Insights and Events

As a consulting firm, we understand that selecting a consultant is not a simple process for any nonprofit. This post shares expertise and guidance to help.

Nonprofit boards prevent leadership vacancy crises by treating succession as ongoing governance, not an emergency response. That means building a written transition plan long before any executive director hire becomes urgent, strengthening the board’s own succession pipeline, and maintaining current knowledge of leadership benchmarks and candidate markets in your region. A vacancy becomes a crisis […]

A nonprofit interim executive is an experienced outside leader temporarily placed at the helm during a leadership transition. They stabilize operations, assess organizational health, and prepare the organization for a permanent hire, typically serving four to eight months while the board conducts its nonprofit executive search. Interim executives are increasingly common in the sector, and […]

Leila Thomas Joins CapDev as Senior Counsel We are excited to introduce Leila Thomas, who joins our team as Senior Counsel. Leila comes to CapDev with a strong background in philanthropy, strategy, and nonprofit finance, along with a track record of driving sustained revenue growth and building meaningful, mission-aligned relationships. Prior to joining CapDev, Leila served […]

Three months into the campaign, the committee meeting had become awkwardly quiet. Eight people sat around the table, but only two had made any solicitation calls. The others offered various reasons: too busy, waiting for the right moment, not comfortable asking, needed more training. The campaign chair finally addressed what everyone was thinking. “We recruited […]

The board member looked concerned. “If we’ve only raised $8.2 million of our $10 million goal after 14 months, shouldn’t we announce the campaign publicly and ask everyone for help?” The campaign chair shook his head. “We’re actually ahead of schedule. Our plan was to reach 80% before going public, and we’re already past that. […]

The executive director laid the glossy brochure on the conference table. Forty-three pages of architectural renderings, program statistics, and organizational history. Beautiful design. Compelling photos. And according to the campaign consultant reviewing it, almost completely ineffective at moving major donors to write six-figure checks. “This tells me what you want to build,” the consultant said. […]

The board meeting had been going well until someone asked the obvious question: “How do we know we can actually raise $4 million?” The room went quiet. Everyone believed in the project. Everyone thought the community would support it. But no one had actual data to back up their assumptions. This is where capital campaign […]

A campaign kickoff is an excellent way to rally the community, tell an exciting story about what you’re accomplishing, and recognize the supporters who’ve already helped.