Our clients come to us with a range of issues and concerns. Sometimes they need help evaluating the value of a consultant, or when a consultant can help.
As Executive Director/CEO, when do you need a development consultant?
- When you don’t have all the answers. And you lack the right colleagues with whom you can collaborate to identify solutions.
- You are convinced your vision could become a reality if you had the resources you need, but you can’t quite figure out how to bring fundraising efforts to the next level.
- Your nonprofit is in executive transition, whether you recently assumed your position, or the change is in board leadership or the development director.
- Although you are an expert in your cause and in guiding your nonprofit’s programming, you do not believe you have adequate fundraising expertise to effectively lead the fundraising staff.
- You cannot afford a high-level development professional to lead your team and you simply don’t have the time or experience to do it all yourself.
- Fundraising has not returned to pre-recession levels, and with it is going your hope. Your fundraising staff is good and works very hard, but they do not have enough experience to identify effective solutions.
- You and the board agree the organization should pursue a one-time programming initiative, but you don’t know how to raise funding for it, and there is not sufficient surplus in operating funds.
- You fear that your board has unrealistic expectations of the organization’s fundraising capacity and you are not sure how to deal with this.
As Board President, when would a development consultant be helpful?
- You see that your CEO does a great job leading her junior fundraising staff, but she is spread thin with her other responsibilities. Maybe an outside expert could be helpful.
- You have been at the current revenue level for too long but you have no idea what to do to change it. And you believe your CEO and the development team are doing what they can.
- This is your first time as a nonprofit board president. You are comfortable with the responsibility and passionate about the cause. But you would like to expand the board and are not sure how to be strategic about it.
- Your board members are resistant to an annual financial commitment, as well as to other fundraising responsibilities. You need help bringing them around.
- You may not have experience in fundraising, but you just don’t understand why in a year or two the organization cannot double what it is raising now.
As Development Director, when are you in need of a development consultant?
- The board and CEO want to do a capital campaign to fund an addition to your building. You agree that is the right path but your campaign experience is limited, and you are not sure how to proceed.
- Fundraising has become stable again since the recession, but now the new CEO has plans for new programs. You are not sure how best to take the fundraising to the next level to fund this growth.
- Your Board of Directors is willing but inexperienced at fundraising. You are happy to do board training, but you are wondering if an outside expert working with you could help demonstrate the importance of this process and lend more creditability to board member training.
- Your CEO is extremely busy with leading the program and does not seem to have time to play a lead role in fundraising, so she delegates everything to you. You do not mind doing the work, but you think there are times when a donor needs to get special attention from the head of the organization. You are not sure how to deal with this.
- You are not getting the staff you were promised, yet your goal has not changed. You do not want to fail, but you and your small team really cannot work anymore than you already are.
- Your CEO has unrealistic expectations about how much money the organization can raise, but she is inexperienced in development and your explanations are not good enough to satisfy her. You are frustrated and do not know what to do.
