Having your grantees funded mostly by grants is not sustainable.

Help the nonprofits you support diversify revenue, build financial resilience, and grow unrestricted operating support.

Melanie has taught hundreds of nonprofit organizations through workshops hosted by community foundations and institutional funders. These offer unpretentious, simple fundraising strategies that help grantees to build donors, receive one-on-one coaching, and learn fundraising best practices, specifically how to:

Workshop themes

• Help a nonprofit board build comfort around fundraising.
• Reach new audiences of individual donors.
• Prioritize existing donors and move them towards higher levels of giving.
• Establish affordable, easy-to-implement systems (free donor databases, prompt acknowledgments, regular emails, and more).

Foundations are in a unique position to show nonprofits how to cultivate more individual supporters and major donors. Below are samples of past workshop topics for community foundations and United Way.

“It was one of the best classes I’ve have ever had. Melanie is an excellent presenter. I only wish the 2-session class had more sessions!”

—Student, College of Marin

Custom content

Each workshop is created to meet the needs of the specific nonprofit grantees who will participate. And our model includes ongoing support. All participants receive access for one year to:

• Our members-only resources, with monthly ask-the-expert forums, fundraising templates, how-to blogs, and a private Slack community of fundraising peers.
• A one-on-one fundraising coaching call to dig into specifics and prioritize actions that will work for that specific nonprofit.
• An evergreen, online link to the customized content presented at your workshop(s).

How bad is it?

As a funder, it may surprise you to know how hard it is for small-staffed nonprofits to connect with donors.

In a recent workshop, most participants shared just how limited staff resources and board support are:

Our clients

We’ve been honored to work with leading hub organizations and dozens of their nonprofit grantees. Our work provides technical assistance and capacity building to support a thriving regional nonprofit ecosystem, where grantees build individual donors and financial resilience.

Let’s talk