Where Wisdom Meets Expression
Your campaign’s story demands both strategy &
soul
Extraordinary campaigns align strategic purpose with donor passion—transforming bold visions into generous action.
Transforming advancement at leading nonprofit institutions:
What We Deliver
Five integrated forces that drive institutional and campaign performance.
Strategic Clarity
As campaign architects, we strongly believe that how begins with why. We distill institutional complexity into a compelling narrative—why now, why here, why this— to unify leadership, align priorities and give every stakeholder a clear story to tell. The result: donor conversations that start from strength, not explanation.
Authentic Expression
We deliver world-class creative execution grounded in advancement expertise—where beauty serves fundraising wisdom, not the other way around. Our principals understand gift tables, solicitation psychology, and donor journeys, so every design decision reinforces your fundraising strategy. The result: materials that move donors to action, not just admiration.
Organizational Fluency
We ensure that your team can confidently articulate the campaign in their own words—not scripts—long after our engagement ends. Through immersive workshops and real-scenario practice, we build a genuine campaign culture among both staff and volunteers. The result: a team that adapts messaging to any donor conversation without calling for backup.
Personal Resonance
Every donor sees themselves in your campaign through personalized communications that connect institutional priorities to individual passions. We help you move beyond one-size-fits-all materials to experiences that speak directly to what each prospect cares about most. The result: deeper engagement, stronger relationships, and gifts that reflect true philanthropic alignment.
Lasting Capacity
When strategic clarity, authentic expression, organizational fluency, and personal resonance converge, campaigns bring a new level of institutional strength. We measure success not by launch day, but by what remains after the celebration ends—teams who can do this again, systems that endure, and momentum that compounds. The result: your next campaign launches faster, stronger, and from higher ground.
Performance as Our Standard
Campaigns born complete deliver transformational results.
Bringing Mission Forward
Restoring Higher Education as Societal Catalyst
Mission: Forward
DePaul’s $650M “Mission: Forward” campaign needed unified messaging across 11 colleges and units, and permanent organizational fluency. Foster Avenue delivered strategic discipline that transformed how 200+ ambassadors articulate purpose-driven philanthropy.
“Foster Avenue strengthened our work and benefited our entire team through their deep nonprofit experience and understanding of DePaul’s institutional goals—transforming how we articulate our purpose through ‘Mission: Forward.'”
— Sarah Wagoner, Associate Vice President, Development & Campaign Operations
$650M
Campaign Goal
200+
trained in campaign fluency
11
unit cases institutionalized
Where & How Breakthroughs Begin
A $1 billion campaign to accelerate the future of pediatric medicine.
Two Identities, One Story
CHOP had become two things at once: Philadelphia’s beloved community hospital and a global force in breakthrough pediatric medicine. The $1 billion campaign needed a narrative that could honor both dimensions—and create urgency across every audience.
Foster Avenue developed “For Tomorrow’s Breakthroughs”—a campaign rationale that unified four ambitious priorities under one future-focused theme, giving leadership language that worked in any room, with any donor.
$1B
Goal Met
4
Priorities Unified
1,000+
personalized cultivations
Positioning Public Space as Civic Inheritance
Stewarding What Belongs to Everyone
From Park to Purpose
When Oglebay Foundation launched its first-ever comprehensive campaign, they faced an unexpected challenge: their century of self-sufficiency had convinced the community the park didn’t need philanthropic support at all.
Foster Avenue reframed the narrative—transforming Oglebay from a beloved amenity into a living endowment that builds family, community, commerce, and pride. The “Forever Yours” theme gave donors language to understand why operations sustain, but only philanthropy propels.
“Foster Avenue helped us articulate a case we’d never made in 100 years—why a self-sustaining park still needs the community’s investment. The campaign messaging transformed how donors see their role in Oglebay’s next century.”
— Foundation Leadership
FIRST-EVER
COMPREHENSIVE CAMPAIGN
$700K+
Matching Campaign
100 years
Of Community Impact
$35B+
RAISED
100+
CAMPAIGNS
40+
YEARS EXPERIENCE
Zero
HANDOFFS
Experience Without Complacency
We’ve thrived for four decades not by standing still, but by continuously challenging the status quo through a restless desire to better serve clients and advance our industry. Our integrated model isn’t just our history—it’s our latest offensive play in shaping fundraising’s future.
Two Companies, One Team
Our alliance with Marts&Lundy combines their unmatched analytical depth with our integrated communications mastery. Together, we deliver campaigns that are both strategically rigorous and emotionally resonant.
This isn’t vendor coordination—it’s true partnership. One unified team delivering counsel and communications as an integrated force, accelerating your path to transformational outcomes.
Comprehensive Fundraising Services
Foster Avenue brings a distinctive approach to transformational fundraising—timely innovations built on timeless truths. Whether you need a single deliverable or a full campaign partnership, every service is grounded in 40+ years of advancement expertise—and delivered by the same team from start to finish.
- Capital Campaign Strategy
- Priority Articulation
- Case for Support Development
- Campaign Communications
- Donor Engagement Strategy
- Feasibility Studies
- Major Gift Messaging
- Organizational Fluency Training
- Advancement Consulting for Higher Ed
- Healthcare Philanthropy
- Cultural Institution Fundraising
Frequently Asked Questions
Understanding Foster Avenue’s approach to transformational fundraising.
