Senior fundraising counsel — strategy to implementation.
Directed Development offers senior individual giving expertise across five core disciplines. Michelle works closely with each client — not as a distant adviser, but as a committed strategic partner who helps guide implementation and takes ownership of outcomes.
Engagements are tailored to the organization. Whether you need a strategic review, a program built from the ground up, or senior oversight to guide implementation, Michelle can help.
Individual Giving Strategy
A strong individual giving program doesn't happen by accident. It requires a clear understanding of your donor base, a coherent acquisition and retention strategy, and the discipline to test, learn, and optimise over time. Michelle brings twenty years of experience designing and leading these programs — from small organizations building their first direct response capability, to large nonprofits managing sophisticated multi-channel operations.
Engagements typically include program audit and benchmarking, strategic planning, channel prioritisation, goal-setting, and a clear roadmap for growth.
Mid-Level Giving
Mid-level donors — those giving in the range of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars annually — are frequently the most underleveraged segment in a fundraising program. They represent significant untapped revenue, a pipeline to major gifts, and often the most loyal and engaged part of a donor file.
Michelle has deep experience developing mid-level programs from scratch and scaling existing ones — building the donor journeys, stewardship frameworks, and personalised communications that move donors upward and deepen their relationship with your cause.
Digital Fundraising
Digital is no longer a channel — it's the connective tissue of a modern fundraising program. Michelle has led digital transformation at major US nonprofits, building online acquisition, email cultivation, and digital retention strategies that generate real revenue and deepen donor engagement across the full giving cycle.
Whether you're building a digital program for the first time or looking to improve conversion and retention in an existing one, Michelle brings a data-informed, donor-centerd approach to every engagement.
Multichannel Fundraising
The most effective fundraising programs don't operate channel by channel — they work together. Direct mail, digital, telefundraising, face-to-face, and events each play a role, and the organizations that grow fastest are those that understand how to integrate them into a coherent donor experience.
Michelle's career has spanned agency and in-house roles across all major channels, giving her a rare ability to design multichannel programs that are greater than the sum of their parts — and to manage the complexity of delivering them well.
Membership & Regular Giving
Regular giving and membership programs are the foundation of a resilient nonprofit. They provide predictable revenue, build deep donor loyalty, and create the financial stability that allows organizations to plan and invest with confidence. Michelle spent years leading some of the largest and most sophisticated membership programs in the United States, with a proven track record of growing recurring giving revenue at scale.
Services cover program design and launch, acquisition strategy, retention and reactivation, upgrade pathways, and the operational systems needed to manage a recurring giving program effectively.
Expertise at every scale.
Michelle has worked with organizations raising hundreds of thousands of dollars annually and those operating programs in excess of $100 million a year. The strategic principles are the same at every level — rigorous, donor-centerd, and built to last. Whatever your program's current scale, Directed Development brings the same depth of thinking and commitment to results.
A direct, senior relationship — no layers, no handoffs.
There are no account managers or junior staff. When you engage Directed Development, you get Michelle's full attention and expertise throughout.
Whether you need a short strategic review or a sustained operational partnership, engagements are structured around what your program actually needs.
Michelle builds programs and helps oversee implementation and execution. She takes real ownership of outcomes — not just deliverables.
Tell me about your program.
Every engagement begins with a conversation. Get in touch to discuss where your organization is and where you want to go.
Contact Michelle