Services
Nonprofit Capacity Building
Thread Strategies partners with nonprofits to build fundraising capacity through tailored assessment, strategy, and support services. Our goal is to help small organizations build a foundation for development that is structured, strategic, and proactive.
We do this by starting with a comprehensive development assessment process, which is used to create a customized strategy for fundraising that builds on current strengths while prioritizing opportunities. By working closely with our partners, we ensure strategies are rooted in reality.
Beyond simply writing a strategy, our team of development experts addresses all aspects of the nonprofit’s revenue function, including the operations and staffing structure that support the strategy.
Once we have built the development strategy, born out of the findings in the assessment, we help our partners bring their strategy to life by building the systems to support it, hiring the staff to lead it, and assisting in execution until processes are up and running. These additional services and supports may include:
Staffing recommendations
Development staff hiring and onboarding
Development plan implementation
Donor relationship building plans
Development coaching
CRM selection, migration, and clean up
Donor research and tracking
Grant writing
Event strategy
Capital and capacity building campaigns
Board development and training
Grantee Support
In addition to partnering one-on-one with nonprofit organizations, Thread also works with foundations to support their grantee communities in building development capacity. Drawing on our real-world experience of working across numerous nonprofits, we combine experience with research and thought leadership from the development field to create and deliver tailored learning opportunities, such as webinars and group cohort learning, as well as provide one-on-one coaching support.
Each grantee capacity building partnership is individually scoped to meet the needs of specific foundation communities, and could include:
Webinars
Small-group, cohort-based learning opportunities
In-person half or full day fundraising trainings
One-on-one grantee coaching
Grantee fundraising projects
Fundraising Resources
While fundraising has always been centered on building relationships, the methods and tools we use are continually evolving with new technology. At Thread, we make it a priority to stay updated on the latest research and tools, and we are committed to sharing this knowledge with our fellow fundraisers through training and resources. Whether you’re new to the profession or have decades of experience, we believe in the value of combining expertise with cutting-edge research to ensure we all incorporate the latest best practices into our work.
To support individual fundraisers, even those whose organizations haven’t directly partnered with Thread, we offer a variety of professional development opportunities and resources, such as:
Bite-sized tips and tricks on our YouTube channel
Tips from the Thread team and a roundup of resources from the field in our blog and our newsletter
Downloadable resources
In-person training