Executive Coaching for Nonprofit Leaders & Fundraisers
You already know what to do. So why does it feel this hard?
And yet.
The board doesn’t understand what fundraising actually takes. Your executive director has twelve other fires burning. Every January, the counter resets to zero — back to zero — and you start climbing again. You’re doing some of the most important and least understood work in any organization, often with razor-thin margins for error.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, isolated, or stuck, it’s not just you. Nonprofit leadership is one of the hardest forms of leadership there is. You carry all the responsibility for outcomes but share the authority with a board that may not fully understand the work.
You don’t need another webinar. You need a thinking partner.
Why coaching — and why now?
Well-meaning leaders sometimes say, “This isn’t the right time for coaching. Things are too uncertain.”
We disagree. Uncertainty is exactly when coaching matters most.
Marc A. Pitman, CSP, has coached nonprofit leaders through the dot-com bust, the aftermath of 9/11, the 2008 recession, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Not from the sidelines. In real time, with real leaders making real decisions under real pressure. What he’s seen, consistently, is that leaders who invest in coaching during turbulent seasons don’t just survive them. They grow through them.
There is never a “good time” to fundraise. There’s always an election cycle, an economic wobble, a global disruption, a board transition, a staffing crisis. The leaders who thrive aren’t the ones who wait for calm. They’re the ones who build the capacity to lead well regardless of the weather.
Coaching gives you that capacity. Not by adding more to your plate, but by helping you think more clearly about what’s already on it.
What Coaching Actually Looks Like
A safe place to think out loud.
Our clients tell us the thing they value most is having a confidential sounding board outside their chain of command. Someone who can’t hire or fire them. Someone who isn’t on their board, isn’t a direct report, and doesn’t have an agenda. Just a trained, experienced guide who listens well and asks the questions that help you think more clearly.
Leaders we work with use coaching sessions to process board dynamics, navigate difficult staff conversations, think through campaign strategy, and work through the self-doubt that comes with leading in hard seasons. That doubt is not a sign you’re failing. It may be a sign you’re in real growth, not falling behind.
Strategies that fit your wiring.
Too many leaders try to fundraise or lead using someone else’s playbook. It doesn’t fit. It never did.
Coaching helps you discover your natural gifts and build fundraising and leadership strategies around them. Board members learn how to do the fundraising part of their role in harmony with who they actually are. Executive directors and development staff build systems that are sustainable because they’re built on strengths, not willpower.
When useful, we bring in tools like the Highlands Ability Battery, the Enneagram, the Quadrant 3 Leadership framework, and Marc’s R.E.A.L. methodology from Ask Without Fear!®. Not to bury you in assessments, but to help you lead and fundraise in ways that are more natural, sustainable, and effective.
Access that moves the needle.
Twice a month, you’ll speak with Marc for a 45-minute coaching call. At the end of each call, you’ll agree on your next steps — strategic actions tied to your actual goals, not busywork.
Between calls, you have direct access to your coach by phone and email. If something comes up on a Tuesday afternoon that can’t wait, you can reach out. It’s included. And encouraged.
Fundraising and leadership happen between the calls. That’s why access matters.
Who coaching is for
Development directors and major gift officers who know the fundamentals but feel stuck, overwhelmed by their portfolio, or unsure how to communicate their process to leadership. Coaching helps you tell the story of your work in a way your boss and board can actually see and understand.
Executive directors and CEOs who are carrying too much alone. You’re managing programs, managing people, managing a board, and somehow also expected to be the primary fundraiser. Coaching gives you a strategic partner to help you prioritize, delegate, and lead without burning out.
Board members who want to contribute to fundraising but dread it. If fundraising feels like begging, you’re not alone — and you’re not wrong to resist that version of it. Marc’s approach helps board members find a way to participate that feels like connecting people to a mission you already believe in, not selling something you’re embarrassed to ask for.
What happens when you stop carrying it alone
“I am often pulled into many different directions and Marc has helped me to grow in so many ways. His business coaching is straightforward and tailored to your needs and time. The investment has made a tremendous difference in EdConnect, particularly managing them through this transition of strategic change and leadership.”
“With his genuine interest in people, and in helping them become more effective promoting their charitable causes, Marc has been a tremendous support to me and my efforts. He keeps me focused and on task, he reinforces what he teaches with literature and fundraising resources, and anytime I email him with questions, he promptly replies with creative and insightful suggestions. The most important lesson I have learned from Marc is to put people first, and my nonprofit work second.”
You’ll come for the fundraising. You’ll stay for the leadership.
One of our clients put it this way:
“I came to Marc for fundraising coaching. I was amazed to find out I actually got leadership coaching as well.”
That’s by design. Fundraising doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s tangled up in board relationships, staff dynamics, organizational culture, your own confidence, and your capacity to lead under pressure. Coaching that only addresses the mechanics of asking would miss the point.
Marc is also CEO of Concord Leadership Group, where he coaches CEOs and senior leaders across sectors using the Quadrant 3 Leadership framework. That same depth of leadership expertise is built into every FundraisingCoach.com coaching engagement. You don’t have to choose between fundraising coaching and leadership coaching. You get both.
Launching a capital campaign? We also offer dedicated capital campaign coaching and advising. Learn more.
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