Green Dot Public Schools
Building a Development Function
The immediate work was to keep critical fundraising and grant activity moving while assessing what the function had inherited, what was missing, and what it needed to succeed.
Our partnership
Good Influence stepped in before Green Dot’s new development leader arrived, providing strategic leadership and hands-on support to the team during a critical transition. The immediate work was to keep important fundraising and grant activity moving while assessing what the function had inherited, what was missing, and what it would need to succeed.
From there, Good Influence helped build the function itself: setting direction, shaping the team and staffing structure, clarifying roles, strengthening fundraising and grant-management systems, and establishing the routines and relationships needed to connect development with finance, programs, communications, school leaders, and executive leadership.
When the new vice president arrived, Good Influence supported his transition and helped him understand the organization, establish priorities, build relationships, and take ownership of the emerging function.
The partnership extended from organizational design through execution, including Green Dot’s 25th-anniversary campaign and gala. The work required strategy, fundraising, storytelling, stakeholder engagement, board participation, and disciplined project management—putting the new function’s people and systems to work on a consequential organizational milestone.
What the Work Produced
Continuity and strategic leadership during a significant organizational transition
A clear direction, structure, and staffing plan for the new development function
Stronger fundraising, grant-management, donor, reporting, and accountability systems
More effective coordination between development and the rest of the organization
Focused onboarding and ongoing advising for the incoming development leader
A strategy and operating plan for Green Dot’s 25th-anniversary campaign and gala
A development function built to last
