How to pick a fundraising consultant.

Someone always asks me how to pick a fundraising consultant. I’m always conflicted answering. So here’s the real answer, including the parts that aren’t in my interest to tell you.

Most fundraising consultants are former executive directors, former development directors, or career consultants who never ran a shop. Pick the one whose lived experience matches the problem in front of you. A career consultant who’s never been ED will give you tidy advice that misses the political weight of the org chart. An ex-ED who hasn’t kept up will give you advice from her last campaign in 2014. Find out who they were before they were billing hourly.

The questions to ask.

Three of them, in this order.

“Tell me about a campaign you walked away from.” A good consultant has stories about clients they fired, prospects they wouldn’t pursue, or scopes they declined to expand. If they’ve never said no to anyone, they’re either lying or they need the money more than they need their reputation. Both should worry you.

“What’s the work you won’t do for us?” Watch for specifics. The right answer includes things like: writing personal solicitations on the ED’s behalf, attending major-donor visits as a substitute for board members, or running annual operations on a permanent retainer. If they say they’ll do everything, they’re describing your problem, not solving it.

“Whose names will be on this team?” A lot of firms sell you the senior partner and deliver the analyst. Ask for the actual humans, the actual hours, and the actual decision-making authority. If a junior runs your engagement, that’s fine — as long as you knew that going in.

The work no consultant should do.

A consultant should not be your fundraising department. We’re temporary. The minute we start substituting for a development director instead of building one, you’re paying us to atrophy your shop.

We also shouldn’t be the ones in the room asking your major donors. We can prep the asker, write the case, model the gift table, and rehearse the meeting. We cannot — and should not — be the one with the relationship. If a consultant has a bigger relationship with your top donor than your ED does, you have a problem that no campaign plan will fix.

Red flags.

• A flat retainer “for everything” without scope. Fundraising work is uneven by month. Flat retainers either overpay you in slow months or underpay the consultant when it matters.
• Promises about specific dollar amounts. Anyone who guarantees a campaign goal before reading your prospect list is selling you something.
• Reluctance to give references from clients who didn’t renew. Every consultant has clients who didn’t renew. The honest ones will tell you why.
• A 12-month minimum on a discovery engagement. If it takes a year to figure out whether you can work together, neither of you should be working together.

What good looks like.

The healthiest engagements I’ve had follow a shape: 60–90 days of discovery work with a defined deliverable, then a clean off-ramp where either party can walk, then a longer engagement scoped to specific outcomes.

If a consultant isn’t willing to be fired after 90 days, they’re not actually accountable for what they’re selling. The whole point of hiring counsel is to import judgment you don’t have on staff. Judgment that won’t survive an honest review isn’t worth what you’re paying for.