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Raise Up - The Art and Discipline of Fundraising

The art and
discipline of fundraising.


We work with select high-impact social enterprises, nonprofits, and funders to accelerate fundraising. Raise Up’s partners, Jenna and Liezl, bring decades of frontline fundraising experience to your team, providing an infusion of senior, strategic expertise to drive growth and overcome pain points.

 

Offerings &
Testimonials


 

You only get senior partner time from Raise Up (it’s all we offer). We work with groups across sectors and growth stages to maximize the returns of their fundraising programs. We are intentional about building the capacity of teams and organizations while advising and executing on top priorities.

Signature projects

With a typical timeline of two to six months and laser focus on refining your most important fundraising assets, our signature projects have an unbeatable return on investment. Our rates are competitive and based on organizational budget size. Every engagement is bespoke, these are our most popular blueprints:

Case for Support
Your go-to fundraising collateral for introducing your work to new prospects. Raise Up’s unique style of outcome-focused storytelling presents the right information in a compelling manner to quickly advance conversations towards funding. We work with designer McKenna Kemp (Former Proximity Designs, Warby Parker) to bring your model and impact to life.

“New fundraising collateral and messaging from Raise Up directly helped me secure meetings with new funders that previously had been out of reach. The level of support, knowledge, and expertise Jenna and Liezl provide is unparalleled.”

Julia Van Raalte, Director of Development, dZi Foundation

Pipeline Acceleration
Raise Up identifies well-aligned funding opportunities, then works together with clients to define smart outreach strategies that leverage our own networks and your existing stakeholders. When it comes to expanding your donor base, there is no replacement for our first hand insight and our deep roots in the global social impact space.

“We needed fresh thinking and new ideas to respond to headwinds in major gifts fundraising…Through inquiry and collaboration, we arrived at a really clear set of recommendations that me and my team could get started on right away.”

Jessica Lee, Senior Manager, Philanthropic Initiatives, Root Capital

⁂ Simple Critical Systems
We introduce essential fundraising infrastructure and train your team on how to use it. Raise Up’s proprietary templates level-up teams of any size. 

“Liezl and Jenna provided us with practical tools that they built based on their years of fundraising experience that we use every day. These tools have demystified fundraising for Saha and enabled us to set tangible goals for pipeline development and donor stewardship and then quantify progress towards those goals.”

Kate Cincotta, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Saha Global

Coaching
We coach social entrepreneurs to strengthen their pitch and hit the points funders care about most in a clear and compelling way.

“I won several major prizes with Raise Up’s coaching. Our collaboration showed me and my team how to position ourselves as thought leaders in our space, getting me on the right stages in front of the right audiences.”

Felix Brooks-Church, Co-Founder and CEO, Sanku

⚃ Portfolio Building for Funders
Raise Up partners with visionary funders to directly support individual grantees or whole portfolios. Fundraising support is one of the best investments a funder can make to safeguard and maximize their grants.
 

◎ Strategic Advisory Retainer 
As objective outsiders with deep knowledge of the global landscape, we add an edge to already healthy development programs at outstanding organizations. Whether you need to overcome stagnant growth or capitalize on increased visibility, we help you hit your fundraising goals. 

This offering is only available to existing or referred clients.


In-house Development Leadership
Raise Up’s partners take on leadership roles for select clients at critical growth junctures. 

This offering is currently unavailable.


 

“Jenna and Liezl are the best of the best when it comes to social enterprise fundraising! They are skilled at matchmaking win-win partnerships for both funders and grantees, and offered awesome support in training our team and developing slick collateral that communicated our impact. They are extremely knowledgeable about funders in the space, professional about delivering exceptional work, passionate about what they do, and also very fun to work with.”

Gayatri Datar, Co-Founder and CEO, EarthEnable


“I hired Liezl and Jenna because we were at an exciting growth stage at Sanku. I knew we needed to ramp up fundraising, quickly reach new funding leads that weren’t on our radar, and develop a multi-year funding strategy to reach our impact potential. Together, we more than doubled our fundraising pipeline, and confirmed $1M+ in new grants that Raise Up initiated and/or heavily supported, including several major prizes closed with their coaching. They put in place critical internal systems, hired the team Sanku needed to keep growing well beyond our engagement, and helped us create compelling new pitch materials that continue to support our fundraising today. I strongly endorse Liezl & Jenna at Raise Up.”

Felix Brooks-Church, Co-Founder and CEO, Sanku

Clients

 

Legend: Project Types
✿ Case for Support
↠ Pipeline Acceleration
⁂ Simple Critical Systems
⚑ Coaching
◎ Strategic Advisory
⚃ Portfolio Building

In-house
Kidogo
New Story

Current Engagements
Clinic+O ✿ Dost ✿ ⁂ Dovetail Impact Foundation ⚃ Lively Minds ✿ ⁂ ◎ Nuru International ⁂ ◎
One Acre Fund ↠ Prevail Fund ⚃ ↠

Former Clients
1001fontaines Asian American Futures Bridge Liberia
Buildher
Center For Financial Inclusion At Accion
Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) Digital Green
D-Prize Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation
Earthenable
Educate Girls Farmerline HEAL Initiative at UCSF Healthy Learners International Justice Mission 
Jacaranda Health 
Kakenya’s Dream
Kheyti
KickStart International
Lever For Change
Moringa School
One Heart Worldwide
Proximity Designs
Raising the Village Results for Development Root Capital Saha Global
Sanku 
Seed Global Health
Smart Havens Africa
USAID-DIV Catalyst Program
The Wellbeing Project

Jenna Rogers-Rafferty

Founding Partner + Managing Director, Raise Up
Head of Fundraising, Kidogo

It’s rare to find someone who possesses both the practical know-how to raise funds and is an expert in international development. Jenna has a depth and breadth of knowledge in both global development and organizational development for social enterprises and nonprofits. Her 10+ years of launching and leading fundraising teams followed earlier roles in impact monitoring and program design. Jenna has held leadership positions with grassroots groups in Uganda, Liberia, and NYC, including Chief Partnership and Strategy Office for KickStart. She earned a Master’s in International Development from The New School.

Liezl Van Riper

Founding Partner, Raise Up
Chief Development Officer, New Story

Liezl is a consummate fundraiser. Her biggest strength lies in striking long term relationships between social entrepreneurs and philanthropists who prioritize measurable and sustained impact. She has built teams from the ground up to accelerate revenue and increase brand awareness for award-winning social enterprises with high-impact models, including Kiva, myAgro, and KickStart. Through her 20+ years of experience in increasingly demanding roles, she has produced a solid track record of 7-figure funding partnerships with global corporations, foundations, and governmental agencies. Liezl graduated with honors from the University of California, Irvine.

 
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