DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONS Consulting SERVICES
A great fundraising strategy needs infrastructure that can actually support it.
Your development team shouldn't have to fight its own systems to raise money. Disconnected tools, inconsistent processes, messy data, unclear workflows, and manual workarounds don't just create frustration; they cost your organization time, opportunities, relationships, and revenue.
My Approach
With nearly 14 years of experience working within and leading nonprofit development programs, I've seen just how much fundraising success depends on what happens behind the scenes.
Your development infrastructure should make fundraising easier, not create more work.
Too often, organizations build their development operations one problem at a time. A new tool gets added because someone needs a feature. A spreadsheet appears because the CRM doesn't quite work. Different team members develop different processes. Important information lives in someone's head. Reporting becomes a monthly scramble. Eventually, the organization has accumulated plenty of tools and processes, but very little infrastructure.
I start by understanding how your development operation actually works today. I'll look at your technology, data, workflows, processes, team structure, reporting needs, and the ways information moves across your organization. Then we'll identify what's working, what's creating friction, what's missing, and what simply doesn't need to exist anymore.
No buying technology because everyone else uses it.
No complicated processes your team won't maintain.
No adding another tool to solve a problem created by the last tool.
Every recommendation is informed by:
Your fundraising strategy and revenue model
The size, structure, and capacity of your development team
Your existing technology and systems
How your team actually works day to day
Data quality, accessibility, and reporting needs
Opportunities to eliminate duplication and unnecessary manual work
The cost and long-term sustainability of new systems
Your organization's plans for future growth
Technology is only useful when the systems around it work.
That's why my work goes well beyond recommending software. I help organizations think through how prospects enter the system, how opportunities move through pipelines, how portfolios are managed, how decisions are made, how projects move forward, how information gets documented, and how leadership gets the information it needs to make decisions.
This work may include everything from improving what you already have to helping select, configure, and onboard entirely new systems.
I'm approachable and transparent in my guidance. If something is working, I'll tell you. If you're paying for functionality you don't need, I'll tell you that too. The goal isn't to build the most sophisticated development operation possible. It's to build the right development operation for your organization.
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Development operations designed around how your team actually needs to work, with fewer bottlenecks, clearer responsibilities, and processes that support fundraising instead of slowing it down.
Before adding another system, we figure out what's actually broken.
This work may include:
A comprehensive audit of existing development operations, workflows, and processes
Identification of bottlenecks, duplication, manual work, and operational gaps
Mapping of key fundraising workflows from prospect identification through stewardship
Recommendations for simplifying and standardizing recurring development processes
Development of standard operating procedures and internal documentation
Clarification of ownership, handoffs, and accountability across development functions
Identification of opportunities for automation and greater efficiency
The outcome is a development operation that is easier to manage, easier to scale, and better equipped to support your fundraising strategy.
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A fundraising technology ecosystem that supports your strategy, gives your team usable information, and eliminates unnecessary friction.
Your donor management system and fundraising platform should form the operational backbone of your fundraising program, not expensive technologies everyone avoids using.
This work may include:
Assessment of your current CRM and how effectively your team is using it
Identification of functionality gaps, data issues, and adoption challenges
CRM requirements development and platform evaluation
Recommendations for CRM selection, replacement, or optimization
Planning and support for implementation, migration, and onboarding
Development of practical data-entry and information-management standards
Recommendations for integrations with other development technology
Dashboard, reporting, and performance measurement design
The outcome is technology that works for your development team instead of requiring your development team to work around it.
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Clear systems for knowing where every meaningful fundraising opportunity stands, what needs to happen next, and who is responsible for moving it forward.
A pipeline isn't useful because it contains prospects. It's useful because it creates movement.
This work may include:
Design or refinement of major gifts, foundation, corporate, or other fundraising pipelines
Development of clear qualification and pipeline stages
Moves management systems and expectations
Portfolio management structures
Opportunity tracking and next-action frameworks
Pipeline review processes and meeting structures
Revenue probability and forecasting methodology
Dashboards and reporting tools that make pipeline health visible to leadership
The outcome is a development team that can see its opportunities clearly, prioritize its time intelligently, and actively move revenue forward.
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The right tools and processes for finding, qualifying, prioritizing, and understanding the donors and funders most likely to invest in your organization.
