Hiring a Fundraising Consultant: 5+ Steps and Best Firms
Fundraising is essential for nonprofits, but it’s also difficult, especially for smaller nonprofits operating on limited resources, time, and connections. If your organization is in this situation, you may not feel equipped to pull off large-scale fundraising events or successful capital campaigns.
For growing nonprofits, working with a fundraising consultant may be the perfect next move. These experts can evaluate your current fundraising situation and create a plan for better future fundraising. To help you hire a fundraising consultant who can design a winning fundraising strategy, we’ll explore the following:
Working with a fundraising consultant not only primes your nonprofit for triumph at its present scale but also lays a solid foundation for growth. If you're contemplating whether your organization could thrive with a consultant's guidance, let’s dive in!
Frequently Asked Questions About Nonprofit Fundraising Consultants
You may have questions if you’ve never worked with a fundraising consultant. Let’s review the basics of fundraising consulting so you can determine whether your organization is ready to work with an expert and get the most out of your consultant relationship.
What is a fundraising consultant?
A fundraising consultant is an outside expert hired by nonprofit organizations to guide them through the aspects of planning and running an effective fundraising campaign (or multiple campaigns). Under this broad umbrella, fundraising consultants may offer services specifically for:
Campaign strategy development
Prospect research and wealth screening to find major donors
Ongoing capital campaign guidance and support
Training on fundraising best practices
Development support to replace or hire in-house staff
The ultimate goals of working with a fundraising consultant are to drive your campaigns to success, build stronger internal fundraising processes, and grow your fundraising capacity over time. This is why small to mid-size nonprofits, in particular, can reap many long-term benefits from professional guidance.
Since fundraising consultants often specialize in one or more specific services, you need to understand your nonprofit’s needs before researching candidates. This ensures you enlist a consultant whose skills and experience align perfectly with your nonprofit's goals.
How can a nonprofit fundraising consultant help your cause?
Working with a fundraising consultant who fits with your team, mission, and goals can lay the groundwork for future fundraising efforts.
Here’s how a fundraising consultant can provide both immediate improvements and long-term success to your nonprofit:
Experience: Nonprofit fundraising consultants bring a wealth of knowledge from working with diverse organizations, allowing them to offer tried-and-true strategies.
Objective Assessment: Consultants provide an unbiased assessment of your current fundraising strategies and operations and identify opportunities for improvement.
Capacity Building: Fundraising consultants can train your staff and volunteers in best practices, enhance your team's skills, and boost your organization's internal fundraising capacity. This way, you can continue building your fundraising capacity even after your work together has ended.
Specialized Skills: Whether it's grant writing, major donor cultivation, online fundraising, or donor retention, consultants often have specialized skills and can offer focused assistance.
Networking and Resources: Consultants can connect you with a broader network of potential donors and fundraising platforms, expanding your reach and opportunities.
To experience these promising benefits, the consultant’s guidance must align with your approach and mission, otherwise it won’t deliver much long-term value.
As an example of how a consultant can step in, the Donorly team helped a founder-led organization get its footing. The charismatic founder needed some coaching on the art of the ask, but we didn’t stop there! We migrated the organization into a new fundraising-focused CRM, organized gift records, set up simple routines for solicitations and events, streamlined its grant application process, and got board members involved.
In the end, the fundraising plan we created increased contributed revenue by 80% in two years. We also took the nonprofit’s gala from a net loss to tripling revenue year over year.
Can a fundraising consultant help with corporate partnerships?
A recent Giving USA report estimates that companies gave $29.48 billion to U.S. nonprofits within one year. That makes corporate giving an essential consideration for your fundraising strategy. Luckily, a fundraising consultant can assist with developing and enhancing corporate partnerships.
For instance, they may:
Leverage their network and research capabilities to identify potential corporate partners that align with your organization’s values.
Create compelling proposals tailored to corporate prospects, based on an understanding of what businesses are looking for in partnerships.
Negotiate partnership terms that meet your nonprofit’s needs while appealing to corporate interests.
Design partnership programs that engage corporate partners in meaningful ways, such as matching gifts, volunteer opportunities, or event sponsorships.
If you’re looking to initiate or expand your corporate partnerships, a fundraising consultant can provide valuable insights and strategies for building mutually beneficial relationships, ultimately enhancing your organization's ability to achieve its mission.
How much does a fundraising consultant cost?
