Development 101, fully funded.
Development 101 is an approved course in the Massachusetts Workforce Training Fund Express Program. If your nonprofit has 100 or fewer employees, the Commonwealth will reimburse up to 100% of your team's tuition after the course. You have been paying into this fund with every unemployment insurance payment. This is how you get it back.
of tuition reimbursable for eligible organizations
live, instructor-led hours across eight sessions
net cost once your reimbursement arrives
Eight Sessions.
For the organization ready to formalize its fundraising: eight sessions that turn scattered good instincts into a professional development function, with a system your whole team shares.
Eight live, instructor-led 90-minute sessions (course C-16203), offered weekly or every other week, with a 45-minute makeup session each week. Your team learns each framework on realistic composite nonprofits, practices asks with standardized donor personas, and builds your own case, calendar, and plan in a private course portal that keeps everything they write.
Foundations of Development
Philosophy, language, and the case for support.
The Donor Continuum
The five-stage relationship cycle behind every gift.
Prospect Research & Identification
Find who is ready and able to give more.
Cultivation & Moves Management
Deepen relationships on purpose, not by accident.
Solicit with Confidence
Ask with confidence, never apology.
Stewardship & Donor Retention
Keep donors, and grow them, for the long term.
Annual Fund & Individual Giving
A sustainable, repeatable base of individual giving.
Major Gifts: High-Capacity Donor Strategy
Cultivate and close transformational gifts.
Look inside the course portal, the same one your team would use. No sign-up, nothing saved, nothing sent.
Who should attend: W-2 employees of your organization who share responsibility for raising support: executive directors, development staff, program managers, administrative staff who touch gifts, or staff members hoping to grow into a development function. Board members may attend too; they would pay for their own seats, since the grant covers employees only.
Priced to be fully covered.
Tuition is $3,000 per person: 12 instructional hours at $250 per hour. The Express Program reimburses up to $3,000 per person per course, so an eligible organization gets the whole thing back.
The annual cap is $15,000 per organization, enough to send five people in a calendar year. We do not invoice until your award is approved. Then you pay tuition before the first session, your team completes the course, and you submit one reimbursement form. We hand you what that form needs from us: a receipt the moment you pay, and confirmation that your team completed every lesson right after the final session.
Four boxes to check.
Most Massachusetts nonprofits with fewer than 100 people qualify without doing anything special. Not sure about the third box? Ask us, and we will show you how to check it in about five minutes.
1. You are a Massachusetts employer with a physical location here
An office, a program site, a warehouse; owned or leased, either is fine. Nonprofits absolutely count. Most of our Express cohorts are nonprofits.
2. You have 100 or fewer employees
Counted as people on your Massachusetts payroll, full and part time.
3. You contribute to the Workforce Training Fund
This is the box worth checking first. Nonprofits get to choose how they finance unemployment insurance: if you chose the contributory method, you pay into this fund with every payroll and you are eligible. If you chose the reimbursable method, you never paid in and cannot draw from it. Your DUA Certificate of Compliance answers it in one line, and we will send you the exact clicks to find it.
4. Your participants are W-2 employees
The grant funds training for your staff. Contractors and board members are not eligible participants.
Will this be free for your team?
Three questions and a number. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere, and we do not see your answers.
This is a planning estimate built from the program's published caps. Reimbursement decisions rest with Commonwealth Corporation.
Seven steps, and we walk them with you.
The application is short, and we prepare the course details, the numbers, and a step-by-step guide with screenshots. Most organizations finish it in under an hour. Want the whole process in plain English first? Read our free guide to the Massachusetts grant, no strings attached.
Confirm eligibility
Five minutes on the state's unemployment services site confirms your organization contributes to the fund. We send the exact click path.
Pick your cohort
Reserve your seats for a start date at least four weeks out, so your application lands comfortably ahead of the deadline.
Create your account
Register your organization on the Express Program's online portal. One form, once.
Apply at least 21 days before day one
The 21-day rule is firm. Your application names the course exactly as listed: Development 101 - Nonprofit Fundraising Fundamentals, course number C-16203, which covers every schedule we offer. We give you every field, ready to paste. You apply on the Commonwealth Corporation site.
Sign the grant agreement
When your award is approved, the Commonwealth sends an agreement to sign electronically before training begins.
Take the course
Eight sessions, weekly or every other week, whichever schedule you picked, with a 45-minute makeup session each week if someone misses one. Your team shows up; we handle the rest.
Get reimbursed
Within 30 days of your last session, you submit the reimbursement form with the invoice and course record we provide. The Commonwealth pays you back directly.
Asked and answered.
What is Development 101?
It is our fundraising curriculum: fifteen lessons that take a team from first principles to a finished annual plan. Nonprofit Fundraising Fundamentals is its first eight sessions, standardized so the state can fund it. Same instructor, same frameworks, same course portal. Read more about Development 101.
Is Nonprofit Fundraising Fundamentals the same as your tailored Development 101?
Same curriculum, same instructor, same frameworks. Nonprofit Fundraising Fundamentals is the standardized eight-session arc of Development 101, which is what qualifies it for the grant: every cohort works the same composite cases and practice materials, and your team applies each framework to your own organization through short guided exercises in the course portal. If you want an engagement built around your organization from day one, that is our tailored version.
What if we're not sure we pay into the fund?
If you pay standard unemployment insurance contributions, you almost certainly do; it is the default for Massachusetts employers. We will send you the five-minute check before you apply, so there are no surprises.
Can our board members join?
Yes, board members may attend. The grant covers W-2 employees only, so a board member's seat is paid rather than reimbursed. Boards are wonderful fundraisers, and board training is also one of the first things we build into a tailored engagement.
What if we miss the 21-day window?
You join the next cohort. We run them on a rolling basis, so the wait is short, and we would rather you have the funding than rush the date.
When do we pay, and when do we get reimbursed?
Payment is due before the first session, and only after your grant award is approved. Reimbursement comes after your team finishes: within 30 days of the last session, you email Commonwealth Corporation the signed reimbursement form from your Express agreement, the list of employees who attended, our invoice, and proof of payment. You get a receipt from us the moment you pay, and confirmation that your team completed every lesson right after the final session. The Commonwealth then pays you in its next periodic check run, or by direct deposit if you have filed their electronic funds transfer form. See every step in our grant guide.
Reserve your team's seats.
Choose a start date and tell us who is coming. We hold your seats, confirm the session calendar within one business day, and send you our grant guide. Nothing is final until you press the button, and nothing is due today.
Where is your team trying to go?
Start with a free conversation. No pitch, no binder. We will check your eligibility together and, if it fits, pick a cohort date and get your application moving.
Ask the Turtle LLC is an approved training provider in the Massachusetts Workforce Training Fund Express Program, administered by Commonwealth Corporation. Reimbursement decisions rest with the program, and we help you put your best application in.