Nonprofit Fundraising with Courtney Henry

Hiring a fundraising consultant can be a great investment for a nonprofit. But first, you need to know what you're actually hiring them to do.

Fundraising consulting can mean everything from strategy, feasibility studies and campaign planning to prospect research, Cases for Support, board training, grant writing and major gifts advice.

And that's where organisations can get into trouble.

You can hire an excellent consultant who delivers exactly what you asked for and still finish the engagement with no more funding, or fundraising capability, than you had when you started.

In this episode of Nonprofit Fundraising with Courtney Henry, I unpack what a fundraising consultant can genuinely help you with, what they can't do for you, and how to work out what you should actually be buying.

I cover:

• where external fundraising expertise can be incredibly valuable
• what consultants can and can't realistically take off your plate
• why a consultant can't simply “go and get you the money”
• the difference between a deliverable, implementation and building internal capability
• why your donor relationships should ultimately belong to your organisation
• what to think about before engaging a fundraising consultant

Fundraising consultants can be incredibly valuable. I know, because I am one.

But hiring a fundraising consultant isn't a fundraising strategy.

Start with the outcome you need, understand the problem you're trying to solve, and then decide what kind of support will actually help you get there.

Hosted by Courtney Henry, founder of Henry Consulting Co and Raise Room.

Hiring a fundraiser doesn’t mean your CEO can step away from fundraising completely.

A good fundraiser should take most of the fundraising work off the CEO’s plate. They can manage the strategy, prospects, donor pipeline, meeting preparation, proposals, follow-up and all the work happening behind the scenes.

But there are parts of fundraising they can’t replace.

In this episode of Nonprofit Fundraising with Courtney Henry, I talk about why CEO involvement matters when you’re trying to build donor relationships and raise funding, particularly as the opportunities become larger and more relationship-led.

We cover why donors may want access to organisational leadership, how CEO involvement can build trust and confidence, what can happen when the CEO is absent from fundraising, and what the CEO actually needs to do without becoming the fundraiser themselves. 

The goal isn’t to turn your CEO into a full-time fundraiser.

It’s to have the fundraiser own the fundraising process while the CEO contributes the leadership, relationships and credibility that only they can bring. 

You can delegate fundraising. You can’t completely delegate leadership.

Hosted by Courtney Henry, founder of Henry Consulting Co and Raise Room.

Applying for more grants might not be the answer to your nonprofit's funding problem.

Don't get me wrong. I love grants. My first job in fundraising was in grant writing, and philanthropic grants can be a fantastic part of a nonprofit's funding strategy.

But if your organisation needs $250,000 and you're constantly applying for $10,000, $20,000 or $50,000 grants, it's worth asking a bigger question:

Are the grants you're pursuing actually capable of getting you to your funding goal?

In this episode of Nonprofit Fundraising with Courtney Henry, I talk about why philanthropic grants and philanthropy are much more closely connected than many nonprofits realise.

I cover:

• Why applying for more grants isn't always the answer to a bigger funding need
• The difference between philanthropic and government grants
• Why some of the best grant fundraising starts before you submit an application
• Why relationships with foundations and funders matter
• What “invitation only” can really mean
• How meeting funders before applying changed the way I approached grant fundraising
• Why organisations already pursuing grants may be closer to broader philanthropic fundraising than they think

One of the biggest lessons I learned early in my fundraising career was that a foundation isn't just an application portal. There are people on the other side of that application making decisions about what gets funded.

Building relationships with those people can completely change the way you approach grants. 

So rather than only asking:

“What grants can we apply for?”

I'd encourage you to start asking:

“Who might want to fund this?”

Your grant strategy doesn't need to disappear. But it might be time to start looking beyond the application form and build a broader philanthropic funding strategy. 

I'm Courtney Henry, a nonprofit fundraising strategist and founder of Henry Consulting Co. I've spent more than a decade helping nonprofits build fundraising programs, pursue major philanthropic funding and raise the money they need to do their work.

Subscribe to Nonprofit Fundraising with Courtney Henry for practical conversations about what it actually takes to raise the funding your organisation needs.

