Engagements and Standard Fees

Dream Pilot engagements are designed to bring clarity before momentum and coherence before scale. Each engagement is grounded in discernment, judgment, and alignment—not execution or agency delivery.

The descriptions below outline the depth and scope of attention each engagement involves, so leaders understand the seriousness of the work and what it is designed to accomplish.

Initial Flight Plan

Strategic Direction

CORE ENGAGEMENTS

Offered after an Initial Flight Plan

Fundraising Blueprint

Extension for Capital-Scale Visions

Experiential Design

Advisory Stewardship

Orientation & Precision

Every engagement begins here.

This session establishes whether meaningful work should proceed and, if so, in what direction. A 45 minute follow up session is included providing a preliminary blue print moving forward. 

Standard Flight Plan
90 minutes — $750

clarifying the mission’s central purpose

  • naming what matters most right now

  • identifying false or competing priorities

  • determining what work, if any, should follow

Flight Plan — Intensive

3 hours — $1,500

Used when complexity, urgency, or misalignment requires deeper synthesis and resolution.

Focus:

  • surfacing competing visions and constraints

  • compressing ambiguity

  • naming the destination with precision

  • establishing a grounded foundation for strategic or fundraising work

Formation

Standard Fee: $7,500

This engagement defines the singular purpose the organization exists to serve and builds a coherent strategic structure around that purpose.

Areas of Attention

Strategic Direction typically involves:

  • a 360° understanding of the organization’s reality
    (board, leadership, staff, and key stakeholders)

  • facilitated strategic conversations with leadership and governance

  • SWOT-style analysis informed by lived context, not templates

  • careful review of financial structure, health, and sustainability

  • examination of how money is currently stewarded and decisions are made

  • clarification of objectives, priorities, and tradeoffs

  • alignment of mission, programs, and resources

Outcomes

This work often results in:

  • a strategic or business plan

  • a logic model or theory of change

  • defined objectives and sequencing

  • a clear timeline and decision framework

These documents are byproducts, not the point.
The value is shared clarity and alignment.

Collaboration

When appropriate, I help identify and bring the right specialists into the work (designers, videographers, accountants, development professionals).
All external vendors are contracted and paid directly by the organization.

Capital Alignment

Standard Fee: $6,000

This engagement translates strategic direction into a disciplined, credible plan for raising the capital the mission requires.

Areas of Attention

Fundraising Blueprint work typically includes:

  • defining what is actually being funded

  • clarifying why the funding is needed now

  • aligning fundraising goals with strategic priorities

  • developing a clear fundraising narrative and case for support

  • mapping a realistic fundraising timeline

  • identifying funding channels (major gifts, grants, events, campaigns)

  • working with leadership and fundraising committees to align roles and expectations

  • shaping the experience of giving, not just the ask

Outcomes

This work results in:

  • a clear fundraising strategy

  • aligned messaging and timing

  • confidence across leadership and board

  • a plan that donors can understand and trust

This is not fundraising execution.
It is fundraising clarity.

Capital Campaign Architecture

For organizations pursuing large-scale, long-horizon projects—such as campuses, housing developments, major facilities, or system-building initiatives—Fundraising Blueprint work may extend into Capital Campaign Architecture.

This extended engagement focuses on:

  • shaping the capital vision and phased build logic

  • aligning leadership, board, and fundraising committees

  • clarifying what is being built, when, and why

  • structuring a credible, fundable capital case

  • sequencing belief, commitments, and execution readiness

This is not campaign management or execution.
It is architecture—ensuring coherence before capital is raised and construction begins.

Scope, duration, and fees for this extension are determined by the scale and complexity of the vision and are discussed privately.

Activation

Standard Fee: $5,000

This engagement focuses on designing experiences—events or immersive moments—that embody the mission and move people from understanding to belief and action.

Areas of Attention

Experiential Design often includes:

  • clarifying the purpose of the experience

  • defining the audience and desired outcome

  • shaping the narrative arc of the experience

  • aligning the experience with fundraising and strategic goals

  • collaborative brainstorming with leadership or fundraising committees

  • pressure-testing ideas for coherence and integrity

  • ensuring the experience creates meaning, not just activity

    Outcomes

    This work produces:

    • a clear experiential concept

    • alignment between mission, message, and moment

    • a strong foundation for execution by others

    Event production, logistics, creative assets, and coordination are handled by the organization or external vendors.

POST-DESTINATION ROLE

Offered selectively, by invitation

Ongoing Alignment

Standard Fee: $2,500 per month

This role is considered only after clarity has been established and the organization is actively moving forward.

Cadence

  • one 60-minute advisory session per week

  • standing rhythm focused on decisions, alignment, and sequencing

  • light availability between sessions for material decisions

Scope

This role is:

  • advisory, not operational

  • judgment-focused, not execution-based

  • oriented toward holding coherence as the work becomes real

Support may span:

  • Strategic Direction

  • Fundraising Blueprint

  • Experiential Design

at the level of thinking, shaping, and alignment.

Boundaries

This role does not include:

  • task execution

  • vendor management

  • document production

  • staff supervision

  • event production

When deeper involvement is desired (e.g., full experiential design), that work is scoped separately.

Dream Pilot engagements often involve collaboration with designers, videographers, developers, accountants, or other specialists.

I help identify and align the right people when helpful.
All external vendors are engaged and compensated directly by the organization.

These fees represent the standard value of the work.

In some cases, capacity-aligned accommodations may be discussed privately and reflected in a separate agreement. Such adjustments do not redefine the value of the work and are revisited as the organization grows.