Selected Results

Strategy That Shows Up in the Numbers

Behind every result is a clearer plan, a stronger system, and a team equipped to keep the momentum going.

The Work In Practice

Problem, Solution, Result

These engagements span campaigns, donor strategy, CRM systems, leadership, and organizational growth.The organizations remain anonymous; the challenges and outcomes are real.

Closing a $15M Capital Campaign in the Final Stretch

A $15M capital campaign stalled with $2M left to raise, until a new acquisition strategy closed the gap and got it over the finish line.

The Problem

The campaign raised $12.8M of its $15M goal, but progress was stalled. The organization's known major donor network had already been fully tapped, leaving no clear path to the final $2M without a new strategy.

The Solution

A mid- and small-donor strategy to run alongside the stalled major-gift effort, anchored by a new small-donor acquisition campaign powered by a significant matching gift. Combining broader donor acquisition with continued major-gift cultivation gave the campaign two simultaneous paths to the goal instead of one. It also created an opportunity for a public phase, building renewed excitement among existing donors and prompting broader donor and program-participant acquisition through city-wide exposure.

The Result

The combined strategy closed the remaining $2M gap. The campaign reached its full $15M goal, funding a new health center for the community it served. The organization grew its active donor network by 18% and secured a six-figure matching gift from a corporate partner whose largest prior gift had been $15,000.

$250K to $1.2M: Building a Donor Program From Scratch

A small association with nothing to offer donors grew from $250K to $1.2M in annual revenue after a complete strategy and structure redesign.

The Problem

A small professional association built around an annual conference wanted to start accepting donations and membership dues, but had no giving structure, year-round presence, or program to offer someone beyond attending the annual conference itself. Leadership was aging as well, with a board that averaged over 70 years old, existed largely in name only, and had no path for growing a next generation of involvement.

The Solution

Redesign the organization's strategy and structure from the ground up. Add a ticketed public-access tier to the conference and ancillary events, add an exhibitor showcase and year-round corporate marketing program, build a sustainable membership program, launch volunteer-led global chapters engaging donors in key markets, replace 25% of the board with younger members to cut the average age from over 70, and launch a young professionals program.

The Result

Annual revenue grew from $250K to $1.2M. Board engagement doubled, global chapters engaged over 150 new members in the first year, and a young-professionals campaign raised over $325,000 from new donors. All of this moving the organization from a small, unstable operation to one with a diversified funding base and a real path to continued scaling and sustainability.

Building a Fundraising Pipeline, Then Coming Back to Restore It

First establishing an organization's entire fundraising pipeline from scratch, then coming back later, this time as an outside consultant, to restore it after it slipped.

In-House

The Problem: In-House

The organization's fundraising ran on scattered spreadsheets and an underused Salesforce instance, with no reliable pipeline or moves management process.

The Solution: In-House

Build the system from the ground up while leading the organization’s fundraising program, turning fragmented records into a complete annual campaign pipeline and moves management plan.

External Support

The Problem: External Support

After the transition to outside consulting, the plan and pipeline built during that in-house period began to slip. New staff didn’t have the same depth of CRM expertise to maintain it, or to keep it delivering the reports, insights, and forecasts the board had grown accustomed to relying on.

The Solution: External Support

The organization reached out to re-engage as outside consulting support, to clean up what had degraded, rebuild the reporting and prospect architecture, and reset the pipeline for clear visibility into reaching year-end revenue goals.

The Result

Leadership and fundraisers went from a fragmented, unreliable picture of fundraising strategy and activity to a single, trusted source for board reporting, prospect tracking, and forecasting.

From Missing Goal to Beating It by 30%, Four Years Running

A team that missed goal for four years began exceeding it by more than 30% every year, once coordination replaced chaos.

The Problem

A team of six, spread across a disjointed set of territories, went years without consistent leadership. The program was flailing, the team fell short of goal year over year, and the culture rewarded individual wins over collective results, with little coordination between people working overlapping relationships.

The Solution

Rebuild coordination across the team on key accounts and realign every portfolio to match staff strengths, expertise, and bandwidth. Reduce strain on the team by coordinating messaging and building shared resources, replacing a get-there-first culture with one built around collective results and team satisfaction.

The Result

The team went from consistently falling short of annual goal to exceeding it by more than 30% in each of the following four years.

Turning a Governance-Only Board Into a Fundraising-Ready One

A governance-only board became fundraising-ready, and tripled its fundraising goal in the first year.

The Problem

The board was well-suited to oversight but not built for fundraising. Committee assignments were permanent, assigned, and based primarily on status or professional expertise rather than active commitment. Compounding the issue, there was no shared expectation or bylaw outlining any expectation that members would give or help raise money.

The Solution

Design and lead a board retreat centered on fundraising training, introduce a formal give-get policy so expectations are explicit and shared, and redesign the committee structure around written annual commitments that members actively renew and self-assign to.

The Result

Members began self-selecting onto committees where they were genuinely engaged and had real value to offer. One new addition to the finance committee brought a connection to a new auditing partner that cut the rate in half. Another, who would have been assigned to the communications committee, self-selected onto the program committee and went on to fund an entire grant cycle after engaging with the organization's work firsthand. Board members reported greater satisfaction on the annual survey, specifically citing more confidence speaking about the organization, and in turn, inviting their networks to learn more about it. The board’s own fundraising more than tripled its goal in year one.

One Donor, a Seven-Figure Campaign

A single donor’s untapped passion for one program area became the foundation for a full campaign strategy, one that raised seven figured for new equipment and brought in 23 new major donors for the organization.

The Problem

A passionate board member's enthusiasm for a specific program area was untapped. She was engaged and solicited annually, but no one had built the moves management strategy needed to convert that interest into more significant giving.

The Solution

Work across teams to build a campaign around the donor's philanthropic passion, designed to highlight and celebrate her prior giving, deepen her personal engagement, and activate her broader network toward an ambitious, high-visibility goal.

The Result

The campaign delivered a successful fundraising event, a new facility tour program for donors, 23 new ly acquired major donors, and raised seven figures to fund vital new equipment for the organization.

Rebuilding a Donor Relationship While Reinvigorating an Event

A donor relationship on the verge of ending became the anchor of an event that tripled its own fundraising record.

The Problem

For 15 years, the organization had relied heavily on a single large annual fundraising event, run largely by volunteer "friends of the organization" rather than staff. Fatigue, group dynamics, and infighting had taken a toll and the long-time co-chair couple was ready to walk away entirely, worn out by the strain and the feeling that their network had been tapped out and their role reduced to purely social.

The Solution

Rebuild trust by bringing the couple back in as hands-on volunteers with their family, creating meaningful, visible moments for them around key organizational milestones. Work with the full committee to rethink how they engage their own networks and reach beyond them. Pull the event further in-house, adding staff support for the organizers, refocusing volunteer leaders on friend- and fund-raising rather than logistics, and removing the operational strain that had been stifling the event's ability to grow.

The Result

The core couple stayed on, increased their personal giving, and the event broke its own fundraising record in each of the three following years, tripling its original plateau by the third year.

Let’s Find the Leverage Point

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