Welcome
Creating meaning. Inspiring. Opening hearts. Capturing minds. Developing relationship and doing good.
This is why we are here.
And in giving we are lifted up by meaning.
Engaging funding and support is a relationship-based adventure that thrives on passion and heart, on big stories that move and inspire us.
From the nuts and bolts of practical development work through to the individuated coaching that will make you a more effective, more engaging fundraiser, together we make the world better.
We will help you to excel in this as you increase your engagement, support and capacity.
Approach
Each engagement is an adventure and vehicle for us to learn, grow and succeed together.
Perceptive Discovery - Learning, engaging with you and uncovering your best kept and yet most obvious secrets.
What is it about your mission and your cause that is inspiring?
What are the stories that open the heart?
Who are we speaking to and what are we after?
How do we find it?
What's your current fundraising plan?
Your funding type mix?
Your prioritized fundraising channels?
From board engagement to major gift programs to general capacity issues, we learn, discern opportunities and make efficient ways forward.
Creative Response - Taking our learnings, I help articulate the best and most appropriately creative response to your needs.
Is it story development?
An updated development strategy?
Training and coaching?
A creative event that will inspire your supporters?
Board engagement?
Communications planning?
Donor pipeline?
I find it and we put it into play to support you and your mission, your organization, staff and stakeholders.
Significant Results - Just that. Transforming your offering into a powerful case for engagement and support and improving your fundraising is my goal and my offering.
Working together we will move the needle on your efforts significantly and your investment will pay strong rewards. Adding a partner with fresh eyes, combined with significant nonprofit, development and communications experience, will uncover new opportunities, reveal the nearest wins, and give you new plans and power to move forward in strength.
Services
Looking for someone to bounce your ideas off of who's been around the block many times? Would an advisor who listens and reflects be valuable as you approach the problems of the day and the challenges of tomorrow? Who you gonna call? Call us.
Executive listening - providing a reflective partner in your decision making
Engaging new markets or invigorating your stable, we analyze your message against your brand and develop effective strategies for going further, deeper, better. We offer:
To effectively communicate with and engage your audience you're going to need a powerful vehicle that is suited to your strengths, capacity and audience:
Development audits are an internal assessment of your fundraising program and your readiness to embark upon new development efforts, such as a campaign or major gift initiative. The audit will assess your overall fundraising effectiveness and help develop strategies and key recommendations to accelerate your success - and meet your current goals. While I tailor the audits to your needs, most will evaluate the following:
Every fundraising team needs a reasonable, achievable plan that their organization can lean on through its budgeting and planning processes. It should be conservative and audacious. The development plan - or fundraising plan - is the cornerstone of the organization's overall plan; it's what ensures that there will be money in the bank to get the work done. It all starts - and ends - with the Development Plan. I help establish set-for-success plans in each channel, from your pipeline to events to major gifts. This can include:
A strong major gifts program is the often the foundation of a strong and sustainable fundraising program. If done well, it will support and drive your mission in profound ways. I will help you identify and develop key strategies for building an effective major gifts program, enabling you to strengthen relationships with major donors and engage them ever more deeply. Elements may include:
Working with philanthropists and raising funds for a cause you believe in can be a very rewarding career. Good training, mentoring, and coaching are essential to developing the confidence, skills, and wisdom for successful fundraising. I provide group training and one-on-one coaching for staff in the following areas:
Passionate donors who are engaged with your mission are loyal and are powerful ambassadors. I will work with you to create inspiring donor education and engagement programs that meet your donors' needs, as well as your organization's goals and budget. Together we will:
Your development director has fled the coop and you're unexpectedly in transition. You need someone to keep the donations channels open and the relationships warm. The Annual Campaign is coming - who's going to manage that? The membership newsletter is due - who you gonna call? Your donors are languishing from lack of contact, lack of stewardship - end of the year is coming...what to do? Who can you possibly call on to help you in this time between permanent development directors...this most important of positions that keeps the organization in the black and helps the programs thrive?
People say the nicest things
Branden served as a senior consultant to our executive team on fundraising and partnerships in 2016. He helped train some of the key members of staff while developing our internal capacity to build meaningful relationships in the philanthropic sector. He always brings a sense of authenticity, kindness, non-linear thinking and play to the normally cold world of philanthropy. He's shifted my perspective deeply on how meaningful relationships are the foundation for transformative social change work. We highly recommend Branden's work, and spending time with him in general is just good medicine.
I'm thrilled to recommend Branden! He has deep expertise and experience, which he couples with high integrity and productivity, bringing a transformational leadership quality to engagement and fundraising. I've seen him in action speaking to large crowds and doing fundraising pitches on stage, and also have worked closely with him on donor strategy, public speaking and organizational planning. Any organization's Development Team or Executive Director would be lucky to get him in their corner, as a coach, consultant or staffer! Branden is at that point in his life where he's ready for the fantastic position that will put him at his growing edge!
