Smart fundraising for progressive power.


Left Align Consulting powers progressive organizations through expert fundraising strategy and execution. Left Align has moved over $300 million to the frontlines of social justice movements in partnership with our clients.

Progressive Fundraising Consulting for Social Change Organizations. This image is a collage of a protest sign that reads ‘No Justice No Peace’ layered over an image of the original AIDS quilt in DC in 1987.

How We Work

Left Align offers capacity- and project-based support, including grant writing and management, prospecting, fundraising planning, major gifts, and guidance on development team building.

  • Left Align’s signature support model centers on deep engagement and close partnership, designed to bolster and expand your fundraising. We tailor our approach to meet your organization’s unique needs and goals, leverage your strengths, and collaboratively address challenges. Offerings include:

    Grant Writing & Grants Management Capacity:
    Left Align provides expert foundation fundraising capacity, including grant writing and management, to supercharging institutional fundraising outcomes.

    Surge Capacity & Leave Coverage:
    Left Align offers leave coverage and surge capacity on an as-needed basis to ensure that important work continues seamlessly.

    Full-Service Fractional Fundraising:
    Left Align provides expert, cost-effective fractional fundraising support, ideal for organizations not quite ready for a full-time hire or seeking to add specific expertise and capacity.

  • Left Align’s team of development experts will apply specialized knowledge and focused attention to flawlessly execute your project or initiative, ensuring success and freeing your team to focus on other important work. Offerings include:


    Á LA CARTE DELIVERABLES

    Prospecting Research: A prioritized list of potential supporters to kickstart outreach efforts and maximize your revenue potential.

    Concept Note: A concise, persuasive pitch document that helps funders and donors understand the impact they can help make possible.

    Boilerplate Proposal or Report: A modular, reusable template that will slash proposal/report development time and increase content quality and consistency.



    SPECIAL PROJECTS

    Left Align offers bespoke support for special projects and initiatives, helping you move from big-picture vision to actionable plans to project success. Our team's extensive experience in organizing, fundraising, and philanthropic advocacy for social change movements positions us to tackle complex and strategic initiatives. 

  • Staff play a key role in organizational risk management when it comes to compliance. Written materials such as grant proposals and reports, present distinct areas of potential liability. Compliance education is rare, necessary, and almost never tailored to support development staff. Left Align empowers your team to protect your organization(s) through compliance education. Current offerings include:



    Compliance Basics Guide & Training:
    Our Compliance Basics for 501c3 and 501c4 Development Writing guide and training provide a detailed primer for staff with development writing responsibilities in c3, c4, or multientity organizations. This is the only fundraising-specific compliance training we are aware of in our sector. The guide, as well as on-demand and live trainings, will launch in August 2025. Sign up to be the first to know when it launches or reach out today to schedule a training for your team.

    Custom Compliance Style Guide & Training:
    A custom style guide that lays out your organizations’ approach to compliance and supports development staff to help manage compliance-related risks in externally-facing materials. Left Align can create and deliver a tailored companion training to help your team standardize its compliance practices.

Be the first to know when this training launches!

Our Clients

Left Align clients are at the forefront of the movements shaping the future. We pride ourselves in taking your mission on as our own. We support a diverse portfolio of social change organizations across the US, whose budgets range from $1 million-$30 million.

We specialize in fundraising for community organizing, movement-building, progressive advocacy, civic engagement, and electoral work. We also specialize in organizations with affiliated c3, c4, and PAC/527 entities.

Areas of Expertise

  • Gender Justice, with deep experience in Reproductive Justice and LGBTQ Rights work

  • Racial Justice, including Immigrant Rights, Criminal Justice, Juvenile Justice, and Abolition work

  • Workers Rights & Labor

  • Multientity advocacy, civic engagement, and electoral organizing work

  • Intersectional movement-building and community organizing

  • Arts & Culture

Current and Past Clients

  • Image is of a paper-textured background, with quote over top. Left Align specializes in progressive fundraising consulting, and fundraising strategy for nonprofits..

    "Grant writing and management can be some of the most time consuming fundraising work. Left Align has provided us steady partnership on maintaining our funding relationships over the years, and jumped in to assist in surge campaigns and capacity crunches. Left Align is a values grounded, reliable, relational, and skilled partner.”

    Braeden Lentz
    Chief Development Officer, Working Families Party

  • Images is of a paper-textured background, with quote over top. Left Align specializes in progressive fundraising consulting, and fundraising strategy for nonprofits..

