Magnolia Philanthropic Services advises nonprofit leaders, boards, and founders on the funding, leadership, and strategy decisions that determine whether organizations grow, stagnate, or scale.
A clear-eyed assessment of your fundraising program and a plan built for the organization you actually have — not the one in your strategic plan deck.
Moves management, prospect strategy, and the donor conversations your team has been putting off. We build the system and coach the ask.
Feasibility studies, the case for support, and a campaign budget built to hold up — through a quiet phase and all the way to the gala.
Executive search for Chief Development Officers, advancement leaders, and nonprofit executives. We help organizations identify, recruit, and retain leaders who can build teams, strengthen culture, and accelerate growth.
We start with the people who already know what's broken — your team, your board chair, your major donors. Not a survey. A conversation.
A written assessment of where your development program stands, what's realistic in the next 12–24 months, and what isn't.
The strategy, the case for support, the budget, the materials — built alongside your team, not handed down to it.
We don't disappear after the deck. Plans meet reality in the first quarter, not the pitch — we're still on the call when that happens.
Sean founded Magnolia after more than two decades leading fundraising and organizational growth for nonprofits across healthcare, education, humanitarian relief, and the arts. His experience spans major gifts, capital campaigns, feasibility studies, executive search, and executive leadership, giving him a practical understanding of what it takes to build sustainable revenue and strong organizations.
Holding an MBA and having served as both a nonprofit executive and frontline fundraiser, Sean has spent his career on both sides of the table: securing transformational gifts, leading high-performing development teams, advising boards, and helping organizations navigate moments of growth, transition, and opportunity.
Over the course of his career, Sean has helped organizations raise tens of millions of dollars, recruit executive leaders, launch successful campaigns, and build development programs designed to outlast any single consultant or executive.
Magnolia was built on a simple belief: every organization deserves advice grounded in reality, not theory. Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all playbook, Sean works closely with leadership teams to identify what is actually limiting growth, then develops strategies tailored to the organization's culture, capacity, and ambitions.
Magnolia intentionally maintains a limited client portfolio. By working with only a select number of organizations at a time, Sean is able to provide the level of strategic attention, responsiveness, and partnership that meaningful fundraising and organizational growth require.
Fundraising is hard enough without a client who can't be bothered to read a one-pager, or a board chair who treats staff like furniture. If your organization has a track record of churning through development directors, we're not the right fit — and we'll say so on the first call. We'd rather lose the engagement than waste both our time.
Tell us what isn't working. We'll tell you, honestly, whether we can help — and what it would take.