Small Business: How Dragonfly Consulting found its niche with fundraising
In February of this year, Michelle Magee quit her full-time job and opened Dragonfly Consulting, a “profit with a purpose” business that offers fundraising services for nonprofit organizations on a sliding scale basis.
After attending college at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Magee, 30, moved back to Charlotte, her hometown, in 2011. For a few years she worked at several nonprofit organizations and quickly realized that she was good at fundraising.
“I was not afraid to ask people for money,” she said. “I wasn’t afraid to go to a restaurant and ask for a gift card. I didn’t have the hang ups about that.”
Magee noticed that many non-profits were ill-equipped to raise money for their organization.
“They don’t have a dedicated development staff,” she said. “They are at the mercy of Googling, ‘how do I write a fundraising appeal letter’. A lot of these nonprofits that are trying to start out are very passionate with one or two people busting their butts and they don’t have the money to hire a really expensive consultant.”
Dragonfly Consulting offers a wide range of services, depending on the needs of the client. Magee can write letters and grants, set up strategic planning sessions and fundraising assessments, and plan large-scale fundraising events. She’s able to guide organizations through their next steps after they’ve gotten off the ground.
Magee answered CharlotteFive’s questions for the Small Business Series:
How do you determine your sliding scale fees?
“It’s based on the annual budget of the nonprofit. (I did this) because I want the same quality of work to be available to all nonprofits despite whatever their annual budget is.”
How do you find your clients?
“Right now, it’s very word of mouth. That’s kind of the nature of the industry. You get one client and then you end up with three more.
“It’s a lot of self-promotion, a lot of networking events. Going through a lot of business cards. It’s slow going at first, but hopefully it will pick up.”
Where do you think a small business owner’s time is best spent?
“Networking. Going to events and talking to everybody, not just people that you think will hire you. I’ve talked to people who have had no need for my services and I end up getting a call from one of their friends later.
“People remember the face-to-face. They are going to remember if you were personable, what you talked about and if you invested in the conversation.”
What has been the hardest part about running your own business?
“The Secretary of State website is a challenge; it is convoluted. (I didn’t know) how to actually start the business. I had the idea, I had the plan, I had everything, but the actual legalities of it – there’s no easy bullet-pointed list to tell you where you go and what you need to do.
“That was a struggle and I had to rely on a friend who has done this before to guide me through that.”
What do you love about this city?
“I really love that we are celebrating our culture more. When I was growing up here, we were so proud to be a banking town and that’s all that anyone ever talked about. There was culture, you just didn’t know about it.
“Now I feel like it [banking] is almost secondary to the arts scene and culture. I feel like that is being represented much better than it has been. We still have a long way to go, but we have more soul now. I believe in this city.”
Photos: Dragonfly Consulting
Family history and my own fascination with people and their motivations prompted me to begin this series about Charlotte’s small business owners. Industry, situation and questions will vary. Have a suggestion for a small business owner or entrepreneur to interview? Email it to vanessainfanzon@gmail.com with the subject line “Small Business Series.”
This story was originally published August 6, 2017 at 9:00 PM.