This work may include:
Assessment of current prospect research practices and technology
Evaluation and selection of prospecting and research platforms
Development of prospect qualification criteria
Creation of scoring systems and decision-making rubrics
Prospect prioritization frameworks
Integration of research into CRM and pipeline processes
Development of repeatable prospect identification and qualification workflows
The outcome is a prospecting function that gives fundraisers useful intelligence instead of simply generating longer lists.
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Practical internal systems that help development teams manage complex work without losing opportunities, deadlines, or institutional knowledge along the way.
Fundraising is relationship-driven work, but it is also operationally complex. Proposals, campaigns, events, reports, stewardship, solicitations, communications, research, and dozens of other moving pieces need somewhere to live.
This work may include:
Selection or optimization of project management platforms
Development of fundraising project templates and recurring workflows
Grant, campaign, solicitation, and stewardship calendars
Internal decision-making rubrics and prioritization tools
Meeting structures and accountability systems
Resource libraries, templates, and shared documentation
Cross-functional workflows between development, finance, programs, communications, and leadership
Systems for capturing institutional knowledge and reducing dependence on individual staff members
The outcome is a development function with clearer priorities, stronger coordination, and infrastructure that allows fundraisers to spend more of their time actually fundraising.
SERVICES OFFERED
I offer development operations services ranging from comprehensive system and process audits to donor database strategy, pipeline architecture, moves management, prospecting systems, and project management systems, as well as internal resources and workflow design. I can help strengthen the systems you already have, identify and select new tools when needed, and support implementation and adoption so efficiencies become part of how your team works.
WHO THIS IS FOR
My development operations consulting services are ideal for organizations that:
Are building a development operation from the ground up and want to build it correctly from the start
Are considering replacing or implementing fundraising technology and need objective strategic guidance
Have fundraising information scattered across spreadsheets, platforms, inboxes, and individual staff members
Struggle to consistently track prospects, moves, opportunities, deadlines, or stewardship
Have difficulty producing reliable pipeline reports or revenue forecasts
Need better systems for prospect research, qualification, and prioritization
Have development staff spending too much time on administrative work and workarounds
Want to improve efficiency without sacrificing the relationship-driven nature of fundraising
Need systems that can scale with ambitious fundraising growth
This is strategic operational work designed to make your fundraising infrastructure as strong as the strategy it supports.
DELIVERABLES
My services are tailored to each client's existing infrastructure, team capacity, fundraising model, and growth goals. Depending on the scope of our project, your organization's work with me may result in:
A comprehensive Development Operations Audit identifying strengths, gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities
A prioritized Development Operations Improvement Roadmap
CRM assessment, requirements analysis, and platform recommendations
CRM optimization or implementation strategy
Customized fundraising pipelines and moves management systems
Portfolio management and prospect tracking frameworks
Revenue forecasting models and reporting dashboards
Prospect qualification frameworks and decision-making rubrics
Fundraising technology and prospecting software recommendations
Project management systems and customized development workflows
Standard operating procedures for key development functions
Internal templates, tools, calendars, and accountability systems
Cross-functional workflows connecting development with finance, programs, communications, and leadership
Team onboarding, training, and implementation support
All clients receive:
Full access to applicable Mollé Consulting templates, tools, exercises, and implementation resources
Access to all password-protected tools and strategic planning resources on chermolle.com
Customized recommendations and documentation designed to help your team maintain and continue improving its systems after our engagement ends
Deliverables are practical, durable, and immediately usable, because systems only create value if you can actually use them.
outcomes
While outcomes will vary depending on the scope and focus of your engagement, clients generally experience the following shifts:
Development systems that support fundraising strategy instead of competing with it
Cleaner, more useful fundraising data and greater confidence in what that data is telling you
Clearer pipelines and more disciplined moves management
More reliable revenue forecasting and visibility into future opportunities
Better-qualified prospects and stronger prioritization of development resources
Less time spent duplicating work, searching for information, or maintaining unnecessary manual processes
Greater CRM adoption because systems reflect how fundraisers actually work
Clearer roles, responsibilities, workflows, and accountability
Better coordination across development, leadership, finance, programs, and communications
Stronger institutional knowledge that doesn't disappear when a staff member leaves
Development professionals spending more time cultivating relationships and raising money
Infrastructure capable of supporting future fundraising growth
Development operations stop being something your team works around. They start working for your team.
Information becomes easier to find. Priorities become easier to see. Opportunities become easier to manage. Leadership gets better visibility into what's coming, and development professionals get more time back for the work only they can do.
The goal isn't more systems, more software, or more process.
It's better fundraising because the right infrastructure is finally in place.