Philanthropic Advisory
When your fundraising leader needs a seasoned thought partner, an honest outside perspective, or expert guidance on major gifts and planned giving, Covenant provides the strategic counsel that helps development leaders go further. This is not a transactional engagement. It is a long-term strategic partnership built around your organization’s specific challenges and goals.
Covenant brings deep expertise and honest counsel on what will and will not work for your organization.
Covenant works alongside your team to identify what is working, what needs refining, and what the strategic path forward looks like.
Covenant’s advisory model provides consistent, experienced guidance not only for leadership, but also as a thought partner to your front-line fundraisers as they build relationships and move gifts forward.
What You Get
Covenant's advisory engagements are built around to your fundraising leadership’s specific situation, not a predetermined curriculum. You get honest counsel, rigorous thinking, and a partner with decades of experience across the full spectrum of nonprofit fundraising.
Whether your organization is building a major gifts program or deepening an existing one, Covenant helps your fundraising leaders develop a clear strategy, prioritize the right prospects, and build the confidence to cultivate and close gifts that advance your mission.
From donor strategy to staff decisions to campaign readiness, your fundraising leadership team faces questions that are difficult to work through alone. Covenant serves as a confidential, senior-level thought partner for the decisions that carry the most weight.
Planned giving and endowments represent significant long-term fundraising potential for most nonprofits, yet it is often underdeveloped. Covenant helps your organization identify planned giving opportunities, engage legacy donors thoughtfully builds programs positioned for sustained growth.
New CDOs and experienced development leaders navigating unfamiliar territory both benefit from honest, practical mentorship and coaching. Covenant provides the guidance that builds leadership confidence and strengthens the judgment your team applies to the work every day.
Hours of one-on-one coaching, training, and advisory support for fundraising leaders
Raised on campaigns
Organizations served
Process
We begin by understanding your CDO’s goals and the areas where outside counsel will have the greatest impact. This shapes the scope, cadence, and focus of the engagement.
Covenant reviews your fundraising strategy, donor portfolio, and development infrastructure to establish a clear baseline and identify the highest-priority focus areas.
Your CDO meets regularly with a senior Covenant consultant for structured strategy conversations, honest counsel, and practical guidance on the decisions your organization faces.
Between sessions, Covenant provides document review, feedback on donor proposals, and tactical input to help your team move key priorities forward. Rather than producing standalone deliverables, Covenant focuses on providing strategic input and direction while your team leads execution.
As your organization evolves, so does the engagement. Covenant adjusts focus to ensure strategic counsel always meets your program where it needs to go.
What to Expect
Philanthropic Advisory engagements are typically structured as monthly retainers covering 8 to 20 hours of senior-level support per month, with hourly arrangements also available. Most engagements run a minimum of six months, and many extend into multi-year partnerships as organizations continue to build their fundraising capacity.
Strategic advisory sessions, major gift strategy development, planned giving counsel, document review, and ongoing mentorship for your development leadership.
Implement strategic recommendations, build and manage your major gifts pipeline, cultivate and steward planned giving relationships, and deepen your development team’s overall fundraising capacity.
Experienced guidance. Lasting impact.
“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.”
“There are no other words that better describe Claudia Looney’s skills as a fundraiser… She is a Superstar. During my time working with Claudia at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, we raised over $1 billion to build a new hospital and support various programs. She is strategic in her thinking and can translate strategy into executable plans for success.”
"I highly recommend Covenant Philanthropic Solutions as an excellent resource for capital campaign and fundraising support. Claudia and Kyle are laser-focused, experienced leaders in the philanthropy arena, and they keep me and my team on task gently but firmly with our goals. The Covenant team have been a fundamental part of our growth, giving us solid and easy-to-implement ideas for planning and securing several major gifts."
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.
To meet growing need, the San Diego Food Bank set out to double its capacity, but its fundraising infrastructure wasn’t yet built to support a campaign of that scale. Covenant conducted a comprehensive pre-campaign planning study analyzing revenue potential, expenses, timeline, and return on investment, giving the organization the roadmap it needed to launch with confidence.
Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area needed to raise $10 million above its annual giving to fulfill a growing pipeline of wishes, but was uncertain whether its donor base and organizational readiness could support a campaign of that size. Covenant conducted a pre-campaign planning study, including 27 stakeholder conversations, a refined Case for Support, and a full readiness assessment.
Philanthropic Advisory is an ongoing, relationship-based engagement focused on strategic counsel and mentorship rather than a defined project with discrete deliverables. It is designed for organizations that want consistent, senior-level guidance to strengthen their development strategy over time, rather than a specific assessment or campaign engagement.
Sessions are shaped around your fundraising leadership’s current priorities, which may include reviewing donor strategy, working through a major gift opportunity, discussing staff structure, or planning for an upcoming campaign phase. The content adapts to what your organization needs most at any given moment.
Philanthropic Advisory is designed with the fundraising leader as the primary participant, but Covenant can also support CEOs, executive directors, and other development leaders depending on the organization's structure and goals.
Experienced CDOs and well-functioning development programs benefit from advisory support just as much as organizations earlier in their fundraising journey. Covenant works at the level of strategic refinement, helping strong programs go further rather than simply addressing what is not working.
Most engagements run for at least six months, and many continue as years-long partnerships as organizations build momentum and find ongoing value in the relationship. Covenant will always be honest with you if the engagement has achieved its goals and continued support is no longer the best use of your resources.
The first step is a conversation. Covenant Philanthropic Solutions brings 18+ years of experienced guidance and a genuine commitment to your long-term fundraising growth.
