Partners in Resilience (PIR) is a young 501(c)(3) that invests in young adults who've aged out of a Kenyan children's home, helping them build real, viable businesses rather than offering charity. Right now, our fundraising is almost entirely founder-driven (me). There's no repeatable system behind any of it.
We don't have a written fundraising strategy or development plan. We don't have a defined donor pipeline, a plan for recurring giving, a grant-seeking approach, or a structure for turning one-time donors into long-term supporters. We've built a new website with donation capability and started a newsletter, but those are channels without a strategy behind them. I'm not clear on who we're asking, how often, for what, or how to grow that base over time. We're also actively recruiting board members with fundraising experience, but have nothing yet to hand them once they join.
We haven't tried to formally address this before. As founder, I've been doing the program work, the relationship-building, and the fundraising myself, and we've simply outgrown what one person (with no training) can sustain.
I'd like a practical, usable fundraising/development plan. Specifically, I'd want the consultant to help us create:
A donor strategy that maps how to identify, segment, and grow our donor base (individuals, foundations, corporate) beyond my personal network; a 12-month fundraising calendar that lays out campaigns, asks, recurring giving, and grant deadlines; recommendations for tools or systems; and guidance on how to put our incoming board members' skills to work on fundraising.
Success looks like us having a clear, written plan the board and I can actually run with, so we can build something sustainable.