Branden is one of the most impeccable thinkers and strategists I've had the good fortune to work with. His keen ability to see the meta picture of a given project, paired with his distinct knowledge of how to manage many moving parts, makes him an ideal ally in a myriad of circumstances.
He has a unique ability to uplift and empower those around him and his positivity and worldview shape and impact every project he's involved in with great care and efficacy.
His breadth of knowledge in marketing, communications and organizational strategy makes him an agile and essential partner to move projects forward with sharpness and meaning while meeting the goals of whatever team he's working with. Branden is an incredibly talented individual that I feel very lucky to work with. He's a wizard.
Branden is a delight to work with. He has relentless attention to detail and wide breadth of issue awareness and event savvy in putting together high value experiences for funders and VIPs. Branden is highly service oriented. He listens well, is sensitive to nimbleness for adaptation in motion. His humour is infectious, his broad exposure invaluable, and he knows the lay of the land across progressive issues. Branden is the real thing where values meaning and purpose intersect with practical organizing and event production.
You want Branden on your team. He galvanizes global initiatives through activating leadership, empowering teams and designing systems for organizational integrity based on respect, mutual accountability and yes, love. His heart-centered wisdom enables resiliency and innovation needed for large projects to flourish in the face of change. I am grateful for his mentorship and friendship over the years and attribute the success of my projects to his support. I whole-heartedly recommend Branden if you are looking to translate a powerful vision to reality of a future where everyone wins.
Branden is a total rock star- he brings style, passion, and authenticity to his life's work raising funds for environmental causes and I'm honored to have had the opportunity to support many of the groups lucky enough to engage him on their teams.
Branden Barber is an amazing spirit. He is passionate and committed to positive social change and one of the most heartfelt "connectors" I have ever encountered. Creative to his core, Branden brought fresh thinking to our work together at Sungevity; he refined our partnership strategy, built the tools to foster strong relationships and expanded our network of partners. In a few months he significantly advanced our program, and he is an absolute delight to work with. I sincerely hope I have another chance to partner with this stellar being.
Branden is a joy to work with and to be around. His passion for his work shines through every day, making him a successful fundraiser and invaluble member of the team. He naturally builds authentic relationships with donors and stakeholders with great integrity - he is especially impressive in this regard and it is why he is so good at what he does. He is able to identify a donor's passion and help connect that passion to meaningful investment in the mission and the work. I had the pleasure of working directly with Branden as we grew and strengthened the Development Department at Amazon Watch. I will always be grateful for his guidance, mentorship and passion. Any organization would be very lucky to have Branden on their side.
Branden is a project saver! He shows absolute passion for the project outcome and team during the entire project life, and at the same time, balances this level of care by delivering the same consideration to the client. He has consolidated years of seemingly unrelated experiences into a unified powerhouse of knowledge and capability that makes him an archetypal 'consultant' that is not replaceable. As a colleague he makes you interested in what you are doing, as a leader he makes you understand, and as a partner he gives you the confidence to achieve anything. We have worked together in two separate companies. I wait for the opportunity to work with Branden again, so that I could enjoy the buzz of working with such a professional and boundless individual.
Clients - Partial List
ABOUT
Branden Barber started his professional career as an Assistant Engineer and zodiac pilot on Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior and the MV Greenpeace. He subsequently ran the Victorian state office for Greenpeace Australia, planning and leading actions, managing volunteers, handling media and creating the first Greenpeace national office website. He then spent ten years traveling through the dot-com boom in San Francisco and Australia, delivering high-end digital design and brand strategy, project and client management, corporate leadership and solutions management and implementation.
He thought he’d settled down in country Australia, raising a family, running a boutique design studio and putting out fires as a lieutenant in the Country Fire Authority…but no. He was called back into service for the greater good in San Francisco, called back by then executive director, Michael Brune, to land at Rainforest Action Network in the thick of the social and environmental justice movement. He was home.
At Rainforest Action Network he helped double the budget through the Great Recession - wielding all elements of organizational fundraising from major gifts to foundations, membership to special events. As Director of Development and part of the senior management team at RAN, Amazon Watch, Bioneers and the Hoffman Institute, he gained intimate knowledge of the vagaries that come with organizational leadership and management, and the wisdom and experience to navigate uncertain waters to a successful landfall.
Branden sits on several boards and steering committees as he continues to help those who do good to do better. For over 25 years he's been gaining experience in the skills that make organizations healthy, strong and sustainable. Put that experience to work for you and your mission.
CONTACT
Connect with me for the opportunity to help you and your mission succeed!