It’s all about relationships. Our relationship with you, and your relationship with your donors. Let us share our unique and refreshing approach to building and maintaining connections.
How We Serve
THE SERVICES WE OFFER
Mission Advancement has an unwavering focus on serving the passions, interests, and needs of the donor – offering a paradigm shift in institutional fundraising. Our unique philosophy and approach have helped raise more than $6 billion for a wide variety of nonprofit organizations nationwide.
DEVELOPMENT
DIAGNOSTIC
ANNUAL
FUNDRAISING
PLANNING
STUDIES
CAPITAL
CAMPAIGNS
BOARD
TRAINING
ANNUAL
FUNDRAISING
All nonprofits have the ability to significantly grow annual fundraising, regardless of their history or current development resources. Our Development Counsel service is designed to help you break through to the next level of growth.
Development Counsel service is offered in four distinct levels of service based on the specific needs of and circumstances within your development office.
Our Development Counsel service is priced to fit within the budget of all nonprofits and will fully pay for itself in revenue growth within the same fiscal year. We recommend beginning with a Development Diagnostic Checkup (DCU), to assess your current development operation. The entire fee for the DCU can be credited toward subsequent development counsel services provided by the Mission Advancement team.
Distinct service levels:
Level 1— Where Do We Start?
Building the Foundation
Level 2 — How Do We Grow?
Ready for Relationship-based Fundraising
Level 3 — How Do We Thrive?
Ready to Take it to the Next Level
Level 4 — How Do We Overcome Specific Challenges?
Extraordinary Circumstances in a Mature Development Operation
CAPITAL
CAMPAIGN
Mission Advancement’s proven capital campaign approach is built upon the philosophy that donors will give their best gifts as a result of a deep connection with an organization and its vision.
We offer specialized training, tools, support, and monitoring to implement customized campaign strategies and high-impact activities that will sincerely engage your donors and invite them to make capacity gifts. We are with you every step of the way, guiding you through the crucial steps required for a successful campaign
Crucial steps required for a successful campaign:
Crafting and communicating a compelling and urgent campaign story.
Building the appropriate campaign leadership team.
identifying a target group of prospective donors with connection to the mission and capacity to fund the campaign’s financial objective.
Creating the strategy and environment for capacity giving to occur.
Developing and managing a campaign plan and timetable.
DEVELOPMENT
DIAGNOSTIC
To chart the most efficient and successful course to any destination, you must first know the starting point. A Development Diagnostic with Mission Advancement is designed to evaluate where you are in your development operation, determine areas that are on track, and identify specific measures that can be implemented to set your organization on its course to the next level of strategic funding activities.
Development Diagnostic:
Interviews with key staff and board leadership
Review of development communication materials, funding strategies and budget & financials
Presentation of findings and recommendations to organizational leadership
PLANNING
STUDIES
Mission Advancement’s planning and feasibility studies help ensure that you are fully equipped to effectively execute your capital campaign. This is a strategic process that provides your leadership and staff with the knowledge and tools to be successful in a campaign initiative.
A planning study with MAP is designed to assess:
The internal and external perceptions of your organization and its mission.
The perceived strengths and weaknesses of your proposed projects to be funded.
The priority your constituency would assign to the proposed capital campaign.
The willingness and availability of key leadership for the proposed campaign.
The climate for fundraising and the attainability of the campaign’s financial need.
The potential impact of other factors in your community (economy, competing campaigns, etc.).
BOARD
TRAINING
Committed board leadership is an integral piece of a healthy nonprofit organization, not to mention a thriving development operation. Recruiting and retaining the right board members for your organization directly impacts effectiveness at all levels.
Mission Advancement has vast experience with boards in all sizes and types of nonprofits. Do you wonder how many board members you need, and how often they should meet, to be most effective? Do your board members struggle with their role in fundraising? How well does your board understand its role and responsibilities?
Let us help you customize a plan to:
Evaluate your current board structure
Train board members through workshops or retreats
Recommend specific courses of action for building the optimal group to meet your specific organizational needs
OUR SECTORS
Mission Advancement has provided guidance to thousands of nonprofits with differing missions across the United States. We specialize in the unique fundraising challenges in these sectors:
PROUD MEMBERS OR SPONSORS OF THE FOLLOWING
Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI)
Strengthening Christian schools and equipping Christian educators worldwide.
Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)
Inspiring global change and supported efforts that generated over $1 trillion.
DonorSearch
Providing accurate and actionable information to identify your best prospective major donors.
Mission Capital
Providing tools, guidance and resources to support Central Texas nonprofits.
The Nonprofit Council
Supporting, connecting and strengthening the leadership of nonprofits across South Central Texas.
Our sole focus is helping nonprofit organizations raise the financial resources needed to sustain and grow their missions. We’ll work side-by-side with your team to implement new and effective fundraising strategies.
"At the end of the day, it’s all about relationships. MAP has been tremendously beneficial in helping us develop and execute our individual donor plans, and we’ve seen tremendous results.”
Alan GrahamMobile Loaves & Fishes / Austin, TX
“Genuine, professional and extremely knowledgeable – those three words define Mission Advancement’s work. They are genuine in the interest they take in their clients; they demonstrate professionalism in all aspects of their interactions, and I have personally found their pool of knowledge to be both vast and adaptable. This team has been a tremendous asset to our organization!”
Megan SadowskiCotter Schools / Winona, MN
“Mission Advancement has changed the way that ChildFund approaches major and principal gifts. We have seen substantial growth in a short period of time and our work with MAP has exceeded our expectations.”
Steve StirlingChildFund International / Richmond, VA
"Mission Advancement’s LEAP service helped St. Patrick High School dramatically grow our annual fund through relational, major gifts fundraising. We are happy with the decision to invest in this service that will have a positive impact on our Office of Institutional Advancement for years to come."
Jeff ArditoSt. Patrick Catholic High School / Chicago, Illinois
“I appreciate the strategic direction and sound advice Mission Advancement has brought to our campaign planning. They have helped our leadership think differently about our relationships with donors and have raised sights about what is possible – and how it is possible. I am so glad we hired MAP!”
Sara JacobsonMinnehaha Academy / Minneapolis, MN
“Mission Advancement's methodology of tapping into the capacity of a relatively small number of individual donors rather than the local churches to fund our campaign has produced results we have never seen before in Indiana. We have surpassed the expectations of the feasibility study and are closing in on our victory goal, which will exceed our original need by over $3 million.”
