CASE STUDY: FUNDRAISING

Organization: Blood:Water

Location: Nashville, Tennessee

Sector: International Development

Project: Fundraising Strategy and Infrastructure

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THE SCENE

Founded by the multi-platinum, GRAMMY® Award-winning band, Jars of Clay, and activist Jena Lee Nardella, Blood:Water began as a call to personalize the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. Blood:Water is an international nonprofit that partners with African community-driven organizations to end water & HIV/AIDS health disparities through organizational strengthening & financial support.

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OUR APPROACH

In 2018, Seed launched a comprehensive partnership with Blood:Water to create and implement a 5-year fundraising plan. Objectives ranged widely–including strategic focus exercises, building a new case for support, orienting to the Fundraising Roadmap, and transferring the donor portfolio into Salesforce. Seed supported front line staff, the CEO, and the board of directors. Seed provided copywriting and coaching. Seed provided support with managing an outsourced annual giving agency and created a donor travel calendar. And yet it wasn’t a scattershot approach. The partnership was designed to build strategy, systems, processes, and a well-equipped team for scalable fundraising for years to come. 

 

THE OUTCOME

As a result of this 2 year engagement, Blood:Water has scaled its fundraising operations exponentially. They have surpassed fundraising goals each of the past 3 years, and have routine tracking and reporting in place related to Major Gifts, Grants, and Annual Giving. They expanded their development team, hiring an Annual Giving Manager in 2020 and shifting from an outside agency to in-house strategy and execution. They reset their Fundraising Roadmap after the first two years, setting a new 3-year timeframe and updating messaging and fundables collateral.