Who We Are - The Taft Organization

A Brief History

Our consulting company was founded forty years ago to help nonprofits understand and solicit foundation support, primarily for programmatic funding. Over the years, in response to client needs and requests, we expanded into strategic planning, market research, annual funding, membership development, capital campaigns and a wide variety of related support services. Our client roster spanned the diverse nonprofit field, including colleges, hospitals, social agencies, cultural, environmental groups and religious organizations. As we grew, we built a large philanthropic and wealth database to support our clients’fundraising efforts. That information eventually became the basis for a significant information/publishing business, with over 80,000 nonprofit subscribers.

As competition for funding grew ever more intense throughout the 80’s and 90’s, we were among the first to realize that nonprofits could benefit from successful business practices by utilizing new and innovative marketing ideas. Our 1983 annual report startled the field by stating: “Can you any longer be in the generosity business, secure in the confidence that the worthiness of your cause will attract the unfailing benevolence of those with money to give?”

In the last several decades, subsequent to the sale of the Taft publishing enterprise to a multi-national corporation, we returned to our roots, consulting with various regional clients on a highly selective basis. These fundraising and marketing projects, undertaken on behalf of the some of the best-known and most respected institutions in the world, have been highly successful. Many of them are listed in the “How We Can Help” section under the heading, “Among Our Clients Over the Years.”