Stop rebuilding from scratch every January.
January: You have a plan.
March: The plan has a problem.
October: You're in scramble mode.
December 31st: You made it. Barely. And you swore you'd do this differently next year.
Yet here you are.
The Annual Fundraising Blueprint is a five-session program that gives development directors at small and mid-size nonprofits a real, working fundraising plan — one that actually survives the year.
Here’s What Goes Wrong
It's not that you don't plan. You do. The problem is that most fundraising "plans" are really just a list of goals with no infrastructure underneath them. No quarterly decision points. No donor calendar. No system for knowing whether you're on track before it's too late to change course.
So when something shifts — and something always shifts — there's nothing to fall back on. You improvise. You scramble. You make the number, but you pay for it in December.
Your major donor cultivation lives in your head, not a system. Your year-end appeal gets rebuilt from scratch every October. Your board knows they're supposed to help with fundraising, but nobody's told them how.
That's not a discipline problem. It's a structure problem. And structure is exactly what this program builds.
What Changes When You Have A Real Plan?
Not a plan that sits in a Google Doc and gets ignored by February. A working plan — one that tells you what to focus on each quarter, which donors need attention when, what your board should actually be doing, and how to know whether you're on track before it's too late to course-correct.
When that's in place, a few things happen.
You stop starting from scratch every year. You know what worked, what didn't, and what to do differently — because you tracked it.
Your board becomes useful. Because you've given them a specific role with specific asks, not a vague invitation to "help with fundraising."
Your major donors get the attention they deserve. Because your cultivation calendar is built in, not improvised.
Your year-end appeal is ready in September. Because you planned it in Q3.
And you go home at a reasonable hour in December.
The Annual Fundraising Blueprint
A five-session program for development directors who are ready to stop scrambling and start planning.
Over nine weeks — five live sessions, every other week — you'll build a complete annual fundraising plan — not a template you fill in once and forget, but a living system you actually use.
Five live teaching sessions, every other week. A workbook you complete between sessions. Office hours every week — including the weeks between sessions. And a Google Sheets Planning System that holds your numbers, your calendar, your KPIs, and your donor strategy in one place.
By the time you're done, you'll have:
A full-year fundraising plan, built around your real capacity and your real donor base
Revenue goals by stream — grounded in history, not wishful thinking
A quarterly planning roadmap with campaigns, stewardship actions, and communications mapped out
A donor segmentation strategy with messaging for each segment
A KPI dashboard you'll actually check every month
Systems for major donor cultivation, board reporting, and year-end execution
A template library: donor call scripts, engagement prompts, email planning sheets, acknowledgment letters, and a board report one-pager
This is not a course about fundraising theory. Everything you build in this program, you use this year.
What You’ll Cover
In Just 5 Sessions
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Why most fundraising plans fail — and what yours needs to survive the year. You'll audit last year, name the barriers that are actually in your way, and set the planning intentions that will guide everything else.
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Set real revenue goals by stream. Define your 3–5 annual priorities — and the things you're not going to chase. Map your donor segments and the messaging that moves each one. This is where the plan gets its spine.
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This is the core of the program. You'll build out all four quarters: campaigns, communications, stewardship, major donor touches, and year-end strategy. By the end of this session, you'll have a real calendar — not a wishlist.
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The metrics that actually matter and how to track them. A monthly dashboard review you'll run in 20 minutes. A systems audit that tells you where your infrastructure is strong and where it's going to cost you. Plus: how to use your board report without putting anyone to sleep.
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Monthly and quarterly rituals that keep the plan alive. What to do when things go off track. How to present your plan to leadership with confidence. And how to end the year knowing exactly what you're doing differently next year.
How It Works
Five live teaching sessions — one per module, every other week over nine weeks. These are teaching sessions, not webinars. You'll be asked to think, respond, and apply. Sessions run approximately 90 minutes.
Self-paced work between sessions — your workbook is the implementation guide. You complete the exercises between sessions, so each live call builds on real decisions you've already made.
Office hours every week — including the weeks between sessions, so you're never more than a few days from support. Bring your questions, your stuck points, your "does this make sense for our org" moments. This is where the work gets specific to you.
A full tool suite from day one:
The AFB Workbook — your implementation guide for all five modules
The AFB Google Sheets Planning System — revenue goals, quarterly planning, KPI tracker, segmentation
The AFB Template Library — donor call scripts, engagement prompts, campaign email planning sheets, acknowledgment letter templates (standard and major donor), board report one-pager
Everything is set up before the first session. You're not waiting until week four to have something useful in your hands.
This Program Is Built For
You If:
This Program Is Built For
You If:
You're the development director (or the ED doing development) at a nonprofit raising somewhere between $500K and $3M
You've been doing this long enough to know what you should be doing — and you're frustrated that you can't get ahead enough to do it
You want a plan that actually survives contact with the year
You're willing to do the work between sessions — the workbook is not decorative
You're brand new to fundraising and looking for foundational skills training
You want a course you can consume passively without building anything
Your organization is in crisis mode — this program is for stabilizing and building, not triage
About Your Instructor
Barbara Bellissimo has spent more than twenty years inside nonprofit fundraising — not consulting from a distance, but doing the work: building annual plans, running year-end campaigns, working with boards, cultivating major donors, and figuring out what actually moves revenue for small and mid-size organizations.
She started Bellissimo Consulting because she kept seeing the same thing: smart, experienced fundraisers running hard all year and still scrambling in December, because no one had ever given them a real planning system.
The Annual Fundraising Blueprint is that system. Everything in it comes from what Barbara has seen work — and what she's watched fail — over two decades in this field.
Raise More. Stress Less. That's not a tagline. It's the point.
Join the January 2027 cohort.
$1,997.
Limited enrollment.
Payment plans available.
Enrollment is limited. This program runs as a small cohort — not because that's a sales tactic, but because the live sessions and office hours are only useful if the group is small enough for real conversation.
Professional development funding may be available through your organization or local nonprofit support network. Check with your ED or board before registering.
Questions? Email hello@bellissimconsulting.com.
30-day live group program | Four weekly Zoom sessions
September 8, 15, 22, 29, 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
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Each live session runs approximately 90 minutes. The workbook exercises between sessions take most participants two to three hours per module. Office hours are held every week — including the weeks between sessions — and are optional but recommended. Plan for one hour per week if you attend. Total time investment: roughly three to four hours per week during the program.
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January 2027. Session dates will be shared at enrollment. All live sessions are recorded for participants who can't attend live.
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Yes. This program is designed specifically for small development teams. The workbook, the planning system, and the template library are all built to be used by one person or a small team without additional support.
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The program includes board presentation materials and a board report template specifically for that conversation. Module 5 covers how to present your plan to leadership. You don't need your ED in the program — but you'll have the tools to bring them along.
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Yes. Click on “View Options” in the previous section for details.
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Full refund within seven days of enrollment. No refunds after the first session.
Ready to stop rebuilding from scratch?
Most fundraisers will finish this year the same way they started it — reactive, scrambling, rebuilding from scratch in October.
You don't have to.
The Annual Fundraising Blueprint opens for enrollment in January 2027.
Spots are limited.
30-day live group program | Four weekly Zoom sessions
September 8, 15, 22, 29, 2026