Movement Development Assessment
Get your fundraising focused on what actually drives revenue.
A strategic assessment that aligns your team, clarifies priorities, and gives you a concrete path to revenue growth.
Most of the organizations we work with have budgets between $1M and $10M and are in a growth or transition phase.
Organizations come to us when they’re working hard but revenue has stalled. The team is busy, there’s real demand for the work, and the expectation is that fundraising should be growing. It isn’t.
At this stage, the issue usually isn’t donors. It’s where time and attention are going.
Teams spend months fixing systems, planning events without a clear path to major gifts, investing heavily in content and visibility, and avoiding the one-on-one donor conversations or funder prospecting and relationship building that actually drive revenue. Those conversations feel high stakes, and many teams haven’t been supported to do them well.
Most teams are spending more time on indirect outreach than on actual donor conversations.
Over time, that misalignment adds up. High-impact work gets crowded out, growth stalls, and the organization starts making decisions based on constraint instead of strategy.
What this work does
Movement Development Assessment
The Movement Development Assessment helps you step back, look clearly at what is and isn’t producing revenue, and make focused decisions about where your team’s time should go next.
We look at your donor base, your revenue streams, and how your team is actually spending time. Then we work with your leadership, staff, and board to align around a more effective way forward.
In many cases, teams start shifting behavior during the process, and revenue follows within the next cycle. You can see how this played out in this case study about client Dogwood Alliance.
By the end of the process, you have a clear roadmap for the next three to five years and shared expectations across your team about how fundraising actually works.
A structured, high-touch engagement that brings clarity, alignment, and a plan your team can actually execute.
Development Assessment Deliverables
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Stakeholder interviews and key takeaways
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Donor base analysis including segmentation, major donor research, and wealth screening
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Targeted institutional funding and grants prospecting
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Industry benchmarking against peer organizations
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Review of fundraising plans, communications, and sustaining donor program
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Systems assessment with recommendations
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Capacity recommendations across staffing, budget, and tools
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Strategic roadmap for revenue growth
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Marketing and fundraising alignment strategies
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Revenue projections and multi-year forecasting tools
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Summary of strengths, opportunities, and strategic recommendations
How We Work
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Facilitated strategic deep-dive sessions to align team, refine strategy, and share findings
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Biweekly check-in meetings to move work forward and maintain momentum
What changes
Executive Directors and Development Directors spend more time in direct donor conversations and/or pursuing great-fit grant funders, supported by team members who handle outreach and coordination so that work happens consistently.
Low-return activities are reduced or eliminated. Events and campaigns are evaluated based on what they produce, not just how they feel. Board members are more actively engaged, making introductions and supporting fundraising in concrete ways.
The work becomes more focused, and the results follow.
At this stage, we don’t recommend trying to scale grassroots as your primary revenue engine. Most organizations will see stronger returns from major donor and targeted funding strategies, while maintaining enough grassroots activity to keep a pipeline flowing.
If this sounds familiar
If your team is stretched, your revenue has stalled, and you know there is more potential than what you’re currently seeing, this is the work to do next. Schedule time with our team to learn more.
Book a Discovery Call
We’ll look at your current fundraising landscape and determine if the Assessment is the right next step.