Creativity consultant’s calling card

RAISING THE BAR: Lynne Donahue, Seaside Consulting founder and president, with social media and marketing specialist Aaron Cote. The 12-year-old company uses social media and other methods to help reach fundraising goals. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
RAISING THE BAR: Lynne Donahue, Seaside Consulting founder and president, with social media and marketing specialist Aaron Cote. The 12-year-old company uses social media and other methods to help reach fundraising goals. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Coming up with creative solutions to fundraising challenges is what Seaside Consulting Inc., owner Lynne Donahue believes sets her work apart from the competition.
Last year, Donahue and Don Boucher, program director of Housing First, were sitting around brainstorming when his idea of doing some type of music video evolved into a bigger concept: inviting musicians from around the state to contribute songs to an album to bring out the visibility of the homeless. Donahue used social media to find songwriters, and even connected with someone who now contracts for graphic design with her: artist and contractor Travis Larkin.
The compilation CD, “EVERYONE Deserves a Home,” which raised awareness for the consultant’s partner, Riverwood Mental Health Services, and its Housing First Rhode Island program, in 2012, is a prime example, Donahue said. That effort, plus working with Riverwood and using outreach and talking to donors over the past several years have had the combined impact of helping double Riverwood’s resources, she said.
“We like to use creativity in creating the message,” she said, referring to the work she does routinely in collaboration with a handful of subcontractors.
Other types of creative work include compiling what is known in the industry as an “opportunity guide.” One Seaside has done for Shanti Mandir, a Walden, N.Y.,-based nonprofit which provides assistance to people in India, depicts in words, photos and graphics the nonprofit’s initiatives and projects. She’s also proud of one done for the Hopkinton Land Trust.
“We do a lot of writing and graphic-design work to explain to a potential donor what the opportunities are to work with a nonprofit,” Donahue said. “They’ve talked to donors and sent grants out, but this is a visual representation of the work they do,” she said. “It helps people here see how their dollars have an impact.”
The success is not only in the amount of money raised, however, though fundraising is a key offering. Rather, helping a worthy organization convey its needs clearly to the right audience is what drives Donahue.
“Raising money or being a good fundraiser is like being a good entrepreneur,” she said. “Not only do you have to have a good idea; you have to be able to articulate that and engage other people.” Donahue, who has been working in nonprofits for 25 years, experienced success early. Before she formed Seaside Consulting in 2001, she worked as the director of marketing and development for Gateway Health Care, and as vice president of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island.
Throughout her early career, she said,” I had noticed organizations very often face challenges in having to find funding to fulfill their goals. So I started a consulting business to help people and I focused on grant writing and fundraising.”
She has clients in Rhode Island and around the country, and can coach them over the phone, or serve as a full-service fundraising organization. Some of those clients include Special Olympics Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Family Shelter and Riverwood, one her first, as well as such firms as the New England Institute of Technology and The Harvard Pilgrim Foundation.
“I work with all size nonprofits and some for-profit businesses,” Donahue explained. “We tend to get a lot of calls and requests from people who are really good at what they do but somewhat new at the fundraising thing.”
Today, she may charge as little as $250 fee for a focused one-on-one phone consult or a $7,500 fee to take on an assignment like getting a federal grant, she said.
This year, that compilation CD, in which each artist contributed a song that reflected homelessness or hope, won a Motif Magazine award for Best Americana Album 2013 from the regional music publication.
Despite the success of Seaside Consulting, Donahue felt a new passion driving her and started a preventative-health coaching business two years ago called Fresh Plate Health.
But whether the work involves consulting to implement a vision within a community, raise funds or inspiring people to make healthy lifestyle changes, Donahue finds joy in both and plans to keep developing both areas of expertise in the years to come.
“I see myself continuing to grow both of these businesses and perhaps integrate them a little bit,” she said. “They’re both very engaging and rewarding: because I get to help people with whatever they’re passionate with and give them the confidence to move forward and make changes.” •

COMPANY PROFILE
Seaside Consulting Inc.
Owner: Lynne Donahue
Type of Business: Fundraising consultant
Location: 660 Main St., Unit C-3, East Greenwich
Employees: One full time (four contract workers)
Year Established: 2001
Annual Sales: $200,000

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