Every person leveling the playing field for the next generation deserves support.

We partner with non-profits of all sizes to co-design a roadmap for raising the revenue they need to strengthen impact year over year.

Who we work with

We partner with leaders committed to equity and at risk of burning out.

  • So often, leaders must rely on willpower, funder relationships and pure luck to meet annual objectives. We help you get clear on what you know, what you don’t, and how to bridge the gap.

  • Development teams can find themselves racing to keep up with growing targets that seem perpetually just out of reach. We help you focus, map it out and start to make consistent progress.

What we do

We co-create systems that make development sustainable.

  • In 3-6 month partnerships, we build the strategic plans for fundraising operations. At the end of each partnership, teams will have co-developed:

    • A path to philanthropic revenue and a tool to help all team members consistently see the path, progress and gaps

    • A gap analysis and process for identifying gap-closing strategies

    • Tools for managing the stakeholders’ specific action planning and week-to-week moves management

  • After consultants come in and do the big strategic planning work—mapping out the vision, the budget model and even the big goals—how do you take that planning to the next level?

    Many teams benefit from having someone whose primary job is to move the plan from idea to action, building a process and project management for leadership to tackle the big questions and have the tools they need to plan and launch their work streams effectively.

    A partnership can support planning for the entire organization or a single functional team. It includes developing the process for the CEO and all leadership to:

    • Identify remaining open questions

    • Source input and answer them

    • Establish the annual priorities and strategies within the strategic plan

    • Operationalize the work of launching, delegating and ensuring every work stream has an owner and a supported plan

  • Often in conjunction with development planning, partnerships include consistent coaching touchpoints and trainings to ensure any team member can carry on the annual planning and execution.

    Packages usually include

    • 1:1 coaching of development team leads to master the approach to annual planning cycle, build the tools for getting work through and alongside others

    • Developing the hiring and onboarding plans for new team members

    • Onboarding coaching and support to free up CEO/ED time so new hires can have a consistent resource to get up to speed quickly

  • We’ve developed a set of foundational tools that can be applied to the work to make meaning of fundraising data, draw conclusions about critical strategies and maintain the necessary moves management throughout the year.

    These tools are often used throughout the process and can be shared for ongoing use and customization by the team:

    • Path to Revenue Analysis and Live Tool

    • Annual Development Planning Stages and Deliverables

    • Donor and Prospect Moves Management

    • Team Management Structures and Templates

  • "I couldn’t ask for a better partner for us on this important aspect of our work."

    Laura Maestas, CEO, DC Prep

Meet our founder

Prior to launching this practice in 2018, Megan Gibbons Lehrman spent 10 years in non-profit fundraising and management, learning the ins and outs through great mentorship and plenty of trial and error.

Beginning the journey in Washington, DC, Megan was a part of the Teach For America DC Regional Development Team that increased philanthropic contributions by 81%. And when life brought her back to Chicago, she worked alongside remarkable leaders to build the systems and processes OneGoal needed to evolve from a $1.25M organization to one with a national footprint, serving in six markets and with an annual operating budget of $21M.

Prior to her non-profit work, Megan served as a Teach for America corps member in the Baltimore City Public School System. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

You know the destination.

Let’s build the path.