FUND DEVELOPMENT

What Is Fund Development?

Fund Development is an essential, foundational aspect of healthy organizational growth. An effective fund development program helps your non-profit identify critical funding gaps and cultivate productive, lasting donor relationships and funding streams that increase your capacity and support true sustainability.

Why hire a fund development team?

Successful in-house fund development requires substantial time and resources. Even a small 2- or 3-person development team could cost hundreds of thousands per year in personnel and fringe costs. Disproportionately high turnover in development positions further increases the expense. In addition, fund development can dominate 20-50% of an Executive Director’s time, leaving them with little space and bandwidth for other vital leadership tasks. LSC provides the administrative, technical, and strategic support of a complete in-house development department at a fraction of the cost, freeing up your team and leadership to focus on the important work that serves your mission.

Full-Service Fund Development

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At LSC, we don’t merely write and submit competitive proposals, we partner with organizations to build the systems and capacity necessary to win and effectively manage large funding contracts. With our signature, comprehensive fund development package, your organization will benefit from our team of experienced professionals, including a Development Director, Account Managers, Proposal Writers, Prospect Researchers, and Grant Management Specialists. We work as a cohesive team to take care of your fund development needs from A to Z, with the following services:

A thorough assessment allows LSC to customize a scope of work based on your needs. In addition to grant proposal development and submission, this might include pre-qualification in key government portals, organizational or program budget planning, Salesforce customization to strengthen grant management systems, and other services to help build organizational capacity over the short, medium, and long-term.

In addition to fund development strategy, our deeply experienced management team can offer input on program design, team management, and organizational systems to help you achieve sustainable growth. We empower grassroots leaders by providing solid guidance and mentoring on best practices, in addition to allyship, emotional support, and mentoring to help prevent burnout.

We offer in-depth, targeted research to help your organization build a successful funding plan for future growth. After learning about your organization’s vision and funding priorities, we perform in-depth research, utilizing a variety of modalities and subscription-only databases to identify attainable funding prospects and create a successful annual grant calendar.

Based on our prospect research, we build an effective grants calendar for your organization. We prioritize attainable funding for your core work, support outreach to program officers, create warm connections, and help build your capacity and successfully compete for large, competitive funding opportunities.

We craft highly-tailored grant proposals that connect your vision to the funder’s vision and provide the greatest opportunity for success. Our writers work with your team to co-develop compelling language, supplemental materials that strengthen your requests, and budgets that tell your financial story to funders properly. Our experienced administrative team takes care of all pre-qualifications, packaging, and submission to ensure that applications are accepted without issue.

After you win an award, we still have you covered. We help you through the contract negotiation process, prep you for funder meetings and site visits, and keep on top of all funder requirements and renewal processes. Our team tracks reporting deadlines, helps you to write and submit required reports, and keeps your grants management system up to date.

LSC supports nonprofits with high-level organizational and programmatic budget development, forecasting, and analysis. We work with you to create budgets that tell your financial story to funders properly, provide guidance on systems and practices that allow you to manage complex contract funding, and work closely with your finance department to ensure proposed budgets fill your budget gaps to best advantage.

As your organization grows, we can provide enhanced services beyond fund development, including Salesforce customization and integration, executive coaching, individual donor campaigns, and monitoring & evaluation.

2022 – Present

FUNDS RAISED

LSC has an extensive track record of winning large government grant submissions to local, city, and federal agencies and entities; major national foundations; local/regional funders; various businesses, including national banks and corporations; and small family foundations accessed through individual donors and Board connections.

We are only just getting started!

Impact by the numbers in 2022

Raise the money you need to support your mission.

At LSC, we help grassroots nonprofit leaders become effective and confident fundraisers in their areas of expertise. We are proud that behind the dollars displayed is the dismantling of harmful systems and the promotion of social, racial, and economic justice in urban, under-resourced communities.

NYC ACS

$10.5M

$10M+ for 2 NYC Administration for Children’s Services Family Enrichment Centers funded in the Bronx and Harlem.

Activism

$1.5M

$1M+ to support youth activism, mentoring, and peer support to prevent youth incarceration.

Air Quality

$2M

$2M+ in funding for community-led air quality monitoring and open space activation in the Bronx.

Trauma Support

$2M

$2M+ to support trauma-informed reentry service in San Diego.

“Treasured member of our community“

“We have been working with Lydia Sierra Consulting for three years now, and in that time we’ve secured a variety of new funders and strengthened our financial stability, but Lydia offers rare value beyond a healthy, growing budget. She is a unique consultant in that she offers a truly personal contribution to our mission. It was critical to have our Fund Development Manager sit in on our recent Board retreat, and Lydia made the time to be there. The trust she’s cultivated with our staff, leadership, and Board, through her dedicated work and heartfelt commitment, make her a very important component to our success and a treasured member of our community.”

David Shuffler

Executive Director
Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, Inc.