Graf-Martin Cohorts
You don't have to figure this out alone — or from scratch.
Some challenges are too important to solve in isolation.
You could hire us for a one-off team training or plan. But some of the most important work, like preparing for a crisis before it happens, getting honest clarity on who you serve and how it shapes your messaging, and understanding how to plan your next year of activities - and measure their effectiveness - gets better when you’re not the only one in the room asking (and answering) tough questions.
Peer organizations facing the same pressures will ask questions you never thought of, and sitting alongside them will help you realize you’re really not alone. And, the accountability helps set a plan into action.
Why Graf-Martin Cohorts?
We’ve done this work one-on-one for decades, but we know we can go faster, further - together.
Every framework we use in cohort training and planning comes from real-life experience with organizations like yours. The tools and processes are rock solid. What makes them extraordinary is this: instead of just us and your team, you’re building alongside three to eight peer organizations working through the same exercises, at the same time, with our experience guiding you all the way through.
You still get direct access to Graf-Martin’s advisory expertise and years of experience. You just don’t have to pay for - or wait for - a fully custom plan to get it.
On Your Own:
Strategy work gets pushed to "someday." Crisis plans feel scary - or stay theoretical until there's an actual crisis. Campaigns launch on scattered ideas instead of one clear narrative
In a Graf-Martin Cohort:
A fixed timeline that gets the work done. Peer insight you can't get from a solo engagement. A finished deliverable, not just a conversation. A campaign your whole team can rally behind. Expert insight to stretch your budget.
Choose Your Cohort
Three cohorts. One shared commitment to going faster, further, together.
Every great campaign starts with a clear story. We'll help you find yours.
A guided cohort experience to help your organization define its campaign theme, build an anchoring narrative, and map the activities and timeline that bring it to life — alongside peer organizations doing the same work.
Before you build the strategy, get clear on what it's built on.
A guided cohort experience to help your organization define your donor personas, clarify what makes you genuinely different, and build a foundation the rest of your strategy can stand on — alongside peer organizations doing the same work.
The plan you don't want to be writing during the crisis.
A guided cohort experience to help your organization build a real, board-ready Crisis PR Plan — before you need one — alongside peer organizations preparing for the same thing.
Campaign Cohort
Every great campaign starts with a clear story. We'll help you find yours.
The Problem:
Too many campaigns start with a deadline and a fundraising goal, but no unifying story. The result: scattered messaging, a team that can't explain the campaign in one sentence, and activities that feel disconnected from the mission behind them.
What You'll Build:
A campaign theme that captures the "why now"
An anchoring narrative your team, board, and donors can all repeat consistently
An activity map: what happens, in what order, and who owns it
A realistic timeline from planning to launch to close
Who It's For:
Organizations preparing for a capital campaign, an anniversary campaign, a rebrand launch, or any major fundraising or awareness push that needs a unifying story before the tactics get built.
The Problem:
Most strategic plans get built on whatever the team already believes about their donors and their distinctiveness — because no one has stopped to actually test those beliefs. The result is a strategy that sounds right in the boardroom but doesn't quite land with the people it's meant to reach.
Getting this foundation right takes honest, sometimes uncomfortable clarity: Who are we actually serving? What do we offer that no one else does? Those questions are easier to answer well with outside guidance and peer perspective than alone.
What You'll Build:
Clearly defined donor personas, grounded in evidence rather than assumption
A precise articulation of your organization's uniqueness — what only you offer
A first draft of your donor journey, from first touch to ongoing relationship
Shared language your whole team and board can use consistently
Who It's For:
Charities, ministries, and mission-driven organizations preparing for a strategic plan, a brand refresh, or a campaign — and who want the foundational thinking done well before building on top of it. Especially valuable if your team has never formally defined your donor personas or your uniqueness in the market.
Strategic Clarity Cohort
You can't build a strategy on assumptions.
Crisis PR Cohort
Most organizations only get serious about crisis planning after the crisis.
The Problem:
A donor complaint goes public. A staff issue becomes a headline. A partner organization's crisis suddenly becomes yours by association. In the moment, someone is scrambling to write a statement, find the right words, and decide who's authorized to speak — all while the story is already moving.
The organizations that come through a crisis well aren't the ones with the best luck. They're the ones who did the thinking in advance.
What You'll Build:
A documented crisis response protocol, from first notice to resolution
Pre-drafted holding statements for common scenarios, ready to adapt in the moment
A clear internal escalation path: who's informed, who decides, who speaks
A stress-tested plan, pressure-checked against realistic scenarios alongside your cohort peers
Who It's For:
Charities, ministries, and mission-driven organizations that don't yet have a documented crisis communications plan — or have one that's outdated, untested, or was never really finished. If your plan currently lives in someone's memory instead of on paper, this cohort is for you.