Request for Qualifications: Fundraising and Development Coach/Consultant
Purpose
Land For Good (LFG) is seeking a fundraising and development coach/consultant to help identify opportunities for income stream diversification, and provide professional development for relevant staff & board. The plans co-developed by the coach/consultant and LFG team will support LFG's new strategic direction, which calls us to diversify both our programming and our funding streams.
Background
Land For Good's (LFG) mission is to expand secure, just, and equitable farmland access. Established in 2004 with a focus on helping older farmers with farm succession, LFG developed a unique coaching model providing ongoing advising and technical assistance to farm families planning for succession and transfer. Recognizing the broader need within the agricultural community, LFG expanded its programs to offer direct services to farm seekers, education and support to non-farming landowners, and educational initiatives and advocacy efforts for service providers and the public. We connect, assist, and engage farmers, landowners, service providers, communities, and policymakers to grow farming opportunities and keep land in sustainable agriculture. We work across scales, from individual support to federal policy, to impact how farmers get onto, hold, and transfer farms.
Land For Good hired a consultant in 2023 to help us develop a new mission, vision, and strategic plan, which was publicly released in October, 2024. The following new strategy builds on goals from our January 2024 development plan: explore and advance new fundraising mechanisms that create sustainable funding resources for the organization, to create a baseline funding source that includes operational & overhead expenses.
Scope of services
Land For Good is seeking an experienced nonprofit consultant to help us identify areas of opportunity and growth in fundraising and development knowledge and skills. Ideally, the coach/consultant will help us:
(1) Evaluate our current financial model
(2) Identify opportunities to further diversify our income stream; advise on prioritizing new approaches/directions
(3) Identify gaps in staff knowledge and skills to fully pursue the above opportunities
(4) Provide professional development and coaching to ameliorate knowledge and skill gaps
- Top priority: direct coaching to help us steward and expand our major individual & corporate donor
pools;
- Advising and coaching on pursuing/receiving bequests, legacy gifts, real estate (land);
- Advising on alternate strategies (e.g., crowdfunding)
(5) Co-produce an updated development plan
Ideally, the coach/consultant and relevant staff/board will collaborate to create a robust development
plan for 2025-2028.
Qualifications
We are seeking a consultant (or team) with:
- Core values rooted in theory and practice of social justice and racial equity;
- Experience coaching small nonprofits in steady, diversified income growth. Demonstrated success in identifying novel funding sources and strategizing to obtain new funds;
- Demonstrated success in coaching nonprofit staff & board as they build development skills. Experience in designing and executing hands-on learning experiences. Familiar with theories and pedagogy of adult learning;
- Skilled in leading effective meetings; able to integrate advising and training into the same meeting;
- Experience in strategizing and writing nonprofit development plans as part of a team (willingness to provide samples).
Submission Instructions
If you are interested in providing fundraising and development coaching/consulting services, please:
- Provide qualifications for yourself (and/or your team) in the form of resumés or bios;
- Describe your typical approach to a consulting job of this nature, including your approach to billing/budget;
- Provide any relevant samples of your prior work in this field.
Please email your materials to:
Rachel Brice, Program & Development Manager, rachel@landforgood.org
Qualifications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis beginning November 11, 2024. Responses
received by December 1 are preferred, with a January 2025 start date. The opportunity will remain
open until filled.
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Rachel Brice
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