How do I know if my organization is ready for a comprehensive campaign?
Campaign readiness requires three foundations: strategic clarity, donor capacity, and compelling urgency. You’re prepared when you have a clear strategic plan with defined priorities, leadership stability, board members ready to lead with significant gifts, and a validated pipeline of 20–50 major gift prospects capable of six- or seven-figure commitments.
Warning signs include recent leadership transitions (president less than 1 year), unresolved internal conflicts about priorities, untested major gift capacity (no recent gifts over $100K), or advancement teams too small to manage campaign intensity.
Foster Avenue offers Campaign Readiness Assessments—a 4–6 week diagnostic evaluating your strategic positioning, donor capacity, and messaging clarity to build the foundation for successful campaigns.
What should I look for when selecting a campaign partner?
Look for advancement-native expertise—partners whose principals have led campaigns themselves, not just marketed them, with deep understanding of donor psychology, gift tables, and solicitation strategies. The best partners offer integrated counsel and creative, eliminating the coordination burden of managing separate consultants and agencies.
Evaluate whether they build lasting capacity through team training, not just deliverables. Verify deep sector experience—higher education differs fundamentally from healthcare or cultural institutions. Ask: Will we work with senior partners throughout? How do you approach post-campaign support? Can you provide references about team transformation?
Foster Avenue’s principals each bring 25+ years of advancement experience, including leadership at traditional consulting firms and on staff with major institutions, ensuring that we understand your challenges while integrating world-class creative capabilities.
How does integrated campaign counsel differ from traditional consulting?
Traditional consultants provide pre-campaign planning and strategic counsel but don’t create messaging or materials—you separately hire a creative agency. Creative agencies excel at design but lack front-end planning expertise. This fragmentation creates timeline delays (6–12 months longer), messaging gaps, and coordination burden.
Foster Avenue integrates senior fundraising counsel with strategic creative execution—we call this “counsel-led communications.” Our principals have 25+ years of advancement experience, so we understand campaign structure AND create the messaging and materials. One partner, one timeline, one unified message.
Counsel-led communications work best at organizations that need strategic communications, have strong internal planning but lack creative bandwidth, or want to avoid coordinating separate vendors.
What’s involved in building our team’s capacity during a campaign?
Most engagements deliver materials. Foster Avenue equally prioritizes Organizational Fluency—ensuring that your advancement team can confidently articulate your campaign in their own words, not scripts. At Foster Avenue, you’re not just investing in beautiful materials, but in fundraisers who can adapt your messaging to individual donor interests.
Our capacity building is embedded throughout: stakeholder interviews that double as team alignment, strategic messaging developed collaboratively, fluency workshops with real practice scenarios, and ongoing coaching on high-stakes solicitations. We train your people, rather than just delivering tools.
Unlike deliverables that age out in 3–5 years, team fluency lasts decades. Organizations report sustained annual fund growth, improved retention, and faster future campaign launches.
How does Foster Avenue work with existing fundraising consultants?
Foster Avenue frequently partners with traditional campaign consultants, especially Marts&Lundy. Many engagements come through direct referrals because we solve a complementary challenge: campaign communications and creative execution. Your consultant guides the strategic “what” and “when” (goal structure, timeline, solicitation sequence). Foster Avenue delivers your campaign’s compelling “why,” through strategic messaging, materials, case statements, presentations, and fluency training.
We coordinate proactively—learning your consultant’s framework, adopting their terminology, establishing monthly touchpoints, and presenting unified concepts together. Foster Avenue—not you—takes ownership of coordination logistics.
If you don’t have a consultant yet, Foster Avenue can serve as your primary campaign partner, providing both strategic messaging counsel and creative execution.
What types of institutions does Foster Avenue serve?
Foster Avenue serves three sectors conducting major comprehensive campaigns: education (colleges, universities, and independent schools), healthcare (health systems, hospitals, and medical centers), and cultural institutions (museums, performing arts centers). Campaign scale typically ranges from $20M to $2B.
Our specialization means we speak the native language of advancement: feasibility studies, gift pyramids, quiet phase versus public launch, major gift solicitation psychology, donor stewardship strategies. We don’t serve enrollment marketing or general institutional branding—our entire focus is campaign-intensive advancement work.
Foster Avenue brings 40+ years of experience supporting $35+ billion raised across 100+ campaigns.
When should institutions engage a campaign communications partner?
Foster Avenue typically engages 6–12 months before the quiet or nucleus phase—when your campaign structure is being defined, leadership prospects are being identified, and you need compelling materials for high-stakes solicitations. This timing means your messaging framework guides leadership solicitations from day one, fundraisers enter confident and fluent, and materials are prepared before first asks.
We continue through public launch (campaign microsite, collateral, events, video) and include a distinctive Wrap/Pivot Phase, preventing post-campaign decline. We also join campaigns mid-stream when institutions experience stalled momentum, need creative partners after consultant planning, or face messaging inconsistency.
Ideal timing is 6–12 months before the quiet or nucleus phase, but we work flexibly across all campaign phases.
We should talk.
We’d love to learn about your institution’s ambitions and share how we might help you achieve them.