Grow Your Fundraising

As a consultant, I partner with folks like you at small and midsize nonprofits in the Bay Area so that you can increase your organization’s impact, while delighting and meaningfully engaging your donors. I have expertise in every mode of fundraising as well as a knack for making connections, building sound strategies, and getting projects done creatively and on time. Whether you’re looking for support with a capital campaign, major donor fundraising, or board engagement, I’ll help you bring a greater sense of joy, ease, and authentic connection to the work.

Contact me

Consulting Services

  • Development Planning

    You’ve gotten some traction over the years -- maybe a few grants and major donor wins -- but now it’s time to get intentional. I’ll partner with you to craft a development plan that’s sustainable, strategic, and values-aligned, and I'll support you as you implement. 

  • Coaching for Fundraisers

    Fundraising can be lonely, confusing, and draining. In coaching with me, you’ll find a safe space where you can drop into your own wisdom, build your leadership as a fundraiser, and also receive just-in-time tools, templates, and guidance from a seasoned professional. 

  • Capital Campaigns

    Thinking about a building project? I can support you in carrying out a listening tour (feasibility study) that will get your donors excited about your vision. Then I can support you with both strategy and implementation as your capital campaign gets started.

  • Major Donors

    Working with Major Donors has the best return on investment in fundraising. Having the right mindset, structures, and strategies in place makes all the difference. I can build your knowledge, confidence, and success in major gifts, even if you’re a novice.

  • Foundations

    You might be wondering, “Which foundations might fund us? And how do we get their attention?” I can help crack the foundation code for you: researching funders, developing strategies, and drafting outreach emails. ("Invite only" is not a closed door.) 

  • Board Engagement

    The success of your fundraising efforts increases dramatically when your board members build donor relationships alongside you. I offer strategies and workshops to authentically engage board members with fundraising so that it’s easeful and exciting.

Selected Engagements

  • My relationship with YES began not as a consultant, but as a donor. I was drawn in by their warmth, intentionality, and the power of their mission to nurture youth leadership through nature. Since 2020, I’ve partnered with YES through multiple seasons of growth – first as Interim Development Director, then as the architect of a fund development plan, and now as campaign counsel for their $7 million Base Camp Campaign, which will build a spacious new home for young leaders in Richmond.

    In 2022, I designed and facilitated a donor listening tour, carried out by YES’s board and staff, to explore appetite for a future capital campaign. In 2023, I trained the board and campaign committee on values-based solicitation and developed campaign branding, marketing materials, and lead grant proposals. Since then, I’ve walked hand in hand with YES leadership to shape campaign strategies – virtual panels, house parties, Richmond tours, a public campaign launch, and heartfelt 1:1 outreach – that have inspired giving across the community. As of February 2026, the campaign is at 80% of goal and going strong as YES prepares to break ground. 

    This is a legacy partnership that has shaped who I am as a consultant – and one I continue to be proud to support. 

  • In 2020, Zen priest Myles Cowherd reached out seeking guidance as he stepped into a new role as a Major Gifts Officer at the San Francisco Zen Center. While he brought rich experience in the Zen tradition and some framework from his career in sales, he shared that fundraising was absolutely new terrain for him – something he was both apprehensive about and willing to approach with “beginner’s mind.”

    I partnered with Myles and SFZC leadership to build both systems and heart-fuel for the work: framing fundraising as an act of love and values alignment, then layering in strategy and tools. Together, we crafted a giving brochure, qualified a major donor portfolio, documented practices for moves management, crafted individual strategies, launched quarterly donor updates, and engaged the board in relationship-centered outreach to donors.

    The result was a thriving major gifts program grounded in authenticity and care, with more than $2 million raised annually from donors deeply aligned with Zen Center’s mission.

  • Apis Arborea is a grassroots nonprofit in Sonoma County devoted to protecting wild honeybee ecologies. Founder Michael Thiele reached out in late 2024 seeking to grow their fundraising in a way that matched the warmth and wonder of their mission.

    At the time, nearly 90% of Apis’s $206K revenue came from just two foundation grants, which posed a risk that he wanted to mitigate. Together, we envisioned a diversified path forward that would transcend one-off giving and invite folks into a feeling of belonging and advancing a larger movement. We co-created a fund development plan that included their first-ever annual impact report, a donor-hosted cultivation event, 1:1 board conversations around giving and fundraising, an insider newsletter, the launch of a sustainers circle, and more.

    In 2025, Apis raised $260K (+26% year over year) while kindling warm relationships with 25 new funders and major donors that will bear fruit in years to come.

What Fellow Fundraisers Say

  • “I’d thought in order to be a fundraiser, you had to be charming and somehow disingenuous. What Vanessa helped me understand was that I could be transparent. All I needed to do was learn what donors loved and offer them giving opportunities centered around those things. Thanks to Vanessa’s support, my team and I were able to generate a lot more major gifts and maintain much warmer connections with donors.”

    - Myles Cowherd, Major Gifts Officer, San Francisco Zen Center

  • “Serving in the role as our capital campaign manager for our brand new, nature-inspired community hub here in Richmond, Vanessa has leveraged her diverse set of talents and strengths to bring us within view of the finish line. As the author of our campaign, she has worked with myself and our Development Director to steward a successful end-to-end project. Among the many elements of the campaign that she has led include designing a large-scale donor listening session, onboarding and training our capital campaign committee and board members to make asks, creating donor profiles, writing capital grant requests to foundations, and designing strategy, content, and language for marketing materials. Together her efforts have kept our campaign on track and our $5.2M goal in view. Her positive and collaborative nature sets the tone in our weekly meetings and she shows her investment by learning and supporting our mission and programs. We couldn't ask for a better champion and partner for our campaign!” 

    - Eric Aaholm, Executive Director, YES Nature to Neighborhoods

  • “When I first stepped into a fundraising role, I had two big questions: ‘How do I do this?’ and ‘Do I even want to?’ I had no guidance, no real structure, and a lot of doubt. Coaching with Vanessa changed that. She gave me the frameworks, tools, and steady encouragement I needed to not only figure out the work, but actually grow to love it. Through our sessions, I found the courage to reach out to major donors– something that had previously felt intimidating– and I discovered how joyful and validating these conversations could be. I’m glad to say that fundraising no longer feels like a monumental, solitary effort… or a code that I have to break. In fact, I’ve discovered a virtuous cycle where my connection with donors fuels me and gives me the capacity to show up fully for my work, even when things get hard. If you're new to fundraising, or even just feeling uncertain, I wholeheartedly recommend working with Vanessa. The support and accountability, clarity and confidence I found in working with her has made a world of difference.”

    - George Marschall, Development Officer, Golden Gate Bird Alliance

  • “Vanessa is super-efficient while also exuding confidence, spaciousness, and a relaxed assurance that everything will go great. She holds the big vision as well as the tiny details so important to nonprofits, and is skilled in quickly gaining understanding of all the nuanced aspects and considerations of a project and an agency. She’s creative, a great writer, and a great partner/collaborator. She is also a blast and a joy to work with, highly responsive, and reliable."

    - Claire McMurtry, Development Director, YES Nature to Neighborhoods