Your first story was the founding: the mission, the scrappy years. Your second story is the structure on top: the systems, the pipeline, and the money that matches the mission. We build it with you, document it to survive turnover, and leave it yours to keep.
Rebuild the program, run it together, keep senior counsel on call, and add an AI development office when you're ready. Each phase stands on its own; nothing rolls forward without your yes.
Phase 1, 90 days. The ground-up rebuild of your fundraising program: the audit, the donor data foundation, the case for support, and a 12-month calendar with named owners.
Phase 2, months 4 to 6. The machine is built; now we run it together. I drive the first half, your team drives the second, and ownership transfers on a published schedule.
Phase 3, ongoing. Senior judgment on call, never a dependency: strategy when you need it and a second set of eyes on everything that ships.
A custom-built AI development agent for your office, delivered and tuned to your program. It handles the research and the busywork: prospect dossiers, briefings, follow-up drafts. Your team's hours go to donors, not data entry. Available on its own or alongside any phase.
Generosity grows when people feel seen. We practice responsive fundraising: personal, timely, and built around each donor's connection to your mission, not a mass-mail calendar.
Pay attention to the signals donors are already sending: what they give to, respond to, and care about.
Reach out personally and in the right moment, with a message that matches where each donor actually is.
Invite the next step that fits: the right ask, at the right time, in service of the donor's own generosity.
Inspired by the Listen → Connect → Suggest framework from Responsive Fundraising.
George Ricciardella is a nonprofit development professional with twelve years of experience helping mission-driven organizations strengthen their fundraising, grant strategy, and donor engagement.
As a professional fundraiser in behavioral health, George took annual fundraising from $163K to $1.2M in three years and has helped secure $30 million in public funding for nonprofits, expanding lifesaving care for multiple organizations.
His work sits at the intersection of fundraising, strategy, storytelling, and organizational infrastructure. He believes development should never operate in a silo: the strongest fundraising is built when development teams understand the real programmatic needs of the organization, translate them clearly, and earn funders' trust through honest, practical, mission-centered communication.
Clarify the goal, strengthen the system, tell the truth well, and build the relationships that move the work forward.
George isn't interested in jargon-heavy plans that sit untouched in a folder. He helps organizations identify what is actually needed, what is actually possible, and what steps will create real momentum.
Every service below is a flat fee with a defined deliverable. No hourly meters, and nothing contingent on funds raised. One conversation scopes it; start that conversation here.
Ninety days. Grant policies and readiness docs, funder research matched to your needs, reusable core templates, a 12-month calendar, and one timely application prepared and submitted where a real deadline lines up.
Our data health plan run on your CRM export: duplicates resolved, records standardized, gaps flagged, and a report your whole team can act on. Practical segmentation available as an add-on.
One campaign designed end to end: theme, segments, calendar, and copy review through send day. Year-end appeal, spring campaign, or the first campaign your org has ever run.
The written answer to "why should I give to you," built to be reused in every appeal, application, and conversation your organization has for the next three years.
The same frameworks we install inside client engagements, packaged so a solo ED can put them to work this week. Instant download, built from practice and cited research, yours forever.
Ten letters for the moments that keep donors: first gift, monthly welcome, lapsed return, memorial, and more.
Get itThe touch-by-touch plan from gift receipt to day 90, by gift size.
Get itDefine your giving tiers and what each one receives, so nobody is over-asked or forgotten.
Get itThe one-page monthly format that tells your board what matters and what you need.
Get itA five-hour weekly development system built on ASK, THANK, REPORT.
Get itAudit any donor database in an afternoon: dupes, gaps, segments, hygiene rhythm.
Get itQR to record to next-morning follow-up: the complete flow that turns attendees into donors.
Get itSeptember to December 31: calendar, segments, message arc, results template.
Get itThe reusable core case: boilerplate, need statement, outcomes language, budget narrative.
Get itWalk into any donor or funder meeting prepared: snapshot, questions, the ask, listen-fors.
Get itAll ten tools, one download. Every template, calendar, checklist and playbook in the shop, yours forever.
Get the complete toolkitTell us a little about your organization and where fundraising feels stuck. We'll follow up within two business days to set up a free introductory call: no pitch, just a conversation.
Prefer email? Reach us directly at george@secondstoryconsulting.com, or connect with George on LinkedIn.
