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Southern Echo: Roadmap to Sustainable Fundraising

Southern Echo is a leadership development, education, and training organization working to develop new, accountable grassroots leadership in African-American and low-wealth communities throughout Mississippi and the southern region. With a grant from Progressive Multiplier, they started to build a sustainable fundraising infrastructure, beginning with a three-year vision planning process. 

Atlas Center for NonProfits 

A portion of their grant provided support from the Atlas Center for Nonprofits, which helped Southern Echo to map out how to achieve organizational goals through their budgetary growth. This included fundraising plans from individual giving to events to government grants. 

In addition, Atlas provided Southern Echo with customized data plans to help them install and maintain client relationship management systems – a critical element in creating a sustainable fundraising model. They also worked with Southern Echo to proactively create policies to ensure that people from the constituencies they serve are represented and empowered at all organizational levels. 

Southern Echo has laid a foundation to launch next-level fundraising efforts through this grant. In continuing work with Progressive Multiplier, they will build on this infrastructure to increase individual giving, cultivate donors, and build progressive power.

Rachel Mayes, Executive Director, Southern Echo

Southern Echo organizes communities and education stakeholders to demand that the state of Mississippi delivers a first-rate quality public education to every child regardless of race, gender, disability or zip code.