How a growing anti-trafficking nonprofit moved its supporters from backing individual staff to backing its mission 

CLIENT	A growing global anti-trafficking nonprofit
ENGAGEMENT	Fundraising strategy and donor transition support
THE BARRIER	A support-raised staff model that complicated control, accounting, and institutional funding
OUTCOME	More than 90% of the transitioned giving retained

THE FEAR	THE RESULT
“Donors give to people, not organizations. They won’t follow.”	80.2% of donors made the move, and 90.8% of the giving was retained.
“Asking will feel like a bait-and-switch and strain relationships.”	Personal outreach in each staff member’s own voice. Many donors increased their giving.
“The organization will lose momentum while it scales.”	Every donor was followed up with over six weeks, and the organization now has one structure to grow on.

The Hidden Barrier

For a growing organization, funding staff through personal support can feel like a strength. It builds close relationships and keeps people motivated. But as an organization scales, the same model can quietly get in the way: 

• Blurred lines of control: When staff are funded by donors who gave to them personally, it is harder for the organization to set priorities, direct resources, and tell funders clearly who is accountable for what. 

• Complicated books: Separate accounts for support-raised and other staff make budgets harder to build and proposals harder to submit, and they get in the way of the clean financials institutional funders look for. 

• A team divided in two: Support-raised and salaried colleagues can start to feel like different groups, and every new hire may spend months raising support before they can fully begin. 

Leaders often see the problem. What holds them back is fear: that donors gave to people, not to the organization, and that asking them to change will cost the very funding the team depends on. 

Our Approach 

The Kipos Group designed a transition to move supporters from backing individuals to backing the organization, while protecting the relationships that made the giving possible. Our guidance rested on a few principles: 

1. Honor both reasons people give: Donors care about the staff member and about the mission. Every message spoke to both, and framed the change as a sign of organizational strength. 

2. Make saying yes effortless: Donors didn’t have to log in, fill out forms, or change how they give. A simple reply was enough. 

3. Keep it personal: Staff reached out to their own supporters in their own voices, rather than sending a mass appeal. 

4. Start small, then scale: Each staff member began with a small group of donors, so the team could learn what worked before reaching everyone. 

5. Give donors a home: Every donor was placed in one of two communities, a monthly donor community or a mid-level giving community, each with regular updates from the field and a personal point of contact. 

6. Follow-through: Every donor received follow-up over six weeks to make sure the transition stuck and their giving continued. 

A foundation partner also backed the transition with a matching incentive, giving donors an added reason to move with the organization. 

The Results 

• Nine out of ten dollars retained: The organization kept 90.8% of the giving involved in the transition. 

• Four in five donors made the move: Of 429 donors in the effort, 344 (80.2%) converted to supporting the organization, at the high end of what we had planned for. 

• Strong results across every group: Retention was above 90% for both staff-support donors and child-sponsorship donors. 

• Many donors gave more: A sizable share of supporters used the moment to increase their giving. 

• A structure funders can back: One team, one set of books, and clear organizational control over staff and budget put the organization in a stronger position to approach foundations. 

What’s Next 

With the transition complete, the organization is building deeper relationships with these donors as part of its wider community of supporters, and is free to pursue institutional funding and growth from a stronger footing. 

About The Kipos Group: We help nonprofits build private funding, from strategy and messaging to coaching and proposals, with a team of experienced practitioners who are still working inside mission-driven organizations.