    “Left Align has provided top-tier fundraising support to our growing team for two years running. Their deep experience with movement building combined with their ability to weave a compelling narrative for funders at various stages of their own political journey has helped us deepen our relationships with longtime supporters and connect with prospects. Left Align staff are experienced with fundraising for multiple entities with an eye for compliance, which has brought us much peace of mind during grant reviews and been a relief to our legal staff!”

    Micah Blaise
    Deputy Director of Development, NDWA & Care in Action

  • Images is of a paper-textured background, with quote over top. Left Align specializes in progressive fundraising consulting, and fundraising strategy for nonprofits..

    "Left Align brings deep experience in navigating the social movement funding landscape, which has deepened our capacity to identify prospects and articulate our unique strengths to pair with those opportunities. They have been generous in leveraging not only their skills in grant writing and prospecting but also sharing connections from their network - they bring a relational style of contract work to our team. Lyles and Kitt have integrated into our work and sustained the ability to seamlessly reflect our tone and values, even as the organization has been engaged in a strategic planning process that has shifted programmatic priorities."

    Casey Ernstes
    Development Director, MediaJustice

  • Image is of a paper-textured background, with quote over top. Left Align specializes in progressive fundraising consulting, and fundraising strategy for nonprofits.

    "Left Align has been an essential partner to NDWA and Care in Action for several years now—through both smooth sailing and moments of real internal capacity crunch. I’ve had the pleasure of working with several different grants specialists from their team as our needs have evolved, and each one has brought a rare mix of flexibility and rigor. Left Align consistently delivers high-quality work across a wide range of complex projects...

  • Image is of a paper-textured background, with quote over top. Left Align specializes in progressive fundraising consulting, and fundraising strategy for nonprofits.

    ...whether it’s writing with clarity and nuance about our diverse programs—from civic engagement to culture change, or tech innovations to policy work, or stepping in with strong prospect research and thoughtful project management, they’ve been invaluable. They’re a trusted translator of our vision, helping us share the updates and plans that matter most with the funders we need to make that work a reality."

    Christina Curtin
    Senior Director of Institutional Giving, NDWA & Care in Action

  • Image is of a paper-textured background, with quote over top. Left Align specializes in progressive fundraising consulting, and fundraising strategy for nonprofits.

    "Left Align has supported Groundswell for over six years in developing compelling narratives that uplift our mission and community and build our external presence. Left Align provides an admirable level of care, organization and diligence in its approach, pivoting as needed through transitions and changes to support our fundraising goals. They bring a vital political and social consciousness to this work that is centered on values-driven advocacy and immense knowledge of the fundraising sector that contributes to high-quality collateral. We highly recommend Left Align."

    Angella Bellota
    Director of Foundation Relations, Groundswell Fund

  • "Our experience with Left Align has been incredibly positive. We were so impressed with the care and intention the entire team took to learn about our organization, mission, and work. Afterward, Lyles and the team guided us through a customized strategy that helped us toward our organization's strongest fundraising year. Left Align has been accessible, personable, prompt, and professional, and we have been better able to reach our goals with Left Align in our corner. I cannot imagine a better partner for us in our development efforts. "

    Ben Williamson,
    Asheville Poverty Initiative

  • Image is of a paper-textured background, with quote over top. Left Align specializes in progressive fundraising consulting, and fundraising strategy for nonprofits.

    "Working with Left Align Consulting greatly improved our processes and outcomes with Foundation funders. With their support, Socrates Sculpture Park was able to identify new funding opportunities and work strategically to achieve a 20% increase in institutional funding within 12 months."

    Sarah Frazier
    Socrates Sculpture Park

  • “We worked with Lyles and the Left Align Consulting team to help us organize years of documents and data. What felt like a daunting task quickly became manageable with Lyles' insight and recommendations guiding the workflow. For any future development project support we will absolutely reach out to Left Align Consulting again!”

    Jillian Brandl
    Operations Director, All* Above All

Our Team

Left Align is led by Principal J. F. Lyles and staffed by a team of seasoned movement fundraisers, resource organizers, and grant writers. Check back soon for a full list!

Principal

J. F. Lyles

Lyles (they/them or she/her) is a seasoned fundraising professional and Principal of Left Align Consulting based in Atlanta, GA. Since 2010, Lyles has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for organizations in the social justice, progressive advocacy, and electoral organizing spaces. Lyles leverages their expertise in foundation and individual fundraising to move resources to the frontlines of gender, racial, and economic justice movements.

Portrait of J. F. Lyles, Lyles (they/them or she/her), Principal of Left Align Consulting based in Atlanta, GA.