Free Guides & Tools
Practical frameworks you, your board, and your team can use immediately.
Add a Zero: Why Your Nonprofit Is Leaving Millions on the Table
Most nonprofits are asking for less than their missions are worth. This guide walks through the six reasons organizations systematically underask — and what to do about each one. Written for CEOs, EDs, and development leaders who are ready to close the gap between what they're raising and what's possible.
FREE DOWNLOAD
The Inner Gift Game
Self-Assessment
The barriers that sabotage fundraisers aren't skill gaps — they're psychological. This one-page tool helps you identify which of the four barriers (Perfectionism Paralysis, Relationship Anxiety, Ego Entanglement, Wealth Intimidation) is most active for you, with a reframe for each one. Use it before a major ask.
FREE DOWNLOAD
The Abundance Playbook: Navigating Unexpected Gifts
Most nonprofits are built for scarcity. Almost none are prepared for abundance. This field resource — developed with leaders who received significant unexpected gifts — covers the five domains every organization must navigate when conditions suddenly change: governance, staff trust, donor confidence, strategic patience, and long-term capacity.
FREE DOWNLOAD
Designed to Raise™:
A Framework
for Board Fundraising Committees
The Frankenstein Committee — part oversight body, part fundraising group, part event planning team — is one of the most expensive structural problems in nonprofit leadership. This framework helps you identify which failure patterns are active in your committee and choose the model that will actually work. Free to download, no email required.
FREE DOWNLOAD
The Strategic Network
Mapping Tool
Board members don't have time to reach out to their entire network. This tool helps them identify the five people most worth their energy — scored on Inclination, Access, and Capacity — with space to plan the first action with each one.
FREE DOWNLOAD
The Board Member Role Finder
Not every board member fundraises the same way — and they shouldn't. This tool helps board members identify their primary fundraising archetype (Connector, Host, Advocate, Steward, Presence, or Solicitor) so they can contribute from strength rather than obligation.
FREE DOWNLOAD
The Trust Equation Scorecard
Score your five most important donor relationships across the four dimensions of trust — Credibility, Reliability, Intimacy, and Self-Orientation — and identify exactly where to focus next. Built on the Maister/Green Trust Equation framework, adapted for major gift fundraising.
FREE DOWNLOAD
The Frankenstein Committee Diagnostic
Identify which of the seven failure patterns are active in your board fundraising committee — then choose the model that fits your organization right now. Companion tool to the Designed to Raise™ framework.
FREE DOWNLOAD
The Windfall Readiness Diagnostic
A self-assessment that surfaces how prepared your organization is to navigate significant unexpected abundance — before it arrives. Five domains, fifteen questions. Most useful when completed by both the CEO and board chair separately, then compared.
FREE DOWNLOAD
The Donor Journey Map
A clear picture of the five stages of a major donor relationship — and exactly where board members and staff each play a role. Use it to set lane expectations with a new board, reset a confused committee, or onboard a new development director.
FREE DOWNLOAD
Thought Leadership
Articles on fundraising strategy, board leadership, and what it actually takes to raise what your mission is worth. Written from twenty years inside this work.