Kathryn Murphy

What I Bring to Your Organization

I founded MissionAxis on a simple premise: the organizations doing the most important work in our communities are too often the ones leaving money on the table — not for lack of mission, but for lack of the right fundraising infrastructure.

When you work with me, you get 20 years of senior fundraising leadership, a vetted professional network, and a strategic approach built from experience across the full spectrum of development work — major gifts, corporate partnerships, foundation grants, events, CRM systems, board engagement, and direct response. That expertise is the constant. How I deliver it depends on what your organization needs.

I work with Executive Directors and senior leaders at growing nonprofits, including health and human services and community-focused organizations. My clients are serious about growing their fundraising but don't always have the internal capacity to build the strategy, fix the systems, and develop the team all at once.

Before founding MissionAxis, I held senior development leadership roles at a global grantmaking organization operating across five international hubs, a national disaster response and relief organization managing a regional portfolio of $57–$102M, and a prominent urban health nonprofit where I led a 10-person development team through a $15M capital campaign. Across these roles, my teams consistently exceeded goals — 140%+ of target three years running, 110%+ two years consecutive — through a combination of strategy clarity, systems discipline, and genuine investment in team development.

I draw on a deep network of trusted practitioners — campaign strategists, CRM architects, major gift officers, grant writers, and board development specialists — to match the right expertise to each engagement. You get senior-level thinking and accountability from me at every stage, supported by the right people for the work at hand.

I’m based in Lisbon, Portugal and work with clients across the United States and globally. I conduct engagements virtually, with optional in-person intensives available for select projects.