My name is Adam. I'm a strategy coach, fiction writer, ambient musician, aspiring marathon runner, and a tired-but-happy parent. I'm also the founder of Evenly Distributed.

In previous lives, I was a nonprofit executive director (European Journalism Centre), a chief of product (Storyful), a communications director (Sourcefabric), a producer and curator (Transmediale, AV Festival, Dott, Northern Lights), a blogger (no chance you're getting a link for that), a bar manager, a teacher of autistic adults, and an eBay hustler.

I've built, scaled, and sold organisations in the start-up, NGO, and corporate fields. I've raised over €30m in philanthropic funding and I’ve given out €20m in philanthropic funding. I founded the Journalism Funders Forum in Europe and have spent many, many hours talking to funders about their needs, and fundraisers about their struggles.

And now I want you to know everything I know.

Effective fundraisers have efficient systems

Here’s one thing I’ve learned: Effective fundraisers have efficient systems. It’s not just about luck, connections, or your amazing mission—although those help—it’s also about having a structured, reliable system that guides every step of the fundraising process.

Without a system, fundraising can feel like a chaotic, stressful, and overwhelming task, where opportunities slip through the cracks, and potential funders are left unexplored.

On the other hand, a well-designed fundraising system brings order to the chaos. It saves you time, reduces stress, and maximises your chances of securing the funding your work deserves. It gives you control over your process, ensuring that no opportunity is missed, no lead goes untracked, and every step you take is strategic and purposeful.

This therefore is more than a course - it’s a framework for an entire productivity system; a fundraising engine designed for one thing: keeping your organisation sustainable.

I’ve been using it for years, and in this course I’m going to share how and why it works.

In some ways fundraising is simple. A good strategy and a well executed plan will take you a long way. However, fundraising, especially through foundations, is nuanced and being successful in securing a grant can be difficult if you don't know how to navigate the landscape. There are so many counter-intuitive truths about fundraising - the obvious thing is often the wrong approach.

By the end of this course, you’ll have a complete, bespoke fundraising system that is designed to work for you. You’ll save time by focusing only on the most promising leads. you'll understand the motivations and priorities of funders. You’ll reduce stress by knowing exactly what steps to take and when. And most importantly, you’ll raise more money by being strategic, organised, and prepared.

Let’s get started. Your journey to becoming a great fundraiser begins here.

What am I about to learn?

By the end you will be able to:

• create a bespoke fundraising system for your organisation

• understand complex fundraising terminology

• differentiate between the different types of funders and funding

• evaluate the journalism funding landscape

• prioritise funders aligned with your mission

• build and prioritise your own unique funder database

• track opportunities

• manage timelines easily

• start applying for grants and funding

By the time you're done, you'll feel confident in your ability to discover new funders, assess their alignment, and make the first approach. You’ll find inspiration in the success stories of others and the motivation to start fundraising today.

What is a fundraising system?

 Our system is composed of five essential parts:

1. Lead Database: This is the foundation of your system. It’s where you collect and organise information about potential funders—who they are, what they care about, and how to reach them. Without a lead database, you’re left guessing who to approach and how to tailor your message.

2. Funder Identification & Research Framework: Once you’ve gathered your leads, the next step is to understand them. This framework helps you identify the right funders and understand their priorities, giving you the insights needed to align your proposals with their missions.

3. Strategic Prioritisation Criteria: Not all funders are created equal, and not all opportunities are worth pursuing. This part of the system helps you prioritise your efforts, focusing on the funders who are most likely to support your work and who align closely with your mission.

4. Opportunity Tracker: With multiple leads and opportunities, it’s easy to lose track of where you are in the process. The Opportunity Tracker ensures you’re always on top of deadlines, follow-ups, and next steps, so you never miss a beat.

5. Engagement Engine: Fundraising isn’t just about the initial research—it’s about building and maintaining relationships. The Engagement Engine helps you nurture these leads over time, turning spreadsheet entries into long-term partners.

This course is going to help you build your own system, step-by-step.

And to save you at least 30 hours of work, we've created a Fundraising HQ for you already - this is a spreadsheet with all the structure of your fundraising engine. Plus we've populated it with data from 80 funders, because... well, we're nice like that. Details on how to download this are in the opening chapters.

Who wrote this?

Finally, just so you know you are in safe hands, let's talk about who we are.

The authors of this course are Adam Thomas and Zöe Hull.

Adam is the founder of Evenly Distributed, and an award-winning journalism and technology leader. He's been an executive and leader in non-profits (European Journalism Centre; Sourcefabric), start-ups (Storyful), and corporate media companies (News Corp) and has personally fundraised over €30m from Open Society Foundations, Luminate, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Facebook/Meta, Democracy & Media Foundation, News Integrity Initiative, Civil Media, Evens Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Bay & Paul Foundations, Schoeplin Stiftung, Fondation Puech, Adessium Foundation and many more. He was the co-founder of the Journalism Funders Forum, an initiative to bridge the gap between funders and journalism in Europe.

Zöe is an experienced fundraiser and bid-writer who has spent over 15 years in the UK charity sector working in arts, culture, environment, and health for Macmillan Cancer Support, Alzheimer's Society, Teenage Cancer Trust, Durham Wildlife Trust, and Northern Stage.

We are delighted to have you on board. Thanks for joining us. If you have any questions or feedback as you move through the course, you can email us at any time: hello@evenlydistributed.co.