The Nonprofit Show Homegrown Unicorns: Putting the FUN in Major Fundraising
What happens when a nonprofit needs to raise eight figures fast… and decides to do it with unicorn horns, a donor “blessing,” and a whole lot of joy?
We are joined by Brenda Goldsmith, Executive Director of the El Rio Foundation, the fundraising arm of El Rio Health, a federally qualified community health center (FQHC) in Tucson. Brenda walks us through the business model realities of community health centers—how they’re designed to keep people out of the hospital, how they serve patients “from birth to death,” and why fundraising looks different when many patients live at or below the federal poverty level.
Then the conversation turns into a masterclass in campaign strategy and community education. El Rio needed to support a 91,000-square-foot integrated health center expansion—part of a $50 million community investment—without federal capital support. The foundation was asked to raise $10 million quickly, despite never having run a major capital effort at that scale.
Instead of leading with heaviness, Brenda and her team built a campaign brand that made giving feel welcoming and social. The “Blessing Project” was born after a simple discovery: “Does anyone know what a herd of unicorns is called?… we Googled that and we found out a herd of unicorns is called a blessing.” From there, the foundation created a clear participation on-ramp: a $1,000 commitment for five years made you an “El Rio unicorn,” complete with a unicorn horn photo moment.
Underneath the fun was serious execution: board and senior leadership made first commitments, the team held 100+ face-to-face meetings in roughly 70 days, offered multi-year giving options, used tours to teach donors what an FQHC really does, and engaged younger ambassadors through the El Rio Vecinos (ages 25–40). The results speak for themselves: a stretch goal raised, a revised goal, and a growing donor community that wanted to be part of something that made their neighbors healthier.
Brenda says it best: “Make it fun, make it joyous—put the fun in fundraising.”
00:00:00 Welcome
00:02:18 El Rio Foundation at 25 years and why tenure matters in development
00:03:30 What a community health center is and how it differs from a hospital
00:06:00 Why FQHC fundraising is different and why tours matter
00:08:22 Board ambassadors and the El Rio Vecinos young professional arm
00:09:30 The Blessing Project begins a major expansion with a fast timeline
00:13:00 Unicorns as a campaign identity and the “blessing” discovery
00:15:35 Leadership and board commit first over $700K in early momentum
00:18:10 100+ face-to-face meetings and why multi-year gifts worked
00:23:10 Unlocking employee giving over $1M committed from staff
00:27:25 Campaign branding icon vocabulary momentum and joy
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