Future Smiles of Santa Barbara County Fundraising Consultant

Purpose

Health Linkages of Children & Family Resource Services is requesting proposals for a Fundraising Consultant to support the growth of its successful orthodontia program, Future Smiles of Santa Barbara County. We have set a target of raising $400,000 in funding during the 2024 calendar year. This funding will come from new corporate, foundation and individual donors relationships that are cultivated through local expertise and several existing leads, as well as Giving Tuesday and Year End giving campaigns, and other ideas that the Consultant may want to lead as part of the strategy they design. The consultant will work in collaboration with with organizational leadership and the Future Smiles program team to further these efforts.

About Future Smiles of Santa Barbara County

With over 10 years of excellent outcomes directly serving nearly 1500 students and their families so far, Future Smiles is expanding its reach to provide high quality orthodontia treatment (including braces) to more students with severe unmet needs, and also diversify its funding strategies to sustain the program for future generations of students throughout the extent of their lives. Extensive research shows that oral health including the orthodontic alignment of teeth plays a critical role in lasting physical health and mental wellness as well as the social, educational, economic, and other benefits that emanate from a confident smile. Each adolescent student we serve understands first-hand the benefits of having straight teeth, and can both qualitatively and quantitatively provide the best evidence of Future Smiles of Santa Barbara County’s impact before, during and after their participation.

Each year the program provides free orthodontia screenings to all students within designated grades at designated public and Catholic schools throughout Santa Barbara County. Screening information is provided to all families who opt in, regardless of their income level. Students with the most severe needs are further screened for low-income eligibility. Qualifying families receive experienced health navigation and resource referral services. Follow up with each family includes enrollment in MediCal plans prior to treatment so that the student and their family have what they need to be able to complete the 2-year treatment process successfully and have better outcomes as a family thereafter. At times this part of the process that occurs before the student’s orthodontia treatment may include connection to essential counseling services, basic needs, and other resources- an understated yet fundamental piece in creating Future Smiles for the whole family surrounding each Future Smiles student!

Financially, Future Smiles has been funded solely by the Audacious Foundation until now, with the bulk of funding applied as treatment dollars paid directly to participating private practice orthodontists who accept a negotiated sum which includes a discount they apply as their own contribution. Program operations are leveraged with other Health Linkages Oral Health program leadership, staffing and seasoned service delivery models so these costs are also kept to a minimum and ensure maximum efficiency. The program is housed within Health Linkages/Children & Family Resource Services, one of three nonprofit organizations operating in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Education Office (SBCEO). In sum, Future Smiles operates with a high ROI with lasting impacts of many lifetimes- and the consultant will be instrumental in sharing profound outcomes, impact and stories in their own style to attract new donors for more Future Smiles.

Scope of Work

Health Linkages of Children & Family Resource Services is seeking a Fundraising Consultant with a local proven track record for excellence in developing individual and institutional relationships of giving in Santa Barbara County, and creative, strategic fundraising success. The consultant’s responsibilities will include the following:

Individual Donors:

• Coordinate meetings between donors which may include organizational leadership if desired.
• Develop solicitation strategies.
• Work with Future Smiles staff partner to develop appropriate fundraising collateral.
• Schedule major donor calls, prepare board members and senior staff for calls/meetings.
• Identify and approach potential sponsors, donors, and granters.
• Establish and maintain a highly engaging individual donor cultivation and gift stewardship program to identify and increase new donors.
• Complete prospective donor research and briefing materials for donor calls and meetings and manage all correspondence and reporting to prospects and donors.
• Solicit donors’ desired forms of program engagement and innovate new opportunities, new measures for outcomes, etc..

Institutional Fundraising

• Develop fundraising strategies to attract new relationships, and identify and secure new partnerships, sponsorships, etc. with corporations and institutional foundations.
• Work independently and also with Future Smiles team to identify, coordinate, and approach funding possibilities.
• Prepare public, private foundation, and corporate letters of inquiry, proposals, and submissions with high-quality, creative, engaging cases for support, incorporating new and existing program data and relevant research.
• Actively engage in ongoing prospect research that identifies funding opportunities.

Campaigns

• Design, coordinate and implement 2024 Giving Tuesday and Year End fundraising campaigns using existing Salesforce CRM platform.
• May design, lead and implement other campaigns.
• May incorporate community volunteers into fundraising activities if desired.

Future Smiles Future Fundraising

• Advise Future Smiles team about possible additional or alternate software, applications, technology strategies that could be used by staff to facilitate future fund development efforts by novice staff and volunteers.
• Provide a brief final report of efforts and accomplishments throughout 2024 contract. Provide a brief summary of professional fundraising advice for the next 1-5 years to guide Health Linkages/Children & Family Resource Services organizational leadership in its new expansion to continue effective fund development strategies and practices for Future Smiles and possibly other health equity-based programs of Santa Barbara County.

Timeline

Any contract awarded pursuant to this RFP solicitation shall be for a contract period with activities ending December 31, 2024. Health Linkages/Children & Family Resource Services Future Smiles Fundraising Program has budgeted $90,000 for this work through the end of the 2024 calendar year.

• All Proposals should be submitted electronically in PDF or Word to Lisa Valencia Sherratt: lvalencia@sbceo.org.
• Proposals will be no more than five pages, brevity preferred. For ease of reading please use 1.5 spacing and a 12-point font size.

All proposals must include:

• A cover letter.
• Experience and qualifications of the consultant and include the resume of the development professional providing direct service for this work in Santa Barbara County.
• A concise narrative that addresses how the Scope of Work as outlined above will be accomplished, including a timeline with monthly benchmarks and the approximate number of hours required to accomplish the work. Please include your familiarity with building health equity or equity in general.
• Three (3) references from clients for whom the consultant has performed similar services.

THANK YOU!