Building Relationships, Raising Millions: The Impact of CampaignCounsel.org on Small Nonprofits

Even the largest, widest-reaching nonprofit organizations start out as pocket-sized seedlings led by a small group of deeply passionate people. Oftentimes, these nonprofits don’t know where to start when it comes to raising funds to support their missions, and Kevin Wallace, President and Partner of CampaignCounsel.org, has dedicated his life to helping these organizations hit the ground running financially in order to achieve their goals.

Kevin founded CampaignCounsel.org in 2003 and has conducted and overseen more than 80 campaign planning studies and capital campaigns that have raised more than $200 million for nonprofits across the U.S. and abroad. He mostly works with small and medium-sized organizations across many industries — museums, libraries, public spaces, children’s centers, fitness and lifestyle organizations, and education, healthcare, and religious institutions — to name a few. These nonprofits are mission-driven and often run by volunteers who don’t necessarily have a background in fundraising.

“Helping these people raise funds for their organizations often means pushing them out of their comfort zone,” says Kevin. “I often hear things like ‘We aren’t feeding enough people, we’re not educating enough people, etc.’ They are so driven to succeed and all they need is a push in the right direction and the right strategies for building relationships with those who can help them reach their goals.”

The most challenging aspect of Kevin’s work is helping people believe that they actually can raise millions of dollars. According to Kevin, there’s an innate aversion to asking people for money, and the main task is doing just that. There’s a lot that goes into the process from start to finish, but it’s important for these nonprofits to see this task in a different light — it’s not asking people for something that they don’t want to do or give towards. Rather, it’s all about relationship building and finding an individual or group who cares about the mission and really wants to participate.

Looking ahead, CampaignCounsel.org is working with an organization that is at the forefront of teaching individuals with autism who are nonverbal to communicate. Neurotypical individuals generally see these people as cognitively deficient, but they’re not.

“When we teach them how to communicate we’re learning that they are living a very isolated life because they can’t show their needs,” Kevin says. “This organization is determined to expose more people to these communication techniques so that they can literally say what’s on their mind and I’m really looking forward to helping them in their mission.”

Kevin believes that their greatest value as consultants is teaching people how to identify, qualify, educate, and cultivate prospective donors. When seeking grants, he can conduct valuable research on how and why a foundation gives, thus raising millions of dollars without even sitting close to a donor. However, that’s not how CampaignCounsel.org prefers to work.

“There’s another universe of giving that’s based on building relationships, and when you can take the time to develop and nurture those relationships, your fundraising capacity increases dramatically,” Kevin says. “I want nonprofits to take on that challenge more frequently rather than keeping that wall between themselves and their donors. Remove that wall and start interacting at a more personal level.”