Building Sustainable Teams Through Digital Labor Expansion

One year ago, Autonomous Fundraising became a reality. Today, the fundraising leaders that moved first aren't just proving the concept, they're expanding Autonomous Fundraising across their organizations to create a sustainable model that supports their work into the future.

Take for example one of our higher ed Innovation Partners. They started by expanding from one to two VEOs focused on leadership annual giving and alumni engagement. The results were clear enough that they're now adding two more: one dedicated to athletics, another building a strategic portfolio specifically for Giving Day impact.

But here's where it gets interesting. They're not stopping at four.

They are planning a phased rollout of school-based VEOs, starting with colleges that have demonstrated alumni affinity, capacity, and deans actively requesting more cultivation support. Each VEO will specialize in content and cultivation specific to that school, funded by the school itself.

The vision is to have a VEO supporting every significant major gift pipeline across the institution. Not replacing development officers—expanding capacity where the ratio problem has always made comprehensive coverage impossible.

For organizations in year one of Autonomous Fundraising, we're seeing a pattern: start with core advancement functions, prove the results, then expand into affinity groups, planned giving, and specialized portfolios where the need is clearest.

The Innovation Partners that started a year ago are already executing their expansion plans. Even faster than imagined, Autonomous Fundraising is becoming a foundational layer of advancement operations, and new cohorts are filling through early next year.

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