Dear (future) partner,
We love working with leaders like you: experienced, pragmatic, and here to do good. We’re writing as your brand partner who cares about your team, your mission, and your goal.
This isn’t a sales pitch for counsel or about referral karma points. This is about us having a front-row seat to what makes campaigns hum. And, here’s the simple truth we’ve learned:
Brand drives momentum. Counsel drives potential. When those two work together, you get a story that moves people and a plan that maximizes your campaign’s potential.
Why this matters even if you’ve “run campaigns before”
You might be considering a campaign without counsel because the budget is tight or your team has deep experience. We get it. You’ve run campaigns at other organizations. You know your donors. Your instincts are good.
And yet, we’ve seen these patterns show up time and time again when counsel isn’t in the room:
- Goals that are set on aspiration, not math.
- Strategy that varies by leader or week, and is misaligned across your top segments.
- Board roles are unclear and there’s no engagement plan.
- A moving campaign story but unranked priorities (even if they are clear)…and even if you have them to begin with.
- Leadership alignment frays under pressure, and staff burn out trying to patch gaps.
Counsel brings with it a collective multitude of campaign experiences and historical knowledge. It pressure-tests your goals, models the gift table, coaches governance, and protects your bandwidth. This frees us to focus on your story, equip your team, and build momentum across phases with the right people at the right time.
You know your donors better than anyone. That’s exactly why counsel helps. They create the neutral space for tough calls — right-sizing the goal, ranking priorities, setting board expectations. That makes the story sharper and the activation clearer.
“We don’t have the budget.” A fair pushback.
Here’s the counter-question: what’s the cost of drift? Every quarter spent correcting aim is a quarter you could spend compounding belief and gifts. Counsel reduces wasted time and effort by forcing clarity early. Your budget then goes to building momentum, not course-correcting the fundamentals. If you’re forced to choose between hiring counsel or us, hire counsel.
Red flags worth heeding
If two or more are showing up, be aware that delays may follow. These red flags can slow decisions and stall the early momentum you’ve worked hard to build in the campaign readiness or quiet phase:
- Unsubstantiated goals. A number without a model is a liability.
- Overconfidence in segment strategy. “We know our donors” can mask gaps in capacity and readiness.
- No engagement strategy. Communications without choreography.
- Board misalignment. Participation and influence without clear roles or expectations.
- Soft case. A moving story without a focus on priorities.
You might not need counsel if…
- Your campaign goal is modest, narrowly scoped, and already backed by verified lead-gift intent.
- Your board is aligned, at high participation, and actively opening doors.
- You have a validated gift table and pipeline with fresh notes.
- Your governance, pledge management, and CRM discipline are airtight.
If you’re nodding to all four, you may be okay. That’s rare, though. If you’re at two or three, counsel will likely pay for itself in avoided rework and preserved momentum. (We’re happy to talk it through together.) We’ve see our partners a la carte counsel to plug gaps, and that’s ok if you have most of the needs covered.
Here’s the bottom line — you don’t need permission to run a great campaign. However, you need the right partners running hard for you in the right lanes. We’ll bring the story, the creative tools, and help your team speak with one voice. A campaign truly hums, though, when you have a trusted fundraising counsel that will bring the math, pressure-test the goal, and provide the coaching. Together we protect your time, your team’s energy, and your mission.
We won’t tell you that counsel is a prerequisite, because it isn’t. We’ll still show up and do excellent work. We’ll also tell you where we see risk — because that’s what partners do.
Your partners,
Chad Paris, Dan Li & the Parisleaf team
P.S. If you’re looking to hire counsel for your next (or current) campaign, we’d love to tell you about the ones we’ve worked with and wholeheartedly recommend. Let’s chat!
