#22 | Is your fundraising consultant relying too much on a cookie cutter approach?

It was especially evident that Kathy Drucquer Duff wants to ensure that she is making a meaningful and strategic contribution for her clients. She recognizes that many organizations are doing great things and she wants to be sure that she’s contributing to their progress. From the outset of an engagement, she wants to ensure that the team is receptive to her being there. Whereas some organizations might perceive fundraising counsel as being there to fix problems, she wants to be recognized as being there to build on existing strengths.

Kathy has evidently wrestled with the effectiveness of the traditional feasibility study. Similar to the listening campaign that I routinely recommend to our clients, Kathy often recommends consultation dinners. It is important that fundraising counsel is adaptive and not relying too much on a cookie cutter approach.

Kathy’s very candid observation is that many campaigns have become perfunctory and therefore lack the ability to truly inspire transformational giving. For this reason, organizational leaders are wise to very carefully consider who they are partnering with. Capital campaigns are the last place we want to discover that we have a halfhearted or inattentive consultant.

If you have enjoyed listening to this conversation with Kathy, I would encourage you to reach out to her. Kathy can certainly be found on LinkedIn as well as at KDD Philanthropy.

As a reminder, this is the second in a series of six conversations in which we take a closer look at the role of fundraising counsel. Please be sure to come back tomorrow for the next broadcast. If you'd like to be a guest on The Fundraising Talent Podcast in 2019, please email me here.