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Numbers built to last.

The metric that matters to us is durability — not just what we close while we're there, but what your team continues to deliver in the years after we hand off. The numbers below are aggregated across more than fifty engagements between 2014 and 2025.

$240M+
Raised by client organizations during & after engagement
96%
Of campaigns close at or above goal
3.4×
Average pipeline expansion within twelve months
01 Selected Engagements

Three partnerships, in some detail.

Conservation

Fairwind Conservancy

Annual budget
$8.4M
Engagement
14 months
Practice areas
Diagnostic, Team Training, Coaching
Year
2022 — 2024
+312% Major-gift pipeline growth in 12 months

The challenge

A coastal conservancy with a beloved program and a strong founder. Nineteen of twenty-five top donor relationships ran through the founder herself. The board recognized the operation couldn’t scale on a single rainmaker forever.

The work

Fourteen months of intensive engagement. We rebuilt the moves-management system, qualified two hundred new prospects, hired and onboarded a senior gift officer, and coached the development team into running portfolios independently while the founder gradually stepped back.

The result

Major-gift pipeline grew 312% in twelve months. The team raised $4.1M in the year following our departure — up from $2.6M before we started. The founder took her first uninterrupted vacation in nine years; three major gifts closed during it. The team has since hired a fourth officer and continues to grow.

Education

North Star Schools

Annual budget
$22M
Engagement
24 months
Practice areas
Campaign Development, Coaching
Year
2021 — 2023
$38M Capital campaign closed against $30M goal

The challenge

An independent school network preparing for its first comprehensive capital campaign — facilities, endowment, financial aid. The DOD had never run a campaign of that scale; the board was nervous; the institutional case was unclear.

The work

Twenty-four months as embedded campaign partners. Feasibility study, case-for-support development, volunteer leadership recruitment, gift-table architecture, lead-gift cultivation, and intensive coaching for the DOD and head of school throughout the campaign arc.

The result

Campaign closed at $38M against a $30M public goal — 27% over plan. The DOD who came in nervous now runs the function with confidence and has been promoted to VP. The school has since launched a planned-giving program without our involvement. The board is no longer anxious about advancement.

Health & Human Services

The Lantern Project

Annual budget
$5.2M
Engagement
9 months
Practice areas
Coaching, Stewardship rebuild
Year
2024
92% Donor retention — up from 58% pre-engagement

The challenge

A direct-service organization with strong grants but persistent struggles in individual giving. Donor retention sat at 58%. The team had cycled through three development directors in four years. The newest DOD had been in seat for seven months when she emailed kbb.

The work

Nine focused months. We rebuilt the entire stewardship infrastructure with a 72-hour service standard, redesigned the donor journey, restructured the DOD’s role to ring-fence 60% of her time for direct cultivation, and provided weekly coaching throughout.

The result

Donor retention climbed to 92%. Individual giving grew from $1.6M to $2.3M in the year following our departure. Most importantly, the DOD is still in the role — the longest-tenured in the organization’s history. The four-year cycle of departures has stopped.

02 Client Voices

In their own words.

The diagnostic alone was worth what we paid for the entire engagement. We didn’t realize how many quietly broken processes we were carrying until kbb mapped them. Twelve months later we were a fundamentally different operation.
D
David Okonkwo
Board Chair · Fairwind Conservancy
I came in green and terrified. Eight months later I’m running a $4M annual program with confidence and have my own team of two. The training wasn’t a workshop — it was an apprenticeship in plain sight.
L
Lucia Reyes
Director of Development · The Lantern Project
The willingness to slow us down was the most valuable thing kbb did. Every other firm we’d talked to wanted to start the campaign clock immediately. Katie’s honesty about the goal saved us from a campaign that would have collapsed.
E
Eleanor Whitfield
Trustee · North Star Schools
Two years after kbb left, we’re raising more than ever — and we know exactly why. That’s the difference between a consulting engagement and a transformation. We hired Katie. We got a transformation.
M
Martin Chen
President · Regional Health Foundation

— Let's Build What's Next —

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Every engagement begins with a no-cost consultation. Share your goals, your context, and the outcomes that matter most. We'll listen carefully, ask the questions that surface the real story, and give you a candid read on the work ahead.

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Emailkbb@kbbstrategy.com