The exact cost to work with a fundraising consultant will vary greatly based on your needs, goals, and timeframe for the engagement. While it’s hard to pinpoint exact numbers, there are a few common ways that consulting engagements are typically structured:
Daily rates for support and services
Fixed, per-project fees determined in advance
Subscription-style fees for ongoing support, as with prospect research services
Work with your organization’s leadership to examine your budget and determine what you’re willing to spend on consulting services. In general, one of the most effective, reliable, and transparent ways to handle consultant compensation will be to set a concrete rate for daily services or the entirety of the project early on in your working relationship.
Qualities of An Effective Fundraising Consultant
A good nonprofit fundraising consultant possesses a blend of qualities that enable them to effectively enhance an organization's fundraising efforts. As you consider potential consultants, look for these key attributes:
Experience with Similar Causes: They should have deep knowledge of fundraising principles and a proven track record of success with organizations similar to yours in terms of size, mission, and sector.
Deep Understanding of the Donor Landscape: Effective consultants have a thorough understanding of major donors, corporate partners, and other fundraising professionals.
Communication Skills: Your consultant should have excellent verbal and written communication skills to clearly articulate ideas, strategies, and expectations to a variety of stakeholders.
Creativity and Adaptability: Innovative thinking and an understanding that fundraising success requires persistence are key. Creative, flexible consultants will be able to develop unique fundraising ideas that set your organization apart and stay motivated to pinpoint what works.
Willingness To Do The Research: A fundraising consultant won’t shy away from hard work. For instance, when one of our clients received an unsolicited gift of $25,000, we conducted thorough research and found out that the very private individual had vast resources and a strong affinity for our client’s mission. Based on that information, the client devised a cultivation plan that led to a second gift of $2.5 million.
Passion: Your consultant should be genuinely interested in your cause, so they can craft messages that resonate with donors.
As you research different fundraising consultants, consider your needs, your budget, and the consultant’s willingness to collaborate with you. Since working with an expert is an investment in your nonprofit’s future, you want to find a true partner who will work with your team and vision, not try to steer your organization where they want it to go.
Best Fundraising Consultants For Nonprofits
Now that you’re familiar with the fundraising consultant hiring process, you’re ready to hire your own consultant. In this section, you’ll find our top recommendations for consultants who can serve as true partners and help your organization achieve great results.
1. Donorly — The Best All-Around Fundraising Consultant
At Donorly, we offer a full range of fundraising consulting services to small and mid-sized nonprofits that want to fundraise beyond their size and prepare for future growth. We’ll tailor our approach based on your nonprofit’s goals, size, mission, and community to set you up for long-term success. To put this philosophy into action, we emphasize donor research as the single most effective way for nonprofits to begin fundraising beyond their size. After all, strong donor relationships are the foundation of any nonprofit’s sustainability.
Services Offered:
New to Nonprofit Leaders Cohort Class: Our six-week intensive training course provides you and other new nonprofit leaders with the fundraising and solicitation skills needed to skyrocket your fundraising potential.
Three-Month Jumpstart: Partner with our fundraising and donor research team for a transformative three months. We’ll help you examine your existing fundraising systems, map out a strategy for growth, and plan the next steps for cultivation.
Bandwidth Buildout: Don’t have the bandwidth to support your fundraising growth right now? Donorly can step in and serve as a fractional team while we pave the way for you to hire a robust, purposeful development team.
Campaign Kickstart: The Donorly team is ready to coach you through your capital campaign from start to finish, whether it’s your first or your fiftieth. We bring powerful prospect research tools and expert guidance to the table to help you succeed.
Why Our Fundraising Consulting Firm Stands Out:
Donorly’s emphasis on donor research positions us as a top consulting firm that offers immediately effective solutions and lays the groundwork for sustained success. When you work with Donorly, you’re working with experts who understand your nonprofit and are truly invested in helping you exceed your goals.
An Example of How We Help Nonprofits Raise Money
Our fundraising experts remove the guesswork and boost fundraising results for all sorts of nonprofits. For one young organization, we helped create fundraising practices from scratch. The organization saw exponential growth in its first few years, and our team stepped in to create systems and processes to scale with that growth.
Today, the organization has documents and thorough systems for gift entry, donor acknowledgment, campaign management, collateral, and reporting. The Donorly team also helped establish a culture of cross-team communication to promote collaboration. For 3 years in a row, the organization has doubled contributed revenue. In the last fiscal year alone, it’s raised over $8 million!
