Services
What I can take on.
Most engagements draw on two of the six. I carry the work from proposal to model to the system that keeps it current, and hand it off documented.
Strategy and materials for organizations that raise: the funder landscape, the prioritized ask, and the writing that carries it.
- Fundraising strategy & funder landscapes
- LOIs, proposals & funder briefs
- Evidence review behind every claim
Operational discipline on both sides of the grant: award to close-out for the ones that receive, intake to payment for the ones that make.
- Post-award: calendars, trackers & reporting rhythm
- Grantmaking cycles & the systems that run them
- Reporting rhythm for federal & foundation awards
Choosing a donor CRM or a grants platform, or fixing the one you have. I start from how your work actually moves, then score the software against it.
- Workflow-first requirements & a short vendor list
- Demos scored against your process, not the vendor’s script
- Migration plan, configuration, training & rollout
For foundations closing on a timeline, changing form, or standing up a grants practice for the first time. Sized to the lifespan of the work.
- Grants calendar & final-grant sequencing
- Grantee transitions, records & compliance through the last 990-PF
- Lifecycle, systems & board reporting from a blank page
A building, a lease, a program at a new scale: scenarios with the assumptions visible and the trade-offs a board can weigh.
- Scenario & pro forma modeling
- Feasibility & capital analysis
- Board-ready decision packages
Operating records turned into claims that are accurate, sourced, and persuasive, on pages and dashboards your team updates from a spreadsheet.
- Public proof pages, dashboards & directories
- Narrative strategy, decks & briefs
- Sheet-to-site publishing your team owns
Timings are typical rather than fixed, and plenty of good work arrives without a name on it: a decision nobody owns, a system mid-migration, a proposal due in three weeks. I call that a special project, and it is often the most interesting call I take. When a job needs an owner rather than an adviser, I also work fractionally or as an interim over a season: grants management while you hire, or senior capacity alongside a team. I work in English and Spanish, including proposals, reports, and board materials.
For nonprofits & foundations
The problems I solve.
The flagship studies above are the Nevada Clean Energy Fund and the City of Worcester, but the practice was built inside California philanthropy, on both sides of the grant. I'm based in San Francisco and work with teams anywhere. If one of these sounds like your Tuesday, we should talk.
The same line, on film · 49 seconds · sound on
If you raise
"The LOI is due, and the story is scattered."
We pull the evidence out of your drives and your staff's memory, then ship a narrative a program officer can understand and carry forward. I have written these for a living and read them for a living. I know how they actually land.
"We won the grant. Now someone has to run it."
Post-award is where good fundraising quietly comes apart: restricted funds tracked in one person's head, report deadlines found late, subrecipients chased by email. We set up the calendar, the tracker, and the reporting rhythm, so compliance stops being a scramble every quarter. Federal money adds rules of its own: Uniform Guidance, subrecipient monitoring, reporting up the chain. I don't play compliance officer: I build the calendar, the trackers, and the reporting rhythm that keep you ahead of those rules, and when a question needs your auditor or legal counsel, I'll say so.
"We are choosing a CRM, or fighting the one we have."
Records live in three places, nobody trusts the report, and the vendor demo looked nothing like your Tuesday. The fix starts with the workflow, not the software: who records what, when, and what the board needs to see. From there, a short vendor list, demos scored against your process, a migration plan, and training so the system gets used the way it was designed. I have administered and configured Salesforce and Fluxx; I evaluate the rest against your workflow. Start with a free thirty-minute call: what you have, what it is costing you, and one paragraph of next steps in writing.
"The funder asked for outcomes. Our data lives in nine spreadsheets."
We build the record once, then the public proof: a page where every claim links to its source, refreshed from a spreadsheet your team already knows how to use. No developer on call, no CMS to learn.
"There's a capital decision on the table and nobody has modeled it."
A building, a lease, a program at a new scale. We model the scenarios, stress the assumptions, and put the trade-offs where your board can see them. The same discipline a city gets, sized for you.
If you grant
"Our grants process grew by accretion. Every cycle hurts more."
After managing the grantmaking practice at a spend-down foundation, I know where process debt hides: intake, docketing, review, payments, reporting, and the spreadsheet nobody admits is load-bearing. We redesign the cycle and right-size the technology around it: Salesforce, Fluxx, or whatever the cycle already runs on. The usual door in is a Grant Operations Reset: a few weeks through the cycle, intake to payment, ending in findings and a rebuilt workflow. And when a cycle needs hands rather than advice, I can run it.
"We're a spend-down. Every system we build has an end date."
Sunsetting is an operations problem disguised as a mission statement. I managed the grantmaking practice inside a foundation on a clock: processes sized to their lifespan, records built for the archive from day one, close-out as a first-class function.
"We’re a new foundation. Nothing is built yet."
A new fund, a new foundation, or a family that has decided to give differently: the grants lifecycle, the systems, and the board reporting, built once and sized to what you will actually run. I managed the grantmaking practice at the Stupski Foundation during its spend-down, and I know which pieces you need in year one and which can wait.
When appropriate, I can help explore whether capacity-building or technical-assistance support may be available for work like this, and shape the ask so a funder can say yes to it.
Before you write
Fair questions, quick answers.
How do engagements start?
With a few lines by email and a short call. You leave that call with a view you can use, whether or not we end up working together. From there, work usually takes the shape of one of the projects above, or fractional or interim support over a season.
What does it cost?
Scope and fee depend on the problem. After an initial conversation, I'll outline the work, timing, and a clear project fee before either of us commits.
Do you configure Salesforce?
Yes. I configure Salesforce and Fluxx myself: objects and fields, workflows, reports and dashboards, and the rollout. Custom code or a large data migration gets a certified specialist I bring in, quoted separately.
Do you do strategic planning?
Yes. I run planning when there is a real decision behind it: a funding strategy, a new program at scale, a building, a spend-down. You get the process, the model, and a plan the board can weigh, with the assumptions visible. I also join planning teams as the funding and systems lead.
Will this create work for my team?
Less than you'd fear. Outside help has to be worth the coordination it costs, so I start from the materials you already have, take responsibility for a clearly bounded piece, and keep drafts, sources, and assumptions visible as I go.
Who owns what you build?
You do. Files, models, documentation, credentials: everything transfers.
Are you taking new work?
Yes. I keep two or three projects going at once so each one gets real attention, which means a few new starts open up each season. If I can’t start when you need me, I’ll tell you the soonest I can. Either way, say your deadline in your first message and you’ll have a straight answer within two business days.