IN THIS ISSUE

	Consider This
	Client Victories
	Growing Philanthropy
	Welcome to HBN
	Kudos
	Between the Lines
	From the Podium
	New Clients and Extensions

Consider This

Hartsook, The First Name in Fundraising

IT'S OFFICIAL. Hartsook Companies, Inc. is the largest fundraising consulting practice in the world.

Each year we commission a study of our competitors in order to improve our support for nonprofit clients and to determine our market position. We know what our competitors do and we know how we differentiate. We have been doing this for nearly a decade. We generally don't talk about it.

But this year is different!

In 2009 the fundraising consulting industry was contracting, we jumped over some of the most familiar names in fundraising consulting business to become the largest in the world. We have seen this coming for several years. This recognition is something we have targeted. Not only are we the largest firm, but also - at just a quarter of a century - still the youngest large company to achieve this status.

We are based in Kansas City, and we have 66 staff and consultants established in Portland, Maine; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Phoenix; Albuquerque; Kansas City; Wichita; Des Moines; Little Rock; Columbus, Ohio; Wilmington, NC; Greensboro and Winston-Salem, N.C.; Columbia, Greenville and Charleston, S.C.; Miami; Wisconsin; Detroit; San Salvador, El Salvador, and elsewhere.

Hartsook Companies supported 282 clients worldwide in 2009 and currently serves 323 clients in more than 30 states and worldwide.

How did we achieve this and why does it matter to you?

First, our company is a way of thinking and not just a consulting business. Hartsook has acquired six firms in its history and virtually all the talent acquired in those acquisitions are gone. Why? They didn't get it. Hartsook is based on thinking, research and creativity. Many terrific men and women have tried to work at Hartsook. But set in their ways, and unwilling to change, they didn't survive. As a result Hartsook presents a creative and competent consistency that, frankly, others can't bring to the table.

Why does should this matter to you? Because it signals stability, reliability, and consistency.

Will your fundraising consulting firm still be around next year or the year after? Will it be around to fulfill its contractual obligations long term? These are important questions to ask.

From the very beginning, we were working on a model. We don't just report research; we are actively using research in our practice. Hank Russo wrote 30 years ago that annual support will go down during a campaign. We didn't just report that and take it at face value - we over came it with the Integrated Fundraising Campaign which preserves and grows operating support during campaign periods.

Research from Google and the Center on Philanthropy reveal that safety-net nonprofits have difficulty getting major gifts from individuals with net worth in excess of $10 million. Again, we didn't just report the research and assume it as fact; instead we developed our Initiative Fundraising program which changes how safety-net organizations raise money. As a result,  our clients are increasing operating support as much a 200 percent. We don't do feasibility studies, because those studies ask the question whether to do a campaign or not. Instead we execute campaign assessments that tell clients how to raise money for their campaign.

Over the past four years, Hartsook Companies has invested $5 million in changing fundraising education. These investments include the largest gift ever to the field; creating the Frantzreb Lecture, the Hartsook Chair in Fundraising at IU, the Hartsook Institutes for Fundraising and the Hartsook Institute at Avila University among others. We are committed to growing philanthropy to benefit you and your clients!

Sorry to gloat a bit, but we have worked hard to make this achievement and we are proud of what has been accomplished thus far!

Home | Back to Top

If you'd like a free subscription to e-Hartsook on Philanthropy - or its companion publication, the free, bi-weekly Strategies for Success, click here or contact Annette Lough, annette@hartsookcompanies.com. You also can reach her at 866.630.8500.