Capital & Fundraising Campaigns
Creative Giving Vehicles
Not everyone in your community is a donor — but nearly everyone can be a funder, given the right vehicle. For the business leader who says “we don’t really do charity,” the conversation transforms when the ask becomes: this isn’t a donation — it’s a community investment; your capital comes back, and the community keeps its hospital. We design and paper the full menu, and prepare your ask-makers to offer the right vehicle to the right funder at the right moment.
The Internal Standard That Makes External Asks Credible
Before any external ask, we press for 100% giving participation from your boards and leadership — any amount. When a donor wonders whether the people closest to the institution believe in it, participation is the answer.
The Proof
Most recently: successful $2.8 million campaign meeting a mission-critical capital need for a rural Kansas hospital — case, materials, donor strategy, gift structuring, and leadership preparation, start to finish. Campaign engagements carry transparent fees agreed up front.
The foundation that holds campaign funds deserves strong infrastructure beneath it — see Foundation Development & Stewardship.
How Fees Are Structured
Every service carries one clear structure — quoted up front, agreed in writing, and priced with rural budgets in mind. Grant fees are never a percentage of your award, and you'll know exactly what an engagement costs before any work begins. The full breakdown, service by service, is one click away.
"The McLeod Group has helped my organization secure grants from small to large. We have worked together now for several years and his expertise in grant writing is exceptional. The best part of all is that Mr. [McLeod] knows our hospital well and has a local presence. It is nice to have a consultant who is proactive and brings me opportunities that I never know are available. You cannot go wrong when The McLeod Group is a part of your team!"
Rod Landrum, Executive Director, Labette Health Foundation (retired)
"We have had a great deal of success in working with Nick [McLeod] on grants . . . focused on improving lives in SEK and Kansas."
Brian Williams, CEO,
Labette Health
"The Pratt Health Foundation has retained the grant writing and administrative services of the McLeod consulting group. The principal, Nick [McLeod], understands the private and federal grant landscape as well as providing wise administrative assistance. He has written successful grant applications and provided excellent counsel for the Foundation. I would highly recommend his services."
DeWayne Bryan, Executive Director,
Pratt Health Foundation (retired)
"I have worked with Nick on three different grant proposals regarding Integrated Care through embedding a behaviorist into a primary care facility. Through Nick's effort and skill, we were successful in receiving a planning grant, an implementation grant, and a continuation grant. Nick is very thorough, thinks of great questions, anticipates questions from grant sources, writes skillfully, and is a pleasure to work with. I would recommend him and his services to anyone."
Matthew Atteberry,
Executive Director,
Labette Center for Mental Health Services
"Since having The McLeod Group come on board with us, the Pratt Police Department has received over $175,000 in funds from grants that Nick has found for us! The Pratt Police Department and the citizens of Pratt, KS are very fortunate to be able to have the McLeod Group helping the efforts of keeping this great community safe!"
Chief Nate Humble,
Pratt Police Department
(retired)
"Mr. [McLeod] put my vision for my school into a professional proposal from A to Z, no detail was left to chance. After multiple attempts on my own, Mr. [McLeod] was successful the first time in obtaining a $400,000 grant for my school, the largest to be awarded in our county to date."
Mikel Ward, Principal,
Service Valley Charter Academy (retired)
Testimonials
Book a Free Consultation
Since 2007
The first conversation is free — and it's an honest one. Bring your objectives, your questions, or the project you've been trying to fund. If we don't believe it's a go, we'll tell you right there — no engagement, no pressure, no charge. And if it is, we'll tell you exactly how we'd help.
Your people make the asks. We build everything that makes the asks succeed.
We prefer donors give to people they know and the hospital they love — not directly to a consultant. So we design the complete campaign infrastructure, prepare your people, and guide the effort weekly to the finish. Your team gains a skill it keeps; your counsel stays senior; your dollars go into the campaign.
Who leads the asks is itself a strategic decision — and we make it with you. In most hospital campaigns, the foundation executive director carries the effort, mated closely to hospital leadership. But sometimes the moment calls for the CEO’s own voice, or a board chair’s relationships, or a campaign chair the community trusts. Reading your community and matching the right voice to the right conversation is part of the architecture — not an afterthought.
And it starts with candor: every campaign engagement begins with an honest readiness conversation — whether the goal is realistic for your community, what has to be true before anything goes public, and how to structure the effort so you’re never exposed to a public shortfall. That includes an honest look at your people: many rural campaigns run on a part-time foundation director and a board that’s never made an ask — and the architecture, sequencing, and coaching are built accordingly. Silent-phase discipline exists to protect you, and it starts with the truth.
What You Get (including, but never limited to):
Feasibility & readiness assessment: an honest, grounded answer on whether your goal is raisable — before anything goes public.
Campaign strategy: phasing, silent-phase discipline, gift range chart, donor sequencing, and prospect qualification sessions.
The complete case & materials suite: case for support, donor packets, one-pagers, giving menus, plain-language definitions, and presentation decks.
Gift & pledge agreements: templates ready for signature — coordinated with your foundation's fund-holding structure.
Creative giving vehicles: multi-year pledges, gift/loan hybrids, community investment loans, program-related investments, and DAF strategies.
Ask preparation: talking points and objection handling for whoever leads your asks — foundation director, CEO, board, campaign chairs — plus coaching for the lead-gift conversations.
Standing campaign guidance: a weekly seat at your campaign team's table as strategy sharpens with donor response.
Foundation coordination: the hospital–foundation MOU, the fund-holding structure, and internal guides that keep your team fluent in the vehicles.
Recognition framework: drafted for your board to finalize.