What We Do
The past decade of economic growth has set the conditions for a surge in philanthropy. Amaryllis Advisors is inspired by the deep dedication philanthropists demonstrate in supporting innovative ideas. They are placing big bets on innovative ideas to accelerate change. In turn, nonprofits are working hard to keep up with rapid changes in the field by identifying ever more sophisticated ways to measure impact and achieve scale. Amaryllis Advisors stays abreast of the latest developments in order to effectively amplify the social sector's impact through fundraising strategy and capacity building services.
At heart, Amaryllis Advisors is a connector. We work with social change leaders to polish their communications efforts, identify potential funders, and develop a fundraising strategy that positions them for success. We work with philanthropists to understand their aspirations and pair them with impactful organizations.
Philanthropy Advising
We craft fundraising plans that are unique to each situation. We focus on the ideas, strategy, and solutions that fit your organizational culture. Plans may include prospects for capacity building, relationship management, messaging framework, and events strategy.
Communications
Organizations often tell us it is hard to write their own story. That's where we come in. We review your materials and interview team members, donors and board members to clarify and ratify your story. Then we lift up your messaging to truly reflect your organization to the outside world.
Leadership Coaching
We work with leadership to serve as a thought partner on strategy and to help them fully realize their potential.
We work with the Board to ensure they are collectively offering the right mix of financial, relational, and, intellectual capital to support overall strategy and more specifically securing resources.
Clients
Amaryllis Advisors designed a survey and interviewed board members, founding donors and corporate supporters of Khan Academy. The purpose of the survey was to obtain feedback on the relationships, Khan Academy’s performance, and to socialize ways Khan Academy could become a lasting institution that would continue to impact education for millions of students around the world for generations to come. The final report helped inform Khan Academy's forthcoming strategic plan.
The National Immigration Forum experienced a higher than usual volume of interest after the presidential election in 2016. Amaryllis Advisors developed a fundraising strategy and related communications materials to set the organization up for greater impact during a time of high need.
IDEO.org applies human-centered design to improve the lives of poor and vulnerable people in developing communities. Together, we built a development team including mapping a strategy, hiring staff, improving systems and reporting, and designing marketing collateral. Amaryllis Advisors leveraged the design talent at IDEO.org to create unique proposals for funding that embraced the organization's ethos and resulted in awards exceeding the goal.
Topos shapes technology for public benefit by advancing sciences of connection and integration. Worked with founder David Spivak, Research Scientist at MIT and Brendan Fong, Postdoctoral Associate at MIT to develop a Case for Support for this newly formed institute. Included surfacing mission, vision and intended impact and identifying programmatic focus areas and goals. Also, hired a creative firm to develop brand identity and contributed to the process.
An alliance of American college and university leaders dedicated to increasing public understanding of how immigration policies and practices impact their students, campuses and communities. Created and implemented a development plan and shared with the board. Assessed and clarified PA's already strong organizational story including refining messaging to make it more concise and consistent, co-wrote grant proposals and reports, and developed marketing materials. Deepened relationships and financial commitments from select donors. Developed a logic model, metrics dashboard, and planning documents to set PA up for future growth.
Teachers and parents/caregivers often use Google Translate to communicate with families whose first language is one other than English. While this tool has been useful, it has not been perfected. Often important facts or nuances can get lost in translation and at times, end up in misunderstandings. Amaryllis Advisors helped the Heising Simons Foundation explore a collaborative effort with the Google Translate team to facilitate stronger parent/teacher communications in early childhood education.
GROW's mission is to empower youth to design their own future with tools that foster self-discovery. Amayrllis Advisors created a strategic growth plan for GROW and prepared a case statement for funding.
Served as Interim Director of Development (6 months) to help build coalitions to support access to quality education in California’s underserved communities. Working with the CEO, Amaryllis Advisors acted as a thought partner on strategy, including GO's expansion to other locations in California. Work included building on existing case statement, streamlining grant proposal and reporting process, and adding to the list of development prospects.
Worked with renowned Harvard Professor Dan Shapiro, author of "Negotiating the Nonnegotiable" to write a case statement for an endowed chair for the Harvard International Negotiation Program. Resulting draft embraced Professor Shapiro's unique approach bridging psychology and international negotiation skils.
Testimonials
Amaryllis Advisors worked with IDEO.org to build out IDEO.org's development function and developed a fundraising strategy for 2016. Through this, they helped raise over $2 million from individual donors and designed and developed multiple campaigns and events. Beth of Amaryllis was great at working directly with donors as well as integrating the work across various teams at IDEO.org. Beth is well-organized, extremely professional, and a delight to work with.
Jocelyn Wyatt, Co-Lead & Executive Director, IDEO.org
Amaryllis Advisors filled our development role during GO Public School's 7 month search for a permanent Director of Development. Beth wrote 20+ grant proposals and/or reports, acted as a thought partner to me on strategy, including GO's expansion to other locations in California, and connected us to new funding opportunities. Beth directly supported GO's new Senior Director of Development in her transition into her new role.
Jonathan Klein, Co-Founder & CEO, GO Public Schools
About the Founder
Beth Sears
Beth is a senior development professional who achieves impact and growth for purpose-driven organizations.
In her previous role as Director of Development for NewSchools Venture Fund, Beth was responsible for designing and implementing a three-year, $90 million campaign to invest in innovative school models and national education technology challenges. In the first year, the campaign raised $32 million. She also coordinated NewSchools’ Annual Summit for 1,000 leaders in education, philanthropy, government and business, and on that project raised sponsorship funds of $1.26 million in record time, exceeding the goal by 50%. Previously, Beth was Special Advisor to Raising A Reader, a supporting organization of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, where she developed partnerships with individual and institutional funders.
As a result of her experience in the private sector at JP Morgan and Price Waterhouse, Beth is able to make meaningful connections between both sectors and enjoys identifying links that help organizations and donors fulfill their aspirations.
Beth earned a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Canberra, Australia and a B.A. in International Relations from Mount Holyoke College. She is a proud Mom to three ever-evolving children and wife to Tim. In her spare time she reads widely and voraciously, meets monthly with a professional writing group, cooks, hikes, and practices yoga.