5 Fundraising Consulting Business Success Stories [2024]
A fundraising consulting business helps organizations, non-profits, and individuals raise money for various causes or projects.
As a consultant, you would identify funding needs and develop and implement a strategy to meet them, including researching funding sources, writing grant proposals, organizing fundraising events, and managing donor relations.
To start this business, you will need a strong understanding of fundraising, a network of potential funding sources, and possibly licenses or certifications.
To be successful, you will need excellent communication and networking skills, the ability to think creatively and strategically, and an understanding of industry trends and best practices. You will also need to manage your business finances, including setting service prices and tracking income and expenses.
Here are some real life success stories of starting a fundraising consulting business:
1. ConnectionPoint ($1.8M/year)
Daryl Hatton, the founder of ConnectionPoint, came up with the idea for his crowdfunding-as-a-service platform, FundRazr, while coaching his son's lacrosse team and struggling to get players to attend practice. He wondered if he could use Facebook to get them to pay their registration fees, which led to the core idea of using social media to facilitate funding for important projects. After investing a quarter of a million dollars and navigating some challenges with changes to Facebook's API, Hatton successfully launched FundRazr in 2009 and has since helped almost 200,000 projects raise over $200 million.
How much they make: $1.8M/year
How much did it cost to start: $600K
Current team size: 20
ConnectionPoint's founder and CEO, Daryl Hatton, shares his experience of launching an enterprise-class crowdfunding-as-a-service platform that has helped almost 200,000 projects in 40+ countries raise over $200 million, and offers valuable insights on taking a focused approach to growth and pivoting the business to solve customer problems.
2. Founderpath ($2B/year)
How much they make: $2B/year
Current team size: 13
Founderpath, led by Nathan Latka, an experienced SaaS entrepreneur, raised $145 million in funding to help B2B SaaS founders grow their businesses. Since inception in January 2020, it has helped over 130 SaaS founders, with $60 million invested, and integrates with major companies to analyze their strength.
So... can you actually make money with a fundraising consulting business?
Of course. There are millions to be made in this industry.
But how?
- Research real, profitable businesses and see exactly how much money they make.
- Study exactly what works, and what doesn’t.
- Take action, because now you have the roadmap.
Join Starter Story and build your next big thing:
3. Y2 Lending ($84K/year)
Eugene was laid off from his tech job in the summer of 2022. While going back to corporate would give him the required financial standing, he didn't want to be miserable again. Finally, he pulled the trigger and opened a HELOC.
How much they make: $84K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
Current team size: 0
Real estate lender and investor, Eugene Nilus, discusses launching his private and hard money lending business, which has been making between $6,000-$9,000 a month since opening, sharing tips on networking, attracting customers, and building trust, with the goal of scaling to lend 100 million dollars by 2024.
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings