A fundraising agency built by people who have raised the money: strategy from McKinsey, more than twelve years in partnerships and fundraising, and a way of working that keeps your team in charge.
Marc de AndrésFoundermarc@thestart.agency
Global health, emergencies, HIV and AIDS, LGBTQ+ advocacy and medical charities. We work in English, Spanish, Catalan, French and Italian.
It began inside a UK medical charity. Hired for part of a week, with a whole field of funders to reach, we built the way of working this agency now runs on: read the whole field, prepare everything, and let the charity decide.
It worked. From a standing start, the charity found and approached seven to twelve times more funders than before.
In 2026 it became an agency, so that other charities could work the same way.
Most charities are not short of good work. They are short of hours: a fundraising team of two, against a field of thousands of funders, donors and companies.
It exists so that a small team can reach the whole of that field and still spend its time on people. It works beside your team, and your team stays in charge.
Every priority, every approach and every message is yours to approve, and it goes out in your name.
Everything is written from your own documents, in your own words.
Your supporter list stays in your own systems, and who else can see what is published.
Never a call centre, never a form.
We publish how AI is used in our work, what it never does, and who can see your data, so your board can check it before anything is signed.