategic plan? I had it pinned to my wall and looked at it every day. It kept me and my team on track, helped us evaluate opportunities, and never became irrelevant.

Let’s face it, you’re going to have some big wins, and some losses, and many surprises. The world around you isn’t worried about your strategy. Your strategic plan needs to be a tool that works with these realities to help your organization change the world.

Fundraising Consulting and Support

Fundraising Fundamentals

Could you pull up your renewals list, your VIPs list, your grant applications status, and your cash flow right now? Great fundraising is built on the fundamentals. Ensuring you have the tools and systems in place will help everyone on your team stay calmer and be more successful.

Let’s create systems and strategies that take the guess work out of fundraising, that let you and your team evaluate opportunities with confidence, and stay ahead of the game. It’s not easy to get there, but once you do you might even call fundraising fun.

Mission Centered Fundraising & Development

Long before I became an executive director I learned a simple trick: Always ask for money like you’re the CEO. How your development team thinks about its role in your organization and your cause has a big impact on how they bring donors along to be a part of pursuing your mission. Everyone from the Executive Director to the programming associates should embrace fundraising as a valued part of the work, not a necessary evil.

Let’s create a fundraising team that is fully integrated into your organization, that feels a sense of ownership and partnership with your programming and service teams, and that knows that they themselves are part of making the world a better place. I’ll bring my experience (including past successes and what I’ve learned from my mistakes) to support your development leaders and help them empower one of the most important parts of your work.

Board Training for Nonprofits

Roles and Responsibilities

The relationship between the board, CEO or Executive Director, and staff, is one of the most important and complex aspects of an organization. A good relationship with clear roles and responsibilities allows everyone to do their job with confidence. I hear a lot of executives talk about creating busy work for their boards. The problem is usually that board members and executives aren’t on the same page about what they’re supposed to be doing, and so they create work to feel busy or impactful. Instead of traditional governance training, let’s have the board and executive work together to come to a common understanding of everyone’s expectations. Documenting these board governance processes, roles, responsibilities, and modes of communication will help everyone do their best work.

Board of Directors Fundraising Training

Many boards say they are fundraising boards, but what does that really mean? Often the reason boards don’t raise as much money as they could, or resist participating in fundraising in the first place, is a lack of tactical planning and training. Designing a training program for boards that goes beyond theory to help them raise money in the specific context of your organization can jumpstart new revenue streams. From Solicitation 101 to multi part fundraising training, this work can be a game changer. In addition to customizing training for your organization’s size, mission, board, and circumstances, the best trainings include an aspect of actual implementation to capitalize on the positive energy in the room.