How to Transition Your Nonprofit to Community-Centric Fundraising (Copy)

May 7

What Does a Fractional Fundraiser Cost?

A fractional fundraiser in Canada and the United States typically costs between $3,750 and $6,500 per month, depending on the firm, the consultant's experience level, and what's included.

At Further Together, our fractional fundraising service is $5,500 per month — the same rate in USD and CAD — for a 12-month engagement. That's $66,000 annually.

That's the number. Now let’s dive into what you actually get for it, how it compares to your other options, and whether it makes sense for where your organization is right now.

What Is Included in a Fractional Fundraising Engagement?

Fractional fundraising is not a consulting retainer where someone sends you a report and disappears. It's not a part-time hire you manage. It's a senior fundraiser — someone with 10 to 25 years of experience — embedded in your organization, doing the actual work alongside you.

Here's what a 12-month engagement at Further Together includes:

Strategy and foundation (months 1–2)

Full SWOT analysis — interviews with 6–12 people, review of all your fundraising materials and data

Comprehensive 12-month fundraising plan and workplan

Identification of your top 2–3 revenue opportunities

Implementation and management (months 3–12)

Depending on the top revenue priorities we identify, we could work on any, all, or some of the below. Please see them as examples of possible things we may do at your organization.

Writing and scheduling all campaigns

CRM setup or optimization

Grant research and writing

Donor prospect research and meeting prep

Automated donor journeys set up and running

Collecting and telling stories

Upskilling your team

Creating key messages or a case for support

These are included in all of our Fractional Fundraising engagements:

Board fundraising training (4 complimentary virtual sessions included)

Weekly check-in calls

Board-ready progress reports

Unlimited email and text support

What we don’t do: social media management, event management, database data entry — those stay with your team.

The time commitment on your end is genuinely light: one 90-minute onboarding call, one hour-long check-in per week, and reviewing work as it comes to you. That's it.

How Does the Cost Compare to Hiring Full-Time?

A senior Director of Development costs $90,000–$150,000 USD in salary alone in year one — before benefits, recruitment costs, and the 3–6 months it takes someone new to get up to speed. A fractional fundraiser at $5,500/month is $66,000 annually, no benefits, no hiring process, senior expertise from day one.

Most organizations with budgets under $5 million are competing for fundraisers against hospitals and universities with salary budgets they simply can't match. It's a structural problem in the sector, not an organizational one.

Full breakdown: Fractional Fundraiser vs. Full-Time Hire →

How Does Fractional Fundraising Compare to Hiring a Consultant?

A traditional consultant delivers a plan and leaves. You get a document — maybe a great one — but you're responsible for making it happen yourself, on top of everything else. Fractional fundraising means someone stays for 12 months and does the work with you.

Full breakdown: Fractional Fundraiser vs. Consultant →

Is Fractional Fundraising Worth the Cost? What the Results Look Like

The question underneath every pricing conversation is: will this pay for itself?

It depends on where you're starting from and how realistic your expectations are. A fractional fundraiser is not going to take an organization with no fundraising infrastructure and produce a million dollars in year one. But organizations that come in with a functional donor base, realistic timelines, and an ED willing to show up as a partner consistently see strong returns.

Here's what that's looked like for Further Together clients:

The Prosperity Project (Canada): A gender equity organization with real momentum but no dedicated fundraiser and a reactive grant pipeline. Over 12 months, we built their donation systems, developed key messages, structured their grant pipeline, and deepened major donor relationships. Results: 140% increase in year-end campaign revenue, $42,000 in new grant revenue, 91% increase in major gifts received.

Growing Up Green Charter Schools (United States): A New York City school with a powerful mission but no Director of Development — no reliable database, no consistent communications, no cultivation systems. Over 12 months, we built the foundation their fundraising program needed. Results: 287% increase in new donors year over year, 163% increase in total donors, 131% increase in reactivated donors, 51% donor retention rate.

Out On Screen (Canada): A queer film organization with strong community resonance but no Director of Development and limited capacity. Over 12 months, we upskilled staff, streamlined grants, and optimized revenue for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival. Results: 30% increase in overall organizational revenue, donor base grew 27%, Giving Tuesday results jumped 161%.

Coastal Jazz & Blues Society (Canada): A jazz organization that fundraised almost exclusively around their signature festival with no year-round donor strategy. Over two years, we built out year-round campaigns, solicited major donors, and optimized festival revenue. Results: annual fundraising — both gifts and donors — doubled from one fiscal year to the next; year-end campaign donors grew 421% and dollars raised grew 307%.

ACSA Community Services (Canada): A 50-year-old organization with strong project funding but no infrastructure for individual giving. Over two years, we upskilled staff, set up systems, and ran campaigns. Results: 160% Giving Tuesday growth in year one, followed by a further 53% increase the following year; donor retention hit a record 44.36%; year-end campaign revenue grew 24%.

There are also returns that don't show up in the revenue line. Nina Horvath, Executive Director of Coastal Jazz & Blues Society, put it this way: "It is really nice to have somebody who is connected with the organization, but also still a step away. If there are things I have been frustrated with, it has been a safe space to vent those frustrations and to have a valuable perspective because you have worked with multiple other EDs. You can say, this is what worked at this other place when they went through this same stumbling block. That has been a tremendous personal value."

That's not something you can put on a board slide. But for an ED who has been carrying fundraising alone, it's a real value.

See the full case studies →

What Actually Determines Whether the Investment Pays Off

Where you're starting from. An organization with an existing donor base, some fundraising history, and a functional CRM will see results faster than one starting from scratch. That doesn't mean organizations starting from scratch shouldn't do it — it means being honest with yourself and your board about what year one realistically looks like. If your board is expecting a 10x return in year one, the conversation to have before signing anything is about realistic benchmarks — not about whether fractional fundraising works.

