Fractional Development Manager and Director
Senior development leadership, without the cost or the commitment of a full-time hire.
Some organizations are between directors. Others have a hardworking team that has never had anyone senior steering the work. Either way, the calendar keeps moving and the board still expects results.
I step in and run it. For a set number of hours each week I take on the manager or director role: owning the fundraising calendar, coaching staff, preparing board and committee materials, and keeping membership, annual fund, and major gift work on track while you hire or rethink the position. I work shoulder to shoulder with your team, not from the outside. I am not here to hand you a binder and leave.
My background in HR and operations means I can also manage the handoff to your permanent hire, including change management and onboarding and offboarding for staff and board members. Documented procedures, clean handoff files, and orientation materials keep institutional knowledge in the building when people leave.
Well suited to leadership vacancies, first-time development hires, and interim coverage during a search.
Development Operations and Data Systems
The infrastructure your fundraising quietly depends on.
Fundraising rarely breaks loudly. A gift gets coded to the wrong fund, an import doubles a few hundred records, a report pulls the wrong fiscal year, and by the time anyone catches it the board has made decisions on numbers that were never right.
This work scales to what you need. Start with one piece or take all three.
Systems and data. I build and manage the systems underneath your development work: database analysis, imports and conversions, ongoing hygiene, deduplication, coding standards your team can follow, and reporting people actually use. Everything gets documented, so the work does not leave when a staff member does.
Strategic planning. I turn what your data shows into a plan. You get a roadmap for membership, annual fund, and major donors, with priorities sequenced by what will move revenue first.
Staff facilitation. Messaging tends to fracture between departments. I run working sessions with your full staff so program, finance, communications, and development leave with one shared way of describing the work, and a donor hears the same story from a gift officer, a program lead, or the executive director.
Fundraising Appeals
Design and execute multi-channel campaigns that connect with donors and drive results.
From concept to mailbox, I handle strategy, copywriting, segmentation, list management, and production coordination.
Segmentation decides who hears which message, and it is usually where a campaign is won or lost. I build your lists from what your donors have actually done, not from a single blast to everyone on file.
A multi-channel approach pairs direct mail with email and social outreach on the same schedule, so a donor sees a consistent ask wherever they encounter it.
I can also build your appeal schedule alongside your event calendar, so your campaigns and your gala are not chasing the same donors in the same month.
Fundraising Events
Galas, donor stewardship gatherings, and cultivation events, from first budget to final thank-you.
A good event does more than break even. It moves people closer to your mission and sets up the ask that comes after.
I build and run your events start to finish. Venue and vendor negotiation, sponsorship strategy and solicitation, table and guest list strategy, the program and run of show, the appeal moment itself, committee and volunteer management, and execution on the night. Your staff gets to be present with your donors instead of managing a clipboard.
I handle the unglamorous half too, since that is where events usually leak money and goodwill. Registration and payment setup, accurate gift entry, fast acknowledgments, and a post-event report showing what the evening truly cost, what it raised, and which guests are worth a follow-up call this month.
Already have a signature gala that has flattened out? I can assess what is holding it back before you commit another year and another budget to the same format.
Donor Relations and Stewardship
Transform one-time donors into loyal champions of your cause.
I build stewardship plans that map the donor journey and set a communication rhythm for each giving level, so you know who gets a call, who gets a report, and when.
Whether you want to grow planned giving, open the door to non-cash gifts, or make sure your donor reports speak to what each segment actually cares about, I build the infrastructure that keeps those relationships going as your list grows. When the underlying data needs work first, the development operations work above covers that side as well.
Communication Audits
Your words matter.
Are they working as hard as they could be?
An audit gives you fresh eyes on the materials that represent your organization to the world: your website, brochures, annual reports, and donor appeals.
You get specific edits, not general impressions. Where the case for support wanders, where jargon has crept in, where a reader would put the piece down before reaching the ask.
An audit tells you where your messaging drifts. If the drift is coming from different departments describing the work in different words, the facilitated staff sessions above are the fix.
Grants
Strengthen your grant applications with expert support.
I write proposals, manage the application process, and keep you on deadline. I know what reviewers look for and how to tell your organization's story in a way that survives a scoring rubric.