If you run a small nonprofit without a fundraising team, philanthropy might be one of the best fundraising options you're not considering.

In this episode of Nonprofit Fundraising with Courtney Henry, I talk through exactly how I would approach raising funds if I were the CEO of a small nonprofit with a clear funding goal and no dedicated fundraising team.

I love philanthropy for smaller organisations because you don't necessarily need a huge team or thousands of donors to make it work. In fact, being small can sometimes be an advantage. You're often much closer to the need, the people you serve and the impact a donor could help create.

I cover:

• Why small nonprofits can be particularly well suited to philanthropy
• What I'd get clear on before looking for potential funders
• The people you actually need involved if you don't have a fundraising team
• How I'd identify potential funders based on alignment, capacity and connection
• How to move from identifying a potential donor to building a relationship and working towards a gift
• Why you can start building fundraising capability before you're ready to hire a dedicated fundraiser

Philanthropy can look like something only large nonprofits, universities and major institutions do because they're often the organisations we see securing and talking about major gifts. But you don't need their enormous fundraising teams to get started. You need to understand the process. 

If I were running a small nonprofit with a clear funding goal and no fundraising team, I'd give philanthropy a very serious look.

I'm Courtney Henry, a nonprofit fundraising strategist and founder of Henry Consulting Co. I've spent more than a decade helping nonprofits build fundraising programs, pursue major philanthropic funding and raise the money they need to do their work.

Subscribe to Nonprofit Fundraising with Courtney Henry for practical conversations about what it actually takes to raise the funding your organisation needs.

How involved does a CEO actually need to be in fundraising?

If your organisation is pursuing significant funding, the CEO doesn’t need to become the fundraiser. But they probably can’t hand the whole thing over to the fundraising team either.

In this episode of The Nonprofit Fundraising Podcast, I talk about what I actually need from a CEO when I’m working with them to raise funds, and what the fundraiser should be taking care of behind the scenes.

I cover:

• What a CEO needs to know about the project they’re fundraising for
• Why understanding and genuinely caring about the impact matters
• How to talk to donors without treating every conversation like a pitch
• What your fundraiser should be doing to prepare you for donor meetings
• The small things CEOs need to do between meetings to keep relationships moving
• What the CEO doesn’t need to manage
• How fundraisers can train and support CEOs to become really good at fundraising

The CEO doesn’t need to keep track of every donor, decide the next move or manage the fundraising process.

That’s the fundraiser’s job.

But when the time comes to build the relationship, talk about the impact, make the phone call, send the email or have the funding conversation, the CEO has an important role to play.

The goal isn’t to turn your CEO into a fundraiser. It’s to make sure they know how to play their part in raising the funding your organisation needs.

I’m Courtney Henry, a nonprofit fundraising strategist and founder of Henry Consulting Co. I’ve spent more than a decade helping nonprofits build fundraising programs, pursue major philanthropic funding and raise the money they need to do their work.

Subscribe for practical conversations about nonprofit fundraising, philanthropy, donors, boards, fundraising teams and what it actually takes to raise funds.

Thinking about hiring a fundraiser because your nonprofit needs more funding?

 There are a few things I think you should have in place first.

In this episode of The Nonprofit Fundraising Podcast, I talk about why hiring a fundraiser doesn't automatically make an organisation ready to raise funds, and what you can do to give that person the best chance of succeeding.

I cover:

• Why you need to know what you're actually fundraising for before you hire
• The difference between having a Case for Support and having a genuinely fundable project
• Why your funding priorities should come from your organisation's strategy
• What happens when you ask a fundraiser to build the fundraising function and raise the money at the same time
• Why leadership still needs to be involved in fundraising
• How to set your fundraiser, and your organisation, up for success

Hiring a great fundraiser can be one of the best investments a nonprofit makes. But they need something to work with.

The goal isn't to do more fundraising. It's to raise the funding your organisation needs.

I'm Courtney Henry, a nonprofit fundraising strategist and founder of Henry Consulting Co. I've spent more than a decade helping nonprofits build fundraising programs, pursue major philanthropic funding and raise the money they need to do their work.