Building a Legacy: How an All-Fractional Team Powered 30 Years of Sustainable Growth
Case Study: The Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation
For many nonprofits, the path to growth is blocked by a lack of staffing: the organization is too big for volunteers to manage alone, and the organization isn’t yet large enough to secure all the skills it needs in full-time positions.
For nearly 30 years, The Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation (The Foundation) has bypassed this problem entirely. By using fractional support provided by The More Than Giving Co. (MTG), the Foundation has grown from a start-up initiative into an influential organization preserving the history of women in medicine.
This is the story of how a flexible partnership provided the safety, expertise, and infrastructure to build a lasting legacy.
The Challenge: Preserving History in a Changing Landscape
The Foundation was born during a tumultuous period of medical school mergers. The founders faced an urgent mandate: to preserve and protect the history of women in medicine and Woman’s Medical College.
Initially, eager board volunteers tried to manage the day-to-day responsibilities themselves. They quickly found that trying to do it all diverted their attention from strategic leadership. They needed professional guidance to establish a governance structure and articulate a vision.
Dr. Danielle Laraque-Arena, President of the Foundation and a long-time board leader, notes that this challenge is common. Having worked with a range of administrators and management companies throughout her career, she knew the Foundation needed something different — not just administrative support, but "mission-aligned infrastructure."
The Solution: A Scalable, Fractional Ecosystem
The Foundation engaged More Than Giving to establish its initial structure. Rather than hiring a single generalist employee, MTG provided fractional support — several people working fractionally, available on a flexible basis.
"Vicki Burkhart took such care in selecting the right team to move us forward," says Dr. Laraque-Arena. "What sets this team apart is the careful match between staff and mission."
Phase 1: The Founding Stage
In the beginning, the Foundation didn't need staff; it needed a strategic architect. Our founder, who previously served as an alumni director for one of the merged institutions, stepped in. She served as the first fractional executive director, creating the initial structure and ensuring best practices in board recruitment.
Phase 2: The Growth Stage
As the Foundation’s programs expanded, so did the team — but only as needed.
Operational Support: A Nonprofit Virtual Assistant (NPVA®) joined to handle the administrative backbone, ensuring clean data and adherence to timelines.
Programmatic Depth: A fractional coordinator with deep communications experience was brought in to uncover and illuminate stories from the archives.
Leadership Evolution: The current fractional Executive Director, Gabie Benson, began as a fractional development director, allowing for a seamless handover.
Dr. Laraque-Arena highlights the impact of this specific placement: "With our Executive Director, Gabie Benson, running our day-to-day operations, we benefit from a rare combination of professional nonprofit management expertise and deep content knowledge of the issues and scholarship at the heart of our work."
Why Boards Trust Fractional Support
For a Board of Directors, the primary responsibility is fiduciary duty and risk management. The 30-year success of The Foundation illustrates how fractional support can work for organizations:
Risk Mitigation: By avoiding the need to find a "unicorn" employee who can do everything, the Foundation avoided the common pitfalls of staff burnout and high turnover.
Right-Sized Talent: The organization made the most of the money invested in staff by getting access to all the different skills they needed at the size that was right for them.
Continuity & Institutional Memory: Because they partnered with a resource like MTG, they didn’t have to worry about losing a team member. When a previous NPVA® transitioned out, MTG quickly provided a replacement who hit the ground running.
Specialized Expertise on Demand
For executive directors and mission-driven leaders, the value of fractional support lies in agility. The Foundation utilized MTG’s talent network to plug in specific skills that simply weren’t needed full-time:
Database Management: A fractional administrator was engaged solely to set up a spreadsheet database and rotated out once the project was complete.
Historical Expertise: The team is currently seeking a fractional historian, pinpointing a highly specific need.
Event Management: They engaged a dedicated fractional administrator just two months before a major event to provide additional support while they needed it.
The Results: 30 Years of Impact
The all-fractional team has not just kept the lights on; it has powered significant, measurable success. By freeing the Board to focus on strategy rather than operations, the Foundation has achieved:
Record-Breaking Engagement: In Fall 2025, the team executed an annual event with the highest turnout to date.
Financial Health: The Foundation recently celebrated its strongest fundraising year ever.
Programmatic Expansion: The team has successfully launched a scholarship program, an oral history collection, a digital catalog of historical materials, a membership program, a legacy giving society, and strategic partnerships with like organizations.
As Dr. Laraque-Arena notes, "In a complex and evolving political landscape, the More Than Giving team has helped us stay focused on our goals, expand our impact, and achieve our strongest fundraising year to date."
A Partner in Purpose
The Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation proves that an organization does not need a large, full-time headcount to make a large, full-time impact.
Through three decades of growth, More Than Giving has served as more than just an operational vendor. "Their support has allowed us to build something lasting," concludes Dr. Laraque-Arena. "I wholeheartedly recommend More Than Giving to any nonprofit seeking not just support, but a true partner in purpose."