2. Getting Attention — Best Google Grant Agency
Getting Attention is a consulting firm that empowers nonprofits to leverage the Google Ad Grant. As one of the best marketing resources available, the Google Ad Grant program offers eligible nonprofits up to $10,000 monthly to spend on Google search ads. Beyond the additional marketing funding, Getting Attention will help you place your donation form and other fundraising campaigns at the top of Google search results.
After your initial consultation, the Getting Attention team will dive into your website and Google Ad Grants account (if you have one) to figure out what is and isn’t working. If you’ve yet to get started, they can get you up and running by checking your Google Grants eligibility and applying on your behalf. From there, they’ll help you launch winning ad campaigns and stay compliant with Google’s regulations.
Services Offered:
Google Grant Applications: The Getting Attention team fully understands the Google Ad Grant application and eligibility requirements. They’ll help you submit an application with the highest possible chance for approval.
Ad Creation: Getting Attention prides itself on helping identify keywords and develop winning ads that communicate your mission and achieve your marketing goals.
Ongoing Compliance: Keep your account organized and comply with Google’s extensive guidelines. Getting Attention understands the compliance regulations, so you can keep your account in good standing and retain access to the program.
Account Reactivation: If your account ever falls out of compliance, Getting Attention will work with Google to get everything back in order.
Why This Fundraising Consulting Firm Made Our List:
Your nonprofit could be leveraging thousands of dollars worth of free advertising, but not knowing about the Google Ad Grant and how to manage that grant may be holding you back. Getting Attention aspires to change that, ensuring your mission is broadcast to the people who can help you move it forward. As Google-certified partners, they understand the program thoroughly and can find the keywords your donors are searching for online.
3. Kwala
Kwala is a specialized graphic design firm dedicated to serving the mission-driven sector. Their team collaborates with organizations to create top-notch marketing materials that enhance their causes both online and offline.
From designing social media infographics to crafting fundraising flyers, Kwala provides everything needed to build your nonprofit's brand and promote its initiatives. As their client, you’ll work with a dedicated graphic designer to convey your nonprofit exactly how you want through powerful designs.
Plus, they offer unlimited design requests and revisions, ensuring you receive marketing materials that communicate your mission perfectly. Here’s an example of their work:
Services Offered:
Physical marketing materials: Kwala can enhance your print marketing materials, such as fundraising flyers, stickers, and banners.
Digital marketing designs: Enhance your online visibility with Kwala’s designs for your website, social media, and digital advertisements.
Nonprofit logos: Kwala recognizes the critical role of your nonprofit logo and specializes in creating timeless, impactful logos that effectively represent your cause.
Product designs: Elevate your fundraising merchandise with Kwala’s custom designs for t-shirts, hats, and more.
Why This Fundraising Consulting Firm Made Our List:
Graphics are essential to successful fundraising campaigns. Kwala is not just another graphic design firm; they have a deep understanding of the nonprofit sector and the unique demands of standing out in a mission-driven environment.
4. Aly Sterling Philanthropy — Top True Partnership Consultant
Aly Sterling Philanthropy takes a holistic approach to its consulting services, ensuring that your nonprofit’s unique needs are met. This firm offers a number of services to set your organization up for sustained success, from fundraising planning to board leadership. It even specializes in helping nonprofits through turbulent times.
Services Offered:
Fundraising Planning: Aly Sterling Philanthropy can help you better understand donors’ motivations and enhance your strategy to cultivate stronger supporter relationships.
Donor Crisis Communications: This firm doesn’t shy away from helping nonprofits through tough economic times. They know how to help you connect with your donors when it matters most.
Board Leadership: The Aly Sterling team can re-energize your board through its Board Catalyst approach. This approach evaluates how your board works and then empowers you to help your leaders improve.
Why This Fundraising Consulting Firm Made Our List:
The Aly Sterling Philanthropy team is a group of consultants who will work with your nonprofit to make sure your needs are met and expectations are exceeded. This firm stands out as one that will truly partner with you to get you where you want to go, instead of chasing its own interests.
5. Averill Fundraising Solutions — Capital Campaign Consulting
Averill Fundraising Solutions brings decades of capital campaign experience to nonprofits in various sectors. They’ll assess your organization’s readiness and customize a solution to help you reach your capital campaign goal. They also offer several additional services to help you increase your organization’s fundraising capacity.
