Mentorship results
How Shelby Schmidt built a fractional fundraising practice whose first payment nearly covered her investment
Shelby Schmidt, The Cove Consulting · Fractional fundraising and individual giving for small to mid-size nonprofits
At a glance
- Former directorof development at an international nonprofit
- 1 clear nichefractional fundraising
- First paymentnearly covered her full investment
A job that kept asking for more
Shelby was a director of development at an international nonprofit. The organization was growing, the fundraising goals were growing with it, and so was the travel, with two young kids at home.
She was “really trying to balance both keeping those precious moments at home and also contributing to the growing needs of the organization.” She loved fundraising. She just needed to do it on terms that fit her life.
Heads-down and on her own
The hardest part wasn't the work. It was how alone she felt in it. She'd been so focused on her job that she'd lost touch with peers. “I thought that I was a little bit alone in what I was experiencing, and so that was a bit isolating.”
She decided to build a consulting practice, and joined the Mentorship.
Finding her focus, and saying it out loud
Shelby found her niche in fractional fundraising for small to mid-size teams. Then she did the part that felt hardest: telling people. “Just sending messages on LinkedIn and kind of reconnecting after a few years of silence has been really rewarding.”
Whenever she got stuck, she had somewhere to turn. “There's templates for everything, so any activity I'm going to do, I can... find a relevant worksheet.” She went through the trainings more than once, and “they just hit different” at each stage. Most of all, she wasn't doing it alone anymore. “A huge shift is just realizing that I'm not alone.”
The payment that answered the big question
Every consultant who invests in support wonders whether it will pay off. For Shelby, the answer came early: “I received my very first business payment, and it nearly covers my full investment in Relatable Nonprofit.”
“Just taking that step and committing is huge.”
Shelby Schmidt
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