Board & Team Training
When your board needs support in the fundraising process, or your team lacks the confidence to make the ask, the gap between your mission and your fundraising potential widens. Covenant designs and delivers customized training that shifts mindsets, builds practical skills, and creates a culture where giving and asking are embraced at every level of your organization.
Covenant designs and facilitates a customized retreat session that moves your board from awareness to action.
Covenant develops targeted training built around the specific skills your team needs to raise more with confidence.
Covenant integrates training directly into your campaign strategy so your volunteers are ready to cultivate gifts and represent your mission.
What You Get
Covenant's training is built from discovery, not from a template. Every session is designed around your organization's specific audience, challenges, and goals.
Covenant begins every training engagement with a discovery conversation to understand your team's experience level, needs, and objectives. The result is a curriculum designed specifically for your context, not adapted from a generic workshop.
Covenant's senior consultants facilitate each session with practical instruction, real-world examples, and interactive exercises. Training is designed to shift mindsets and build skills your team can apply the moment it ends.
Many nonprofit boards want to support fundraising but lack the language, confidence, or clarity about their role. Covenant's board training equips volunteers to engage as active, informed partners in your development program.
Fundraising is most effective when it is a shared responsibility. Covenant's training builds cultural alignment across leadership, staff, and board so that everyone understands their role in advancing your mission through philanthropy.
Trainings/retreats conducted
Raised on campaigns
Organizations served
Process
Covenant meets with your leadership to understand your audience, goals, and the specific skills or mindset shifts you want the training to address.
Covenant develops a customized training curriculum, slide deck, and any supporting materials tailored to your organization's situation and objectives.
Your leadership reviews the training outline and provides any additional context, oftentimes including strategic interviews or focus group discussions, that will help the session land with your specific audience.
Covenant delivers the training in person or virtually, adjusting depth and pace to keep participants engaged and the experience practical and relevant.
Where applicable, Covenant conducts pre- and post-training surveys and shares key takeaways and recommended next steps with your leadership.
What to Expect
Board and team training engagements can be delivered as a single session, a multi-session series, or as a component integrated into a larger campaign or advisory engagement. Sessions are available in person or virtually, with minimal time required from your leadership beyond the initial discovery conversation and pre-training review.
Curriculum design, slide development, session facilitation, and post-training debrief.
Reinforce training concepts with your team, apply new skills to existing fundraising activities, and build on the session's momentum to sustain a stronger giving culture over time.
Experienced guidance. Lasting impact.
"Covenant Philanthropic Solutions provided an exceptional staff assessment and fundraising plan for The Salvation Army Intermountain Division's development team. Their thoughtful approach, clear insights, and actionable recommendations have significantly strengthened our team's capacity and strategic direction. We are grateful for their expertise and the lasting impact on our mission's success."
"Claudia Looney is the complete pro, mixing skills, drive and wisdom. Her professional knowledge cannot be overstated. What a gift she is for all of us in the fundraising arena!"
“Claudia and I became good friends and close colleagues several years ago as the Autry Museum of the American West prepared to embark on a large capital campaign. I quickly learned that Claudia was a great thought partner when it came to all things fundraising. She understands what it takes to run an effective development department, as well as a successful major gift campaign. Her leadership had a positive and lasting impact on our entire organization.”
Success Stories
Every case study represents a real organization navigating a real transition. The work looks different every time. The commitment is always the same.
Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area engaged Covenant to conduct a pre-campaign planning study for a $10 million major gifts campaign. As part of that engagement, Covenant prepared and facilitated a leadership and major gifts training at the organization's board retreat, equipping board members to engage as active partners in the campaign ahead.
Following a complete leadership turnover, The Salvation Army Intermountain Division needed a clear picture of its development team's capacity and a path forward. Covenant conducted a comprehensive staff assessment, including 10 interviews and a full review of team structure, skills, and performance, resulting in a strategic five-year staffing plan.
Every Covenant training begins with a discovery conversation, not a prebuilt deck. We design curriculum around your organization's specific audience, experience level, and goals, so participants walk away with skills and frameworks they can apply immediately to their actual work.
Yes. Many of Covenant's training engagements are embedded within a broader campaign management or advisory relationship. In those cases, training is sequenced to match your organization's stage in the campaign process, ensuring your team and board are prepared at exactly the right moment.
It depends on your goals. Board-focused training typically includes board members and key volunteers. Staff training is designed for your development team and any leadership directly involved in fundraising. Covenant will help you determine the right audience during the discovery conversation.
Minimal. Covenant manages curriculum design and preparation. Your leadership's involvement is limited to the initial discovery conversation and a review of the training outline before the session. We handle the rest.
Yes. Covenant can provide post-training surveys to measure impact, a written debrief with key takeaways and recommended next steps, and ongoing advisory support through a Philanthropic Advisory engagement if your organization wants continued guidance after the training concludes.
Fundraising culture does not change overnight, but it does change. Covenant builds the skills, confidence, and shared commitment that make giving a genuine part of your organization's DNA.
