Helping mission-driven organizations turn information into action by connecting people, data, and strategy into a plan that actually moves.
Most people move past the process to get to the result. WonderFilled looks for what's easy to miss along the way: the pattern nobody's named yet, the detail buried three tabs deep in a spreadsheet, the connection between two things that don't obviously belong together.
Finding it and putting it to work is what turns strategy into momentum instead of paperwork. That's the wonder. It's not a metaphor. It's the method.
Five disciplines. Two connectors.
Every organization's need looks different on the surface: a grant deadline, a stuck process, a donor relationship that needs tending, a board that wants a plan. Underneath, it's usually the same problem: information that hasn't been turned into a decision, or a decision that hasn't been turned into funding, yet.
Strategic Planning & Process Improvement
Facilitated planning, Kaizen-style process mapping, and coalition-building that turns competing priorities into a workable plan, and follow-through.
Grant Strategy & Impact Storytelling
Funder research, proposal narratives, and reusable data libraries, built from a track record with foundation, corporate, and federal funders.
Fund Development & Donor Strategy
Donor cultivation and stewardship, major gift solicitation, sponsorship and campaign strategy, and donor database setup, grounded in CFRM-certified fund development practice.
AI Integration for Mission-Driven Organizations
Practical AI workflows for reporting, research, and communications, sized for teams without a data department.
Community Engagement & Facilitation
Surveys, public input sessions, and employer/community partnerships designed to surface what people actually need, and bring them along.
Turning insight into impact
A sample of projects led or co-led, spanning transit policy, public health, community data, grants, and fund development.
The Value of Public Transit for Employers
Led a data-driven report making the employer case for transit investment (workforce reliability, talent-pool expansion, and turnover-cost analysis) used to build employer and philanthropic support for a proposed on-demand transit zone.
Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) White Paper
Contributed as project lead alongside physicians, LCSWs, and foundation leadership on a policy position paper advocating for evidence-based opioid use disorder treatment across a 10-county region.
Community Survey & Route Change Engagement
Led community survey design and public input sessions shaping service planning, fare policy, and proposed route changes, translating rider feedback into decisions the agency could act on.
Community Level Data Project
Project lead for a public-facing community data resource used by local nonprofits, funders, and government to understand need across Allen County.
Grant Writing & Funder Relations
Written for and awarded funding from GM Foundation, Journal Gazette Foundation, Lincoln Financial Foundation, Old National Bank Foundation, PNC, IU Health Foundation, AEP Foundation, Eli Lilly, and Indiana United Ways, plus collaboration on a $2.1M federal transit grant and a state DMHA grant.
Events, Sponsorships & Community Partnerships
Manages an ongoing calendar of community partnerships (schools, employers, and nonprofits) including designing and leading the empathy-building activity for the agency's Building Better Mobility event.
Grant Portfolio Turnaround
Served as sole grant lead for a 7-county furniture bank, rebuilding the funding pipeline from the ground up: researching funders beyond the organization's existing base and writing federal, state, and local proposals, including CDBG and SAM.gov-registered opportunities. Grew the active portfolio to 35-plus grants, bringing in over $166,000 in under a year, including new funding that launched a workforce-readiness program from scratch.
Donor & Sponsorship Strategy
Applied CFRM fund development principles to rebuild the organization's approach to donors from the ground up, folding it into one of three pillars of a new 3-year strategic plan. Secured over $60,000 in gala sponsorships, including a $25,000 premier sponsor, managed the donor database to guide personalized stewardship, and made hand-written thank-you notes a hallmark of how the organization treated its supporters.
Pathways to Purpose
Designed and launched a volunteer-driven workforce-readiness program from concept to pilot, securing partnership commitments from three recovery-focused community agencies and structuring quarterly cohorts for up to 24 participants a year. The referral and partner network grew alongside it, expanding to 151 organizations, a 23 percent increase in a single year.
Founding a Family Health Program in Costa Rica
Co-led a family nonprofit in Costa Rica, founding and directing a program for medically at-risk children and mothers that grew to serve more than 600 families a year. Raised $300,000 through fundraising campaigns and multi-channel content for a 300-plus person donor base, and wrote the grant applications that helped fund it.
Two connectors. One practice.
WonderFilled Strategies is Casey and Colleen Connell, married co-founders and two key connectors. We don't lead with a specialty, breadth is the point. Between the two of us we cover strategy and story, data and donors, process and people, in a way a single specialist consultant can't. One phone call, two full skill sets.
There's an old saying most people only hear half of: jack of all trades, master of none. The full version finishes it: but oftentimes better than a master of one. That's us. Casey connects data, strategy, and AI-powered process work into plans that move. Colleen connects funders, donors, and community partners into the relationships and dollars that keep those plans funded. Put together, that's the full loop: insight to plan to funding to action.
- + Data + Storytelling
- + Strategy + Empathy
- + Process + People
- + AI + Human Judgment
- + Community Voices + Executive Decisions
- + Grants + Donors
Casey Connell
Co-FounderCasey Connell founded WonderFilled Strategies to help nonprofits, local government, and community coalitions turn scattered information into an actual plan. She's led everything from a $2.1M federal transit grant to a multi-hospital policy paper on opioid treatment, and builds AI-powered workflows sized for teams without a data department. Strategic Doing certified, Dare to Lead trained.
Colleen Connell
Co-FounderColleen Connell joins WonderFilled as co-founder, bringing a CFRM certification and over a decade of grant writing and fund development experience. As sole grant lead for a 7-county nonprofit, she secured over $166,000 in grant revenue in under a year across a 35-plus grant portfolio, and personally built donor stewardship and major-gift programs that brought in tens of thousands more. She's also a published author and content strategist, and speaks fluent Spanish.
Have a plan that needs a path forward?
Whether it's a grant, a process, or a room full of stakeholders who need to land somewhere, happy to talk through what you're working on.