The Art and Science
of Nonprofit Fundraising
Your fundraising plan is largely dependent on the team that implements it. We can help strengthen your development department in a number of ways: embedding members of our own staff into yours to provide day-to-day support for the short or long term, training and coaching your staff to reach their best potential as fundraisers, and helping you find the next key hire to energize your department.
Like any skill, good fundraising can be learned and requires practice. We can reinvigorate your fundraising team with a daylong, or weekend seminar that will focuses on best practices and inspires for moving forward. These seminars are often integrated within the context of our services.
Even the best people in the field need inspiration and encouragement. We offer one-on-one and small group coaching for your key staff to help give them what they need to maximize their potential as leaders and fundraisers.
Learn more about our Breakthrough Coaching Service.
We create proactive succession plans, either as stand-alone plans, or built into your development or strategic plan. Succession planning is very important to your funders because it helps them feel confident in your agency’s ability to govern itself.
Nonprofits that are serious about their own sustainability will also be serious about planning for smooth and thoughtful transitions of leadership. Whether a transition occurs due to an unexpected vacancy on the staff or board, or the anticipated transition of a long-tenured leader, being ready with a plan in place can help a nonprofit weather the inevitable challenges of leadership transition.
Further, losing a key team member doesn’t have to be an institutional trauma. Instead it can be an opportunity to advance with the injection of new ideas and energy. We can help you find the best way forward, whether it’s promoting from within or finding the right new hire.
Ready to build your team? Finding well-qualified development candidates who connect with your mission, yet also have the desired fundraising acumen, can be a daunting challenge. We’re here to help! Our experts will help you find the best people to create or expand a top-notch in-house development staff. We have search experts on our team that can facilitate the hire process and support you in making the right decision.
Nationwide Leadership Council Formed to Boost Unrestricted Support:
The Council for Adult & Experiential Learning – CAEL (www.cael.org), urgently needed to boost their annual unrestricted support. CAEL’s mission, to link learning and work, is anurgent need because doing so helps adult learners secure higher paying jobs and, therefore, strengthens the American economy. At present, the competitiveness and readiness of our work force do not match our country’s need for highly skilled workers. A dangerous breakdown exists in our national labor market. According to the U.S. Census, only thirty percent of our citizens aged 25+ have a bachelor’s degree or higher. This means about 169 million Americans of working age lack a formal degree. A substantial number of them are adults who left college primarily due to a shortage of time and/or money. CAEL's overarching goal is to make possible “meaningful learning, credentials and work for every adult.”
The Challenge:
In the course of doing their work, CAEL often has to invest in expensive processes to get issues addressed and problems solve. Processes like convening disparate bureaucratic parties to talk about how to solve complex problems within our education and workforce development systems. Conferences, research, white paper presentations, private meetings may seem simple enough but the costs added up! To seize on innovative policy work, CAEL needed about $1 million boost their annual revenues. Where would it come from?
Our Solution:
CAEL contacted LAPA Fundraising to talk about the dilemma and after a few conversations, LAPA recommended that CAEL’s annual fund could be boosted by establishing a national Leadership Council. CAEL’s Leaders Council, it was proposed, would be a dedicated group of community leaders who give input to CAEL and provide access to their networks as well as philanthropy. Two dynamic co-chairs were approached and agreed to volunteer to lead the effort. LAPA wrote the charter for the Council, it’s case for support, and all of the procedural documents. Wealth vetting was conducted to assure that the leaders surfaced had the capacity to give at the $25,000 level and above. LAPA provided executive coaching throughout the assignment in-person and by phone.
Results:
CAEL’s National Leadership Council was established and is growing its membership slowly but surely. CAEL’s CEO, Pamela Tate, has been behind the initiative from the start and has integrated recruitment of new members into her daily work. CAEL took a three year view for deepening this new effort, and their current funders have been impressed with their discipline. A Special Fund was created to capture the $1 million annual need for unrestricted gifts, and donor giving policies were adopted by the Board of Directors to properly guide the management of the Fund’s gifts. The Council is up and running and growing, aimed at addressing the dilemma of needing unrestricted support.
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