The Spool Speaks
My first major decision as Executive Director of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs was to hire Thread Strategies to conduct a comprehensive audit of our organization's philanthropic revenue for the five years preceding. With no delay, Thread conducted a thorough review of our giving history, analyzed data, identified philanthropic trends, and interviewed several major donors. Thread then wrote up a comprehensive, yet easily comprehensible assessment of their findings and conclusions. Thread presented their report to our staff, executive committee, and board – which educated all stakeholders on the organization's strengths and weaknesses with respect to philanthropic revenue. This laid the groundwork for a strategic planning process designed to develop the organization's first financial model; the board adopted a new strategic plan within nine months of Thread's assessment. In short, Thread's assessment has been a gamechanger for our organization and has helped to set us on a course that will stabilize and grow the organization's resources in the future.
We worked closely with Thread staff. All of them were highly organized, always prompting me on what to do next. I never had to follow up with Thread about pending assignments or future work. They did an excellent job communicating their findings to the staff and board – who had never before been briefed on the organization's fundraising performance and history. Finally, they were all highly professional and pleasant to work with. I would recommend Thread to any nonprofit leader.
SKSF partnered with Thread Strategies to build our first development plan and level up our outreach with a CRM. From the outset, our Thread team quickly built a rapport with us that was critical to building a CRM and development plan that meets both our Foundation's needs and the skill set (and time limitations) of our team. They always struck the right balance between sharing expertise and pushing us to think through what the best solution was for our situation. They really "taught us to fish" both from a technical standpoint as well as thinking through what we really needed to get from our donor base and how we could feasibly get there.
In addition to the creation of our CRM, the drafting of our development plan and development calendar has also been a huge boost for our organization. As with most organizations our size, we're pulled in many different directions from both a strategic and fundraising perspective, and having Thread clearly lay out how we should think about the near-term fundraising goals and map out how we get there with our small team is incredibly valuable.
We loved working with our Thread team. They were extremely responsive and thoughtful in their interactions with us, and we felt like they were really invested in our success. We trusted them enough to be completely candid about our hopes and worries for SKSF, and they made us feel reassured and supported both personally and professionally. We would unreservedly recommend Thread Strategies to any nonprofit organization and think it would be a significant lost opportunity for organizations to miss out on their capacity-building expertise.
In June 2020, as I began my tenure as president of Central Seminary in Shawnee, Kansas, I knew that one of the institution's most pressing needs was the creation of a professional and strategic development plan. I turned to a trusted colleague, whose fundraising work and non-profit leadership I knew and respected.
The Thread team evaluated Central's full cycle of fundraising efforts, coached our staff in best development practices, and provided leadership in our 2020 end-of-year giving campaign. Early in 2021, Thread Strategies delivered a comprehensive development plan to us, complete with an executive calendar and extensive resources that have been our guide as we have built a development team. The creation of that team was the result of Thread's staff assessment, which recommended positions needed for Central to succeed in its fundraising efforts.
Reflecting back on my first year at Central, I believe engaging Thread’s services was the best decision I made in those early months of my presidency. I appreciate their professionalism, clear and frequent communication, straightforward assessment, and honest feedback. Their insightful guidance of our development work, excellent resourcing of our staff needs, and high expectations of our team encouraged us and also held us accountable to do the work needed to enhance our fundraising efforts. With Thread's assistance, Central is well on its way to building a strong development program that is founded on a culture of gratitude, values and is attentive to faithful donors at every level of giving—small, mid-level, and major and is growing our donor base.
Live It Learn It first partnered with Thread Strategies in 2018-19 to design a development plan for our organization. The experience was so positive that we have continued to engage with Thread on various projects ever since. Initially, they designed a comprehensive development plan, complete with timelines, responsibility areas, and donor stewardship pipelines. More recently, we relied on their expertise to hire a development director and structure our development team. Our leadership team also attended the "Threading it Together: Institute" in October 2023, which was instrumental in reimagining our communications and prioritizing our stewardship activities.
Thread's hands-on, personal approach effectively addresses immediate organizational needs while setting us up for future success. Their team is professional, personable, and brings a joyful energy to their work.
Thread Strategies has taught me that being an effective fundraiser doesn't require changing my personality. Instead, they showed me that fundraising is about sharing my joy and passion for LILI's mission and inviting others to join us on our journey. Thanks to Thread, we have cultivated a culture of philanthropy that will thrive for years to come.