Service 03
From the first conversation to the final stewardship letter - full-cycle campaign strategy and execution.
What It Is
A fundraising campaign is not a mailing. It's a coordinated, multi-channel effort to connect your supporters with your mission at a moment of invitation - and to ask them to participate in something larger than themselves. Done well, it deepens relationships, grows your donor base, and raises the money your organization needs to do its work.
I design and manage campaigns from strategy through execution: feasibility studies, the case for support, donor communications, solicitation plan, volunteer coordination, stewardship, and the storytelling that ties it all together. Every campaign I run is built on the conviction that great fundraising is great communication - and that donors give when they feel genuinely invited, not just solicited.
Campaign Types
Annual Funds: Year-round programs of cultivation, communication, and solicitation that turn one-time donors into lifelong partners. I design the structure, write the appeals, and build the systems that make it sustainable.
Capital Campaigns: Major fundraising initiatives to build, expand, or endow your organization. I lead feasibility studies, build the case for support, identify and cultivate lead gift prospects, and manage the quiet and public phases of the campaign.
Legacy Giving Programs: Planned giving initiatives that invite your most loyal donors to include your organization in their estate plans. These campaigns require a particular sensitivity - and a long view.
Special Initiatives: One-time campaigns tied to a specific need or opportunity. Often the right entry point for organizations that haven't run a formal campaign before.
What You Get
A well-run campaign does more than hit a revenue goal. It deepens your relationship with existing donors, introduces your organization to new supporters, trains your board and staff in fundraising, and leaves you with infrastructure you didn't have before. The best campaigns I've run have left organizations permanently stronger.
I bring a writer's sensibility to every campaign - because the story you tell about your mission is the engine that drives everything else. Donors don't give to budgets. They give to visions of a better world, compellingly described.
"The heart of the work was storytelling - finding the language that honoured what the organization meant to the people who built it, and making that story compelling enough to inspire a new generation of supporters."- John Jalsevac, on the Peterborough Singers campaign
Common Questions
A full-cycle campaign includes a case for support, donor communications and appeal letters, a solicitation plan, feasibility study (for capital campaigns), volunteer and board coordination, stewardship protocols, and the storytelling strategy that ties everything together. Specific components vary by campaign type.
An annual fund is a year-round program of cultivation and solicitation that sustains operations and builds a loyal donor base over time. A capital campaign is a time-limited initiative to build, expand, or endow your organization - with a specific goal and a quiet phase followed by a public phase. Annual funds focus on volume and retention; capital campaigns focus on transformational gifts.
A feasibility study involves confidential interviews with major prospects and key stakeholders to assess appetite for the campaign, the strength of the case for support, and the likely availability of lead gifts. The result is an honest assessment of whether the campaign goal is achievable and what conditions need to be in place before going public.
Successful legacy programs are built on deep relationships with your most loyal donors. The key elements are a warm, personal approach to the conversation; clear information about how to make a bequest; a recognition society that honours legacy donors; and ongoing stewardship that makes donors feel valued long after their gift is arranged.
Every engagement begins the same way: with an honest discussion about your organization, your mission, and where you want to go. No pitch. No obligation.
Phone
Location
Kawartha Lakes, Ontario - Serving non-profits across Canada and the United States