Does Your ambition for impacT match your ability to activate generosity?
We are the experienced fundraising coaches that help non profit leaders, scale their fundraising efforts to match the ambition of their organization’s mission.
WHO WE’VE WORKED WITH
who is seed?
Seed is a community of coaches bound by our ambition to invest hard-earned direct fundraising experience in you, the leader of a high-impact organization. Each coach acts as a guide, helping you achieve sustained fundraising growth through a focused strategy, well-designed operation, and fully equipped staff.
Seed’s distinguishing idea is that sustainable and scaling fundraising teams consistently evaluate and strengthen their organization through four domains of work: vocational conviction, strategic focus, infrastructure & talent, and daily practice.
HAVE YOU STOPPED SEEING significant FUNDRAISING GROWTH?
Nonprofit leadership too often requires overwhelming self-reliance to achieve seemingly unattainable impact. As a result, 50% of nonprofit leaders report burnout and nearly 20% of all nonprofit employees quit each year.
all you know to do is work harder.
SEED serves EXECUTIVES and FUNDRAISERS who:
Have an ambitious mission poised for growth, but don’t have a roadmap for scaling their fundraising operation.
Lead viable early to mid stage organizations, but do not know what growth strategies to pursue.
Seek to humbly do what it takes to become less important to the success of the venture, but need a coach to help them see how they can grow talent to take on more responsibility.
Scaling Success Together.
There is a better way. When leaders resist the lie of self-reliance, design solutions that require capabilities beyond any one person, and build organizations that bless all involved. We help our clients build an organization that is:
Experiencing scaled increase in donor funding.
Focused on a clear fundraising strategy and no longer bogged down by distractions.
Confident that it can realize its ambitious mission.
Dependent on a fundraising system instead of any one person.
Retaining its best employees and helping them grow.
only then can an organization flourish.
meet our Coaches
-
![]()
Chris May
seed’s approach
Seed is designed to partner with organizations to build a sustainable, scalable fundraising operation. Offering the fullness of its resources, Seed helps advance the organization to the next stage in its growth.
Seed seeks to partner in a way that prepares the organization with exemplary talent performing at the highest level.
The outcome is organizations that sustainably scale their impact and revenue. No unsustainable silver bullets. No ambiguous strategies.
We work with you through the four domains of organizational excellence and teach you how to consistently evaluate and strengthen them.
the four domains
Of organizational excellence
Vocational
Conviction
Deepen discovery of the core purpose of the work of fundraising.
Strategic
Focus
Choose a strategic fundraising focus and eliminate distractions.
Infrastructure
and Talent
Plan for the infrastructure and talent the organization needs to execute its strategies.
Daily
Practice
Provide accountability for the daily and weekly practices needed to meet and exceed fundraising goals.
our Core offerings
Fractional Director of development
A SEED coach serves as the client’s fractional Development Director, partnering with the organization to strategize, build, and fully direct its fundraising activities. The program consists of two phases. During Phase 1, they will set up the client for a healthy and growing fundraising future by integrating with its current advancement function, building any needed infrastructure, and developing a fundraising strategy. Deliverables include a fundraising audit, strategic focus and fundraising roadmap development, donor communication plan, training for executives and other relevant staff/board, infrastructure evaluation and plan, hiring recommendations, strengthened case for support, and proposal templates for requesting donor gifts. During Phase 2, they will fully direct and manage the advancement function, including strategy development and management, events and campaigns, donor portfolio management, team management, marketing communications, alignment with overall mission and vision, and board engagement.
Beacon Partnership
The Beacon Partnership is Seed’s signature coaching program that helps organizations build a sustainable, scalable fundraising operation. The program includes an independent review and analysis of the organization’s fundraising operations, co-development of an updated fundraising strategy, and guidance to launch the strategy. The program aims to prepare the organization with exemplary talent performing at the highest level, so that organizations can sustainably scale their impact and revenue from the inside out.
The program consists of three parts: Fundraising Audit, Strategic Focus and Roadmap, and Daily Practice Training and Coaching. During the Fundraising Audit, Seed conducts a thorough discovery of the organization’s current and historical performance, strengths, and weaknesses. During the Strategic Focus and Roadmap phase, the Seed team facilitates work sessions to establish common language and set the organization up for a plan with focus and clarity. Finally, during the Daily Practice Training and Coaching phase, Seed extends the Learning plan to provide training and coaching to ensure that the team is fully equipped to make decisions on daily and weekly practices necessary for high-performance.
Portfolio Management
The portfolio management program is one of Seed’s direct-service programs, designed to partner with an organization to quarterback and support an organization as they pursue a major gift or grant writing strategy. The program includes prospect research using DonorSearch, weekly portfolio organization and prioritization, hands-on coaching and collaboration, and access to essential templates, tools, and communication samples. The Seed team will support the organization in determining donor touchpoints, proposal amounts, and prospect development. In addition to weekly coaching times, the Seed coach is on call through the week to support when the need arises.
FAQs
-
Absolutely. The three offerings described above (Fractional Development Director, Beacon Partnership, and Portfolio Management) are typical paths for an initial engagement with Seed, but we also offer a very broad variety of coaching and other services to our clients.
-
Seed clients walk away increased confidence, the skills, and tools needed to professionalize their fundraising operation.
Clients participating in the Beacon Partnership, in particular, have seen an average increase of 39% in annual revenue after completing the program. With 73% of those participants reporting scaled revenue growth.
-
Seed's structure and offerings are designed to have the most impact on non profits that:
Currently raise between $500k to $7MM in annual fundraising revenue
Have an ambitious mission poised for growth
Lead viable early to mid stage organizations, but do not know what growth strategies to pursue.
Seek to humbly do what it takes to become less important to the success of the venture, but need a coach to help them see how they can grow talent to take on more responsibility.
Build ventures that seek to bless their staff but exploit themselves for the sake of the mission. and that have a strong drive to scale their organization but without the experience required to scale the fundraising operation.
If we don't have a Seed coach that can serve your organization we will be happy to provide a referral to a consulting or coaching organization that is a better fit.
-
If you notice a coach that you'd like to work with on our site then please let us know and we will connect you to them.
-
Contract costs vary based on the size of your team and the amount of time it will take to accomplish the scope of work.
-
Seed's coach recruitment process is highly selective.
Seed coaches have at least 7 years of direct fundraising experience (preferably with a single employer) and are committed to joining us in our mission of making the social sector more generous, focused, and redemptive in its approach to philanthropy.
In addition, though Seed works with all types of organizations, all of its coaches are committed followers of Christ.
If you'd like to apply please submit this form.
-
If you already know your Seed coach then feel free to reach out to them directly and speak to them about anything you see on the Seed website.
-
Fill out Seed's contact us form or book a meeting directly with our team using the book a coach button. After an initial, no cost, consultation Seed staff will curate a connection with your coach.