Our Philosophy

“No money? No Mission!” Far too many nonprofits struggle to raise enough money to have true mission impact. We believe nonprofits improve their fundraising results by borrowing the most powerful disciplines of high-performing sales teams.

Let us show you how to do it without losing the charitable heart and philanthropic soul of your nonprofit.

Our focus is on making fundraising easier.

Regardless of your size, sector, or income, we have a unique path and plan:

For large, established organizations building their first philanthropy program, or enhancing their current program
For small to mid-sized organizations raising $5M+ annually
For start-ups that are volunteer-run or very small nonprofits
Ellen Bristol

About Ellen

Founder Ellen Bristol launched Bristol Strategy in 1995, after a 20-year career selling mainframe computers for Fortune 50 companies. She soon fell in love with the nonprofit sector and found her mission: repurposing the disciplines of high-performing sales teams to benefit the nonprofit sector.

Her major innovations include the Leaky Bucket Fundraising Assessment, the only popular long-term study of fundraising-team productivity, and Fundraising the SMART Way™, the methodology for managing nonprofit income generation on the continuous improvement model.

About Courtney

Dr. Courtney Laddusaw, EdD, MNLM, is the Lead Consultant at Bristol Strategy Group. She joined Bristol Strategy Group in 2021. Dr. Laddusaw has over 13 years of experience working as a fundraising professional with small, medium, and large-sized nonprofit organizations. Dr. Laddusaw has over 13 years of experience working as a fundraising professional with small, medium, and large-sized nonprofit organizations providing support for foster youth, affordable housing, education (K-12 and higher education), healthcare, performing arts, and religious institutions. Her specialties include nonprofit analytics (databases, KPIs, benchmarks, and metrics), organizational leadership and management, fundraising strategies (creation of business plans, development plans, strategic plans, board manuals, and volunteer handbooks), fundraising methods (annual giving, capital campaigns, corporate giving, endowment campaigns, grantwriting, events, individual giving, major giving, and planned giving), and fundraising techniques. Dr. Laddusaw has trained and educated employees and volunteers on using progressive systems and applications, including constituent relationship management systems (CRMs), mass communication procedures, and donor relations management systems. Additionally, she has developed, planned, implemented, and managed major organizational giving fundraising campaigns, including capital campaigns, endowment campaigns, and project campaigns.

Dr. Laddusaw graduated from Pepperdine University with a Doctoral degree in Organizational Leadership, the University of Southern California with a Master’s of Nonprofit Leadership and Management degree, and the University of Arizona with a Bachelor’s in Science degree and a Bachelor’s in Arts degree. Are you interested in learning more about her research

Strategic Partners

Strategic Branding and Marketing Partner

Strategic Design Partner

Strategic Leadership Development Partner

Start your journey to transformative fundraising today.