The Classy Partner Program and Why a Consultant Might be Your Next Hire

One of the most rewarding jobs in the social sector is that of a nonprofit consultant. Consultants have years of nonprofit experience—recruiting volunteers, identifying prospects, managing campaigns, and asking for money—and it’s often up to them to help social impact organizations succeed.

Nonprofit organizations hire consultants for a number of reasons, but the most common one is when they’re facing a key challenge or opportunity, or are considering making changes to their organization’s work, mission, or vision. For such occasions, having someone with deep knowledge and awareness of best practices can help spark fresh thinking, deliver new solutions, and challenge the organization’s status quo.

Other reasons to hire a consultant include:

• Help with fundraising and strategic planning
• Design and develop branding materials
• Assist with, or take the lead on, event planning
• Support interim growth before you can hire full-time in house
• Integrate operations platforms (CRM, donation pages, analytics, email marketing)
• Implement a new CRM or marketing automation system

Perhaps the greatest reason for a nonprofit to hire a consultant is to take away the burden of trying to become an expert in one specific area of the business, so they can instead stay focused on their mission.

The need for nonprofit consultants with these specialized skills is on the rise. That’s why Classy created a certified partner program—to connect our nonprofit community with the best support system out there.

Classy’s Partner Program

Classy’s Certified Partner Program was created as a resource for consultants working with nonprofit organizations. Classy sees their certified partners, all of which have completed a comprehensive training and certification program, as an extension of the Classy team. They have a high working knowledge of the platform and understand how to maximize each feature relevant to their services to ensure they can provide as much value as possible to their clients.

As an expert in the product, it will be easier for consultants to identify where their clients need support, and to help them better achieve a favorable return on investment with each campaign they run.

In addition to an in-depth understanding of Classy, consultants in the Partner Program also receive:

• Resources in the form of blog posts, webinars, and guides that contain best practices from industry experts, designed to improve relationships, knowledge, and growth
• Access to Classy’s APIs with the opportunity to fully customize online fundraising communities, mobile apps, and integrations for their clients
• Personal interactions with Classy designed to facilitate collaboration and networking with nonprofits

Partner Program in Action

By understanding Classy’s fundraising platform and integration solutions, Causeway Interactive has been able to implement seamless rollouts for their client, Trisomy 18 Foundation.

“Causeway Interactive has been the tech backbone of every rollout we’ve done with Classy. Implementation with their help couldn’t have been smoother, no wrinkles whatsoever. They are particularly strong at project management and keep[ing] all the complex pieces on time and on budget. What is especially valuable is that Causeway has a deep understanding of the front end website and back end and CRM integrations (we use Salesforce NPSP 3.0) so that everything comes together as it should.” – Victoria J. Miller, M.A., Executive Director, Trisomy 18 Foundation

Upon request, Classy will also refer our customers to key certified partners, enhancing collaboration and partnership opportunities. One example of this type of partnership is between Classy client Selamta and consulting firm UpRaise Consulting.

“Working with the UpRaise Consulting team has been a total gift. Their expertise has provided manpower, tools and resources we just don’t have and can’t afford internally right now. They are thorough, talented and an absolute joy to work with. Most of all, they seem to love our organization as much as we do. They look out for our best interests and make cost-saving adjustments when possible. Pauline even won a financial grant for Selamta and a free airline ticket for her visit to Ethiopia through Travelocity’s #travelforgood campaign.”- Marisa Stam, Executive Director – Selamta Family Project

Conclusion

Classy and our partners help social impact organizations around the world reach new donors and raise capital. Collaborating with fundraisers, consultants, and designers to help our customers achieve their goals is a group effort. By offering a free training program, we hope our partners are able to help their clients use Classy’s platform more efficiently to reach their fundraising goals. Join us. Together we can mobilize and empower the world for good.