Root Capital Orr Group partnered with Root Capital to assess the organization’s fundraising strengths and challenges and designed a practical and actionable plan with recommendations to increase its annual philanthropic revenue from $15M to $25M over the course of five years.
Situation Root Capital invests in the growth of agricultural enterprises so they become engines of impact that transform rural communities. It seeks out enterprises whose credit needs are too big for microfinance or too small or risky for commercial banks and provides loans ranging from about $200,000 to $2M specifically tailored to harvest and sales cycles. To help businesses grow long-term, Root Capital mixes that financing with highly customized training to strengthen their financial management, governance, and agronomic capacity. With a new strategic plan focused on deepening impact in bankability, climate resilience, gender inclusion, and jobs for the next generation, Root Capital recognized the need to align its philanthropic revenue with its bold vision for bankable and resilient agricultural businesses. To implement their recently completed strategic plan, Root Capital needed to increase its annual philanthropic revenue from $15M to $25M by 2025.
Challenge Root Capital engaged Orr Group to assess the organization’s fundraising strengths and challenges, and to develop an actionable fundraising strategy and roadmap that would strengthen the organization’s vision for philanthropic growth over the next five years. In addition to a development assessment, Orr Group stepped in to serve as Interim Individual Gifts Officer to maintain fundraising momentum during a time of organizational transition.
Solution Based on our findings from the fundraising assessment, Orr Group designed a roadmap that provided actionable recommendations for Root Capital to strengthen and tailor its case for support to appeal to various types of donors, implement best practices to recruit and activate engaged leadership at all levels, strategically identify, qualify and cultivate major gifts donors, and secure additional staff and resources in order to implement the systems and structures needed to support a robust fundraising operation. We concluded that Root Capital had the potential to achieve its goal of raising $25M annually over the next five years with a fully staffed development department, engaged volunteer leadership, and a robust pipeline to support its fundraising goals.