The Case for Support That Writes Itself
One master case document that powers every appeal, proposal, and conversation, built from your mission's real evidence.
Through the International NGOs lens
The case architecture's proof beam is where international NGOs most need this module's discipline, since the witnesses layer, a beneficiary's own voice and a third-party professional's, matters more here than anywhere else: a donor who cannot visit the program has no other way to verify the case beyond the voices the organization chooses to include, and doing that with dignity is a real discipline. The promise beam's specificity, dated, sized, priced, has to translate honestly across a currency and cost-of-living gap that can otherwise make a stated dollar amount feel misleading. The problem beam's discipline, would this be true without your organization, is especially clarifying for international work, separating a genuine humanitarian need from an appeal that is really about the organization's own funding gap.
Continuing education
1.25 points
Relationship Building · Securing the Gift
Learning objectives
- State the three beams every case rests on, problem, promise, and proof, and the standard each must meet: a problem that exists without the organization, a promise a donor can see as a transaction, and proof that survives a skeptical read-aloud.
- Write a master case of six to ten internal pages in a two-hour working session, including a sourced local number, a meaning ladder from small gift to lead gift, an honest limits paragraph, and the one-page, two-minute, and one-sentence distillations.
- Apply the four cutting patterns to turn one master case into an appeal letter, a funder proposal, a board deck, and a spoken answer without an improvised claim, and keep them current on a six-month refresh.
- Decide, using the seven tests, whether a case statement opens with an independent problem, dates and prices its promise, shows what specific amounts buy, and admits a limit, and rewrite one that fails.
Designed for CFRE continuing education. Not yet accepted; no CFRE points can be claimed.
Lessons
- 20 min
Video lesson
Case architecture: problem, promise, proof
I Pause · Relationship Building
- 35 min
Worksheet· XLSX
Master case workbook
I Pause · Securing the Gift
- 18 min
Field guide· PDF
Turning the case into appeals and decks
IV Invite · Securing the Gift
- 15 min
Case study· PDF
Case statement examples annotated
III Discern · Securing the Gift
This is members-only material.
Members get every lesson, template, and worksheet in all eight tracks, plus the support to put them to work in your shop.
More in this stage
Major & Principal Gifts
Building a Major Gifts Portfolio
Move from reactive asks to a managed portfolio: qualification, moves management, and a caseload you can defend.
Annual Giving & Direct Response
Annual Giving Systems: Calendar & Segmentation
Graduate from one-off appeals to a segmented, scheduled program with lapsed-donor recovery built in.
Annual Giving & Direct Response
Monthly Giving That Compounds
Sustainers are the closest thing to endowment a small organization has. Launch and grow a program built to last.