Services Offered:
Feasibility Studies: An Averill Fundraising Solutions feasibility and planning study will help your organization identify whether you’re ready to dive into a capital campaign. Their team will assess your organization’s capacity, test your case for support, and determine whether your major donors are ready to support you.
Capital Campaign Planning: This fundraising consulting firm will ensure you have a customized solution and management plan for your next capital campaign, empowering you to reach your goals.
Executive Search: From recruiting to onboarding, Averill Fundraising Solutions can also help you find talented Chief Development Officers who will fit into your organization and contribute to your success.
Why This Fundraising Consulting Firm Made Our List:
Averill Fundraising Solutions has helped nonprofits raise a combined $3 billion over the years, and they bring a drive to succeed to every project they take on. With their hands-on approach, they can help you reach your goals too, no matter your sector.
6. Marc Pitman — Best Fundraising Consultant For Training Courses
Known as the “Johnny Appleseed of fundraising,” Marc Pitman heads The Fundraising Coach and Concord Leadership Group. Pitman offers training courses that can teach your nonprofit’s team better fundraising practices and will guide your staff through these courses. To leverage Pitman’s expertise, your nonprofit can book a training session or speaking engagement.
Services Offered:
Training Courses: From fundraising asks to board member training, Pitman offers a variety of training courses and sessions. Pitman can guide you through the course materials and help you apply the material to your nonprofit.
Speaking Engagement: Pitman can speak at your event or conference, offering a high-energy presentation that will provide old and new nonprofit professionals with a wealth of fundraising knowledge.
Leadership Training: Through the Concord Leadership Group, Pitman will provide your leaders (or future leaders) with training that will maximize their influence and reach their full leadership potential.
Why This Fundraising Consulting Firm Made Our List:
Pitman is an experienced and gifted speaker who knows how to engage nonprofit professionals and encourage them to grow. Plus, with a training course approach, your nonprofit has more wiggle room to work together in-house, applying the best practices you’ve learned about rather than relying on an outside expert to do the work for you. If you feel this may be the right approach for your team, Marc Pitman is a great pick.
Choosing the Right Fundraising Consultant: 5 Steps
When hiring a fundraising consultant, there are a few core steps you should follow regardless of the exact type or scale of support you’re looking for. Here’s what we recommend to ensure you’re partnering with the right consultant for your organization:
1. Define what your organization needs from a fundraising consultant.
Understanding your nonprofit’s needs will be essential for the hiring process. Why do you want to work with a fundraising consultant? List specific reasons your nonprofit wants to enlist help from fundraising consultants, such as:
General strengthening of your fundraising processes
Campaign-specific strategy and support
Corporate partnership or workplace giving support
Capital campaign feasibility studies or internal readiness assessments
Prospect research support and training
Identification and strategy development for new revenue streams
New fundraising technology implementation
Advertising support to drive people to your fundraisers and events
Does one of these categories jump out at you as something your organization needs help with? If so, define your specific needs in that category.
Once you’ve defined why you need a consultant’s support, consider what you want from that relationship. Work with your board and leadership to outline the specific achievements and deliverables you’ll seek and how you’ll define success when working with your consultant. Document these decisions to use later when drafting your request for proposal (RFP).
Suppose you’re hiring a fundraising consultant to support a specific major campaign. In that case, this process should occur early in the planning stages to ensure your consultant’s goals fully align with the broader campaign’s goals.
2. Develop a request for proposal.
If you’re starting a major project like a capital campaign, you’ll need to develop a request for proposal (RFP) next. If you’re just looking for general fundraising support, you can skip this step or use the questions below as a way to organize your thinking during your search for the right firm.
An RFP is an external-facing document that organizations use to define their needs and communicate expectations with fundraising consultants they’re considering hiring. An RFP gives potential consultants the opportunity to pitch a strategy tailored to your specific needs.
For nonprofit fundraising, fully customized strategy and support will always be better than one-size-fits-all solutions, so make sure your RFP clearly and accurately explains what you want from a potential partner. For a nonprofit fundraising consultant RFP, you’ll need to include these key pieces of information:
Background information on your organization
The RFP’s purpose
The project’s scope of work and timeframe, breaking down your expectations as specifically as possible
Your engagement’s specific goals and how success will be measured
Any proposal submission requirements or requests, including due dates
Draft your RFP carefully and get input from multiple leaders or stakeholders at your organization to ensure it’s as robust and accurate as possible. A thorough RFP outlining your needs will result in more valuable proposals when talking to potential candidates.
