YOUR CAUSE. YOUR MISSION. YOUR STORY.
Strategy. Communications. Fundraising.
Capacity-building support for social service and social justice organizations.
For small non-profits - when you need someone who’s been there & done that.
Janet Mary Cobb — Author. Speaker. Coach. — Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE). Certified Non-Profit Professional (CNP).
Download Your Copy of 2021 AtoZ Challenge: Fundraising Guide HERE
Janet has worked in the nonprofit arena her entire career.
As a Certified Fund Raising Executive and Certified Nonprofit Professional, Janet specializes in working with small to mid-sized nonprofit organizations across the country to help them build capacity and acquire the skills needed to support and expand their efforts.
From growing development efforts from the ground up to working in well-established offices, Janet brings the knowledge and understanding of the challenges faced by small nonprofits to each of her projects. Janet has held a wide variety of positions including Communications Manager, Director of Development and Executive Director, and handled budgets from under $50K to $8m. She integrates her skills in education, non-profit management, and fundraising to offer innovative solutions to align money and mission.
Through the course of her 30+ year career, Janet has worked with more than 600 nonprofits and participated in or facilitated numerous and varied initiatives. Her experience has led her to develop a right-sized strategic planning process and coaching program for small to mid-sized nonprofits, balancing the grand vision with the practical capacity of the organization. Janet Cobb brings vision to current reality and reality to big bold visions as she assists organizations in their efforts to do good.
Check out “Fundraising Through and Post-Covid—What’s Next?” with Chany Okert and Kimberly O’Donnell with BonterraTech
Cooking Up Impact
15-minute meal ideas for busy nonprofit fundraisers
Hey Do-Gooder!
Are you like many of the nonprofit leaders I work with — the Chief Everything Officer at your organization, pulled in a million directions? You run programs, manage the board, market, fundraise, and steward donors. You want to focus on fundraising but you’re busy putting out fires.
For Chief Everything Officers like you, I recommend committing 15-minutes each day to focus on fundraising. If you miss a day, no big deal. And some days, if you don’t get interrupted, you might get in a bit more fundraising. It isn’t perfect but it moves your fundraising forward.
When time is tight and you can’t fit it all in, eating a decent meal is often the last thing on your mind. Snacking on processed foods, stopping by the drive-thru, or skipping meals altogether is easier.
Would you like to whip up great meals to keep you going while you do good for others— in just 15-minutes or less?
So you can spend more time doing good— and moving your mission forward. And taking care of yourself!
I’m thrilled to offer these 15-minute meal ideas.
I hope they will help you take care of yourself as you take care of others.
15-minute Fundraising
Resist overwhelm
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and struggle to make fundraising a priority, download this guide to 15-minute Fundraising.
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Coaching.
Do you have a vision you struggle to make a reality? Do you need to clarify your priorities?
Are you uncertain of how to find, engage with, and grow your donor base? Is your fundraising going nowhere?
Do you need an accountability partner, an experienced guide or someone to motivate and inspire you?
Janet offers encouraging accountability so you can engage in big-picture thinking and practical implementation to fulfill your mission. You’ll stay on track, gain insight, communicate effectively, and achieve your goals.
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Strategic Planning.
Do you know you need a strategic plan but don’t have oodles of time (or funding) to spend on a long, drawn-out process?
Do you wish your board and staff took ownership of your organization’s direction?
Do you know you need to strengthen your fundraising efforts but you aren’t certain how?
Janet offers an interactive and challenging strategic planning process where you will clarify your vision and mission - and identify your bold goals. You’ll walk away with an aspirational yet functional strategic plan — and the confidence and action plan to make it happen! Learn more
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Fundraising Appeal Audits.
Have you written your fundraising appeals but would appreciate a review?
Have you heard about donor-centric fundraising but aren’t sure what it means or how to do it without perpetuating harmful practices?
Are you concerned that your appeals are exploiting those you serve, that you’re engaging in “trauma porn,” or perpetuating attitudes of saviorism?
Janet will review and provide feedback on content and formatting of your emails, letters, and phone or video scripts, as well as your frequency of communications to help you avoid donor fatigue.
My Journey in the Nonprofit World
(Adapted from the introduction to Promised Land: The 10 Commandments for Nonprofit Strategy, Communications, and Fundraising)
Recently, when a new client asked me how I got started in the nonprofit world, I was caught off guard. I had to think for a moment. Long story short, the nonprofit world has been part of my life for as long as I can remember, and long before I knew what the word meant.
My family was “the client story” organizations share to encourage donors to support their mission. I’d never heard the term “nonprofit.” I simply knew that without the generosity of others, my life would have been far more difficult.
At-risk and vulnerable
From the moment my father abandoned my mother, leaving her to raise eight children alone, I survived on others’ charity and goodness. Each holiday season, our family received the boxes of food from the food drives at the Catholic church, from which we also received financial assistance to attend school. I have vivid memories of receiving bags of clothes and furniture from classmates and the excitement of occasionally having a few dollars to purchase clothes at the local St. Vincent de Paul, a nonprofit resale shop.
I lived in public housing, attended Head Start, received Free Lunch, participated in sponsored recreational programs and daycare centers, worked in youth employment programs for low-income teens, held car washes and bake sales to fund our programs, and attended Catholic school on scholarship. I also exhibited many of the behaviors attributed to “at-risk” youth.
Missionaries showed up at school assemblies and Sunday Mass asking for support for their work with the poor, at home and abroad. Their presentations often moved me. One sticks out in my mind. After a Maryknoll missioner spoke, my mother urged me to give them money. “Since you have a job,” she said. I casually and facetiously replied, “Nope. I might join ‘em, but I’m not givin‘em my money.”
In February 1982, six months after high school graduation, I entered a convent to become a Catholic sister, with a firm belief this would be the best way to spend my life doing good.
Always the rabble-rouser
In addition to my mission work, I was immediately immersed in the world of special events, donor appeals, and donor stewardship. I never thought of what we did as “nonprofit” work, but I wrote newsletters, direct mail appeals, and annual reports. I physically folded letters, stuffed and sealed envelopes, and licked stamps. I created marketing materials and brochures, sorted thousands of bulk mailing pieces by zip code across the long rectangular tables of our dining hall, and stood before church assemblies encouraging folks to register for retreats or support our work through calls-for-cash. We conducted a “Dollar-a-Month” club long before online giving was even imaginable, much less critical. Each month, we received hundreds of envelopes with one-dollar bills enclosed, often wrapped in a blank sheet of paper, for safety. Still, I didn’t identify with the term “nonprofit.”
I went on to university in Hong Kong to become a teacher. Teaching high school during the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the Gulf War, the Vietnamese Refugee Crisis, and the pending Chinese control of Hong Kong, I reconnected with my passion for policy and advocacy issues. I found myself befriending the homeless on the streets, visiting the sick in hospitals, and protesting inequality.
My desire to do good became more focused on challenging the injustices around me, both locally and globally. Issues like poverty alleviation, environmental awareness, racism, and nonviolence seeped into every classroom assignment and conversation, upending my equilibrium and driving me to challenge the status quo.
After thirteen years in religious life, for reasons far too complex to share here, I left the convent with a firm belief it was the best way for me to continue to spend my life doing good.
Social justice issues continue to be a driving force in everything I do.
My Family
While raising my children, I continued to work in nonprofit education, sat on boards and committees for strategic planning and capital campaigns, wrote grants for educational and technology programs, and designed appeals, newsletters, and annual reports with the hope of creating a better, more just, and equitable world.