How We Serve
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
ENROLLMENT
STRATEGY
DEVELOPMENT
STRATEGY
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 and fully pay for itself in revenue growth within a 12-month cycle.
The future funding of your organization relies upon you building deep and trusting relationships with donors who have a passion for your mission and capacity to support your vision. Building these types of relationships requires time, effort, accountability, and patience from organization leadership. Relationships are not built quickly, but intentionally, and over a period of time in which donors are informed, cultivated, and inspired by your mission while deepening their sense of trust in the organization.
Development Counsel is a perfect fit for organizations looking to
Reduce their dependence on events and annual appeal letters
Increase funding to support operational growth
Develop a major gift fundraising program that nurtures existing donors
Move from a culture of transactional to transformational giving
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
Enrollment
strategy
How important is one family to your school? For a private PK-12 school, the average school family represents over $150,000 in lifetime revenue. It is clear why a sound enrollment strategy, that not only helps you increase new enrollment but also retain existing families, is vital to the financial health of your school.
Enrollment not only represents the majority of your annual revenue, it is also the primary focus of your school’s mission. For a private school to remain sustainable, there must be a balance between the tuition a family pays and the perceived value received. We can help you develop a consistent enrollment strategy that helps you attract the student mix you desire, exceed the expectation of prospective families, and respect all families as valued customers.
Our Enrollment Counsel services will help you:
Gain leadership commitment to a well-defined enrollment mission and school value proposition
Adopt best-practice strategies with measurable success metrics at each stage
Evaluate enrollment systems, processes, and barriers to entry
Develop program growth strategies, including marketing, communication, and team training
Strategic
development plan
One of the best ways to set your organization on a path to fundraising success is through the development of a Strategic Development Plan. This is much more than a development calendar or moves management plan.
A Strategic Development Plan is a comprehensive blueprint that aligns with your organization’s overall strategic plan and defines the fundraising programs, donor engagement methods, and short- and long-term financial goals necessary to achieve the vision of your organization.
While this planning may seem straight-forward, many organizations have simply not taken the time or completed the in-depth work necessary to develop a true roadmap for financial stability. Mission Advancement will not only help you develop your plan but keep you accountable to achieving your goals.
We offer three levels of Strategic Development Plan services:
Self-guided workbooks to guide you through the steps to begin your own plan
Virtual engagement that will guide you through the process of creating the plan and socializing it with your leadership
Comprehensive services which will provide a full Strategic Development Plan including major gift fundraising strategies, customized donor growth plans, and specific recommendations for adoption and implementation
Learn more about our Strategic Development Plan services
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 growth 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.”
