Working with bold, passionate non-profits to build enduring grant strategies.
WE ARE KATALYST.
Whether you're just launching a fundraising plan or looking to revamp an existing one, we will work with your team to develop sustainable outcomes so that you can focus on what you do best -- creating change.
Our Story & Our Process
In 2014, Jenna Stone sold almost everything she owned and packed the rest. She skipped out on a comfortable corporate job working for a San Francisco-based ad startup to serve on the development team for a small South African nonprofit.
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Three years into working and living in rural KwaZulu-Natal, and after consulting with several other local nonprofits, Jenna realized that most organizations were effecting remarkable change on the ground but struggling to stay afloat financially.
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In 2017, Jenna founded Katalyst Consulting to provide a solution that would make fundraising both practical and effective, enabling nonprofits of all sizes to focus on what they do best – create positive change for the communities they serve.
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What sets Katalyst apart from other fundraising strategists is our commitment to being a natural extension of your team. We are not another partner to manage. And we are certainly not here to add to your workload. We are here to amplify your team’s brainpower. We are here to lighten your task list. We are committed to understanding your mission and values as deeply as you do. And we are committed to producing compelling copy to enliven your grant submissions and results.
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The rough truth is that, for most resource-strapped nonprofits, fundraising falls to the bottom of a lengthy priority list. Of course, raising funds is essential to sustainability and growth, but investing in a proper fundraising strategy is often seen as nonessential by decision-makers. For smaller nonprofits already understaffed for their programmatic needs, the heavy task of fundraising gets lumped onto the shoulders of the time-strapped executive or administrative team members.
"A grant proposal is a reflection of everything your organization stands for. Your passion should leap off the page and grab hold of the reader's heart."
Grant development can be annoyingly tedious. Like a high-stakes game of Operation -- painstaking hours of research, attaching the right documents, tracking submission deadlines -- miss checking any of these bureaucratic boxes and you get the proverbial sting of hard work briskly invalidated. Building out a development strategy requires foresight and intentional design. Wading through all the necessary red tape requires time, foresight, and intentional design. By taking the measures to prepare a thoughtful grant strategy, nonprofits can circumvent the unfortunate inevitability of frantically sending out proposals months before funding is set to end.
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And effective grant writing requires more than an effective strategy. Beyond checking off the right attachments for an appendix and managing submission deadlines, effective grant writing necessitates a thorough understanding of communicating within the nonprofit world. Funders often receive proposals by the heaps, and submissions easily get lost in a sea of stiff, lackluster responses. The nonprofits we partner with are zealous in serving their cause -- our job is to make their enthusiasm pop off the page.