How you show up. Fractional fundraising is a partnership, not a handoff. The EDs who get the most out of it show up to weekly calls, review drafts promptly, and are willing to try new things. It is not something you just hand off and ignore. We need your insight just as much as you need ours.

For organizations that come in with those things in place, the math tends to work. The cost of a fractional fundraiser is roughly half the cost of a full-time senior hire. If the engagement produces even modest growth — say, $30,000–$50,000 in new or increased donations in year one — you're already recovering a meaningful portion of the cost, with systems and relationships that carry forward.

Who Is Fractional Fundraising Right For?

You can't hire senior talent at the salary you can offer. If you're a $1–5 million organization competing for fundraisers against institutions with $120K+ salary budgets, that's a structural reality of the market. Fractional gives you access to 10–25 years of expertise at a cost your budget can actually support.

You have a tangle you don't know how to start unravelling. Maybe your donor database is a mess, your campaigns have never been systematized, or you've never had a real fundraising strategy — just a running list of things you do when you have time. A fractional fundraiser figures out where to start, builds the infrastructure, and works through it with you.

You're trying to grow out of total grant dependency. A lot of organizations that come to us are heavily reliant on government or foundation funding and want to build individual giving as a second leg. That takes 12–18 months of consistent work to build properly. Fractional is the right model for that kind of foundational build. If you have internal capacity to implement but need the strategy, our fundraising plan service might be the better fit.

You need someone to hit the ground running before or while you hire. Some organizations bring on a fractional while they're searching for a permanent hire. The fractional builds the systems and sets the strategy so the eventual full-time person walks into something that works instead of starting from zero.

Not sure if you're ready? Read: Signs Your Nonprofit Is Ready for a Fractional Fundraiser →

Who Fractional Fundraising Is NOT Right For

Being honest about this matters.

If your organization is running a deficit of more than 3% of operating revenue, fractional fundraising is not going to solve that. Fundraising takes time to build, and you can't fundraise your way out of a structural financial problem in year one.

If you want to hand everything off and step away — this is not that. It requires your active participation.

If your budget is under $500,000, the monthly investment is too high a percentage of revenue to make sense for most organizations. Our coaching service at $450/hour might be a better fit at that stage.

If you need a full-time presence in the office five days a week managing daily operations, a fractional fundraiser is not a replacement for that.

What About Other Fractional Fundraising Firms? How Do Prices Compare?

Fractional fundraising is still a relatively new model in the nonprofit sector, and pricing varies depending on experience level and what's included. From what we've seen across Canada and the United States:

Entry-level or newer fractional consultants: $3,000–$4,500/month

Mid-range: $4,500–$5,500/month

Senior-level or specialist firms: $5,500–$6,500/month

Further Together sits at $5,500/month. That reflects consultants with 10–25 years of experience, a Community-Centric Fundraising specialization you won't find at most firms, and a model that includes full implementation — not just strategy. We also cap the number of fractional clients each consultant takes on, so your organization gets genuine attention.

Not every organization needs CCF-specialist support. But if values alignment in your fundraising matters — if you're a social justice nonprofit that doesn't want to raise money in ways that contradict your mission — that specialization is part of what you're paying for.

Frequently Asked Questions About Fractional Fundraising Costs

Is the $5,500/month rate the same in USD and CAD? Yes. A US client pays $5,500 USD. A Canadian client pays $5,500 CAD. Same number, different currencies.

What is the minimum commitment? Our fractional fundraising engagements are 12-month partnerships. Fundraising infrastructure takes time to build, and a 12-month commitment is what allows us to do the strategy work in months 1–2 and then spend the rest of the year implementing and seeing real results.

Does the monthly fee cover everything? The monthly fee covers all strategy, writing, implementation, weekly calls, and board-ready reporting. Extra expenses like software, printing, or travel are approved by you and paid directly by your organization.

Can we start with something smaller? If you're not ready for a 12-month fractional commitment, our fundraising plan service at $15,000 gives you a comprehensive strategy and 12-month workplan you can implement yourself. Our coaching service at $450/hour is another option if you have internal capacity and just need targeted support. Not sure which fits? That's exactly what a discovery call is for.

How quickly will we see results? Months 1–2 are strategy and foundation. You won't see revenue yet, but you'll have clarity about what to prioritize. Most clients start seeing measurable results — new donors, renewed lapsed donors, grants secured — between months 6-10. Year-end campaigns, grants, and major gifts take longer because they require relationship-building first.

What's the difference between a fractional fundraiser and a fundraising consultant? Read our full guide here →

What's the difference between a fractional fundraiser and a part-time hire? A part-time employee works a set number of hours on whatever you assign, at the skill level you can afford at a part-time rate. A fractional fundraiser is a senior expert who focuses on the highest-leverage work, brings perspective from working across multiple organizations, and is accountable to outcomes rather than hours. Read more here →

Not sure which service is right for you? Read: What Is Fractional Fundraising? A Plain-Language Guide for Nonprofit Leaders →

Ready to Talk Through Whether This Makes Sense for Your Organization?

We're based in Toronto, Ontario, and we work with social justice nonprofits across Canada and the United States. Our senior consultants work with a small number of fractional clients at a time so your organization gets real attention, not a stretched calendar. About Further Together →

In a discovery call, we'll look at your current fundraising, your goals, and your budget — and tell you honestly whether fractional fundraising is the right fit. If a fundraising plan or coaching makes more sense, we'll say that.

Book a free discovery call →

Further Together is a fractional fundraising and nonprofit consulting firm based in Toronto, Ontario, serving social justice nonprofits across Canada and the United States. Founded by Maria Rio, host of The Small Nonprofit Podcast.