Build your donor & partner pipeline without burning out your team

Nonprofits rarely have a dedicated development staff member handling prospecting full-time, which means grant leads go unresearched, corporate partnership outreach stalls, and major donor cultivation falls through the cracks. A Trusty Oak EA steps into that gap—handling the research, list-building, and outreach coordination that keeps your pipeline moving. Whether you're preparing for a capital campaign or just trying to diversify funding sources, this is work that can be delegated without losing your organization's voice.

100+ tasks completed in this service category across our client base.

Fractional sales & lead generation support for nonprofits

How Trusty Oak handles sales & lead generation for nonprofits

A Trusty Oak EA supporting nonprofit sales and lead generation typically works inside tools like Bloomerang, Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP), DonorSearch, or even a well-maintained Airtable base to keep prospect records current and actionable. Day-to-day, they might pull foundation profiles from Candid (formerly GuideStar), build targeted corporate sponsorship prospect lists, draft templated outreach emails for your executive director to personalize, or track the status of pending grant inquiries and partnership conversations. Your role is to set the strategy—defining your target donor profile, funding priorities, and messaging—while the EA handles the research, data entry, list hygiene, and follow-up scheduling that keeps everything from falling through the cracks. They're not making the asks for you, but they're making sure you're always prepared to make the ask yourself.

What your EA takes off your plate

Before your EA starts, pull together a clear description of your ideal donor or partner—funding range, geographic focus, issue area alignment, and any funders you've already approached or been declined by. The most common mistake is handing off prospecting without this context, which results in a list that looks thorough but misses the nuances your development team already knows. Ten minutes documenting your criteria upfront saves hours of back-and-forth later.

1

Foundation and Grant Prospect Research

Using Candid, Foundation Directory Online, or GrantStation to identify funders aligned with your mission, eligibility criteria, and deadlines, then logging findings in your CRM or a shared tracker.

2

Corporate Sponsorship List Building

Researching local and national companies with documented CSR programs or community giving histories and compiling contact details for your development team to pursue.

3

Donor CRM Data Entry and Hygiene

Keeping Bloomerang, NPSP, or Little Green Light records updated with contact information, giving history, and outreach notes so nothing is lost between conversations.

4

Outreach Email Drafting and Sequence Setup

Writing templated introduction and follow-up emails for corporate partners or major donor prospects that your leadership can review, personalize, and send.

5

Prospect Pipeline Tracking and Follow-Up Scheduling

Maintaining a pipeline dashboard or CRM view that shows where each prospect stands, flagging overdue follow-ups, and adding calendar reminders so no warm lead goes cold.

Tools our team works with

We adapt to your existing stack — no forced migrations.

Salesforce
ZoomInfo
Apollo.io
HubSpot
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Outreach

...and many more!

Trusted by nonprofits

Trusty Oak supports nonprofits including Clayton Christensen Institute, Educational Testing Services (ETS), Real Discussion — handling everything from sales & lead generation to broader operational support.

What sales & lead generation support costs for nonprofits

Drag the sliders to build a monthly plan that fits your workload.

Executive Assistants
~$35/hour
15 hours $525
Specialists
~$50/hour
10 hours $500
Fractional Executives
~$95/hour
5 hours $475
Your monthly budget
$1,500

Starting at $1,000/month. One-time $300 onboarding fee includes your Strategic Delegation Plan.

Book a Discovery Call

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes—prospect research is largely a research and data management function, not a relationship function. Your EA doesn't need to be a subject matter expert in your cause area; they need to know how to use tools like Candid or DonorSearch and follow a clear brief you provide. The relationship and the ask always stay with your leadership.
A Trusty Oak EA can help you build out a structured prospect tracker in Airtable or Google Sheets as a starting point, or assist with data migration if you're onboarding a platform like Bloomerang or Little Green Light. This is a common first project for nonprofits that have been managing contacts in spreadsheets or email folders.
Trusty Oak has logged 125 time entries for sales and lead generation work across all industries, which means our EAs have hands-on experience with the workflows involved—prospect research, CRM management, outreach drafting, and pipeline tracking. Nonprofit-specific nuances like grant prospecting and donor cultivation are part of the onboarding conversation your Client Success Manager will have with you before work begins.

Start building a pipeline your team can actually work

For $1,000/month and a one-time $300 onboarding fee, you get a dedicated EA and a Strategic Delegation Plan built around your development goals. Unused hours roll over, so you're never paying for time you didn't use.