3. Begin your consultant search.
Now that you’ve completed the prep work, you can start searching for the right fundraising consultant for your nonprofit.
You can begin your research while your RFP is still in progress. Just be sure you clearly understand and can articulate your needs. Fundraising consultants can specialize in one or many distinct services, so a solid idea of what you’re looking for will be essential for the initial research process.
Here are a few tips for identifying and narrowing down your list of potential fundraising consultants:
Get recommendations from peers, colleagues, and other organizations that have previously worked with fundraising campaign consultants.
Do some general online research to get a sense of the leaders in the space who specialize in your needs. How do they talk about their services? What do others say about their work?
Explore professional organizations that recommend consultants, like The Giving Institute or the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP).
Look for consultants who explain their fundraising philosophies. This way, those who make your list will align with your organization’s size, culture, and values. For example, Donorly takes a people-first approach to fundraising, we believe in the power of communities, and we stand for generous knowledge-sharing and transparency.
If you’re looking at non-local consultants, ensure that your potential consultant can work with your team remotely and has a proven track record of serving nonprofits from a distance.
As you narrow down your list of fundraising campaign consultants, make any final adjustments to your RFP to account for any changes in your goals or scope of needs.
4. Meet with potential consultants and submit RFPs.
Once you have a handful of potential fundraising consultants in mind, contact them and learn more about their services.
Rather than blindly submitting an RFP, call or email each consultant first to express your interest. The consultants will appreciate the chance to build rapport with your team and learn more about your organization and mission before drafting a proposal.
Depending on your fundraising needs, get a sense of each consultant’s approach by asking questions such as:
Can you describe your experience with nonprofit organizations similar to ours?
How do you involve an organization's existing team in the fundraising process?
Can you provide examples of your success in securing corporate partnerships?
What challenges have you faced in fundraising, and how have you overcome them?
Can you describe a time when a fundraising strategy didn’t go as planned and how you adapted?
What are your expectations from us to make this collaboration successful?
Once your nonprofit and the consultant have a general understanding of one another, send them your RFP with a specific due date. Give them a reasonable turnaround time, typically a minimum of two weeks, to ensure they can deliver a high-quality proposal.
We also recommend asking candidates to include a list of references with their proposals.
5. Review proposals and choose your consultant.
As consulting candidates submit their proposals, form a small team or committee to review them and follow up with references. Look for proposals that directly satisfy your needs, lay out actionable and measurable plans to achieve your goals, and follow a timeline that aligns with your expectations.
One or two proposals will likely stand out as the best fit for your nonprofit. Make amendments and reach back out to discuss specific logistical changes as needed. This is a typical part of the hiring process, and the best fundraising consultants will work with you to refine the proposal to better align their strategies with your needs and preferences. A willingness to work with you to hammer out the perfect roadmap for your engagement is a hallmark of a valuable partner.
Next, pick your winning proposal and notify the fundraising consultant. Continue working with them as needed to iron out logistics like timeframes, compensation, and key performance indicators (KPIs). Once everyone is in agreement, sign a contract with your fundraising consultant and get excited to improve your fundraising strategy!
Charting The Course Ahead: Next Steps
Hiring a fundraising consultant is an excellent way to develop an improved and sustainable fundraising strategy that can bring your nonprofit success now and in the future. As you begin the process of looking for a fundraising consultant to work with, rely on the steps and recommendations in this guide. You will be able to narrow down what you’re looking for and find the right consultant who will act as a partner and champion for your cause.
Want to keep learning about ways to improve your fundraising approach? Here are some resources for further reading:
Free Step-by-Step Fundraising Plan Template for Nonprofits. This fundraising template sums up Donorly’s many years of fundraising experience and can be an excellent resource to work off of as you take steps to strengthen your own strategy.
Prospect Research Guide: Everything Nonprofits Need to Know. Prospect research, the process of assessing donors’ capacity and affinity for giving to your nonprofit, is essential for fundraising success. Learn everything you need to know in this guide!
Capital Campaigns: A Success Guide for Small Nonprofits. Capital campaigns are complex and intense. This crash course will explain the ins and outs of a capital campaign and how to launch one.
