NAF

Founded in 1980 by financier and philanthropist Sanford I. Weill, NAF is a national education nonprofit that brings schools and businesses together to better prepare high school students of all backgrounds to be college-, career-, and future-ready. Through a national network of 630+ career-themed academies within public high schools, as well as innovative ed-tech initiatives and field-leading industry partnerships, NAF reaches nearly 150,000 students each year.

In 2022, NAF’s Institutional Advancement department was in flux—after the departure of a long-time Chief Advancement Officer, a new CAO inherited an understaffed department that had experienced high turnover, resulting in a lack of reliable, efficient internal systems. At the same time, this team was tasked with meeting extraordinary income goals to support growth outlined in the organization’s strategic plan. As it stood, the organization was overreliant on corporate partnerships that functioned as program delivery rather than philanthropic dollars, the team lacked the capacity to devote time to frontline fundraising to develop major individual and foundation relationships, and there was ample opportunity to refine NAF’s organizational positioning to make its unique approach and tremendous value clear to a donor audience.

Advance Collaborative was engaged in January 2023 to deliver holistic development support services to help sustainably diversify and increase contributed revenue, refresh foundational systems and workflows, and add much-needed capacity while the department right-sized. Advance Collaborative took a multi-faceted approach:

• Offered immediate triage support by compiling a custom moves management tool, establishing a portfolio system with tailored strategies for stewardship and solicitation of existing donors and active prospects.
• Provided thought partnership and strategy alongside NAF’s new CAO, including setting overall priorities and refreshing NAF’s case for support.
• Delivered immediate capacity relief via grantwriting and flexible, comprehensive administrative support such as drafting Board reports and donor outreach.
• Developed and implemented systems such as revised gift entry and reporting guidance, a development projections tracker, a systematized prospect research and cultivation pipeline, improved development-finance operations, and more.

Advance and the NAF team have continued to partner year over year, collaborating closely to achieve significant results:

• NAF’s overall contributed revenue has increased by 22% 
  
  • One of NAF’s core goals was to decrease reliance on service-heavy Corporate partnerships; we identified foundation giving as a major opportunity. Since 2023, we helped increase foundation income by 90%.
  • In 2025, despite a challenging philanthropic landscape, we helped NAF meet a stretch goal of $23M—including $9.5M in new money, and a number of major multi-year commitments.
• Advance now serves as an integrated part of the grantwriting and prospect research team, completing 30+ proposals per year. This includes supporting strategy development and serving as lead writer for several successful 7- and 8-figure proposals.
• We supported a Board Chair transition from NAF’s Founder to new leadership as well as efforts to increase Board-driven fundraising. During this time, the Board grew from 21 to 25, and formalized an increased give/get. 
• The NAF team is now adequately staffed and is operating smoothly, with two frontline fundraising roles and a high-functioning development operations team.