Most of all, he never thought he would start out having to raise his own support.

Yet, here he is: the Director of Development at Children of the Nations, a Christian non-profit dedicated to raising children out of poverty and hopelessness in some of the poorest countries in the world.

Among many other duties, he manages a team of major gift officers. He has a caseload of 25 top donors.

As he was growing up, Fraser says he learned a lot of things working with his dad on construction job sites. But he never learned that you could be absolutely passionate about your work.

“My dad wasn’t really satisfied with his career,” says Fraser. “A job was a job, and you did it out of a sense of duty to provide. When I got out of school, I took a job in the shipping business and sat in a cubicle at a desk.

“It was a good company. Just nothing I was passionate about or interested in,” says Fraser. “I felt like I was a cog in a machine.”

As Fraser researched possibilities for more meaningful work, he came across an opening at Children of the Nations. He was drawn to the organization’s mission, but the offer did not include the type of salary or benefits he had enjoyed at his corporate job. Plus, he would have to raise his own support.

But he says he went ahead and interviewed for the position “for practice.” When he received a firm job offer, he was faced with a dilemma.

“The idea of raising my own support seemed daunting,” he says.

But after taking counsel with his family, friends, and church community, he was encouraged to take the job. They told Fraser, “You’re young, you don’t have a mortgage, you should go for it.”

“It was scary, and exciting, all at the same time,” Fraser recalls.  “I told my wife, ‘We’ll give it a year. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just go get a different job.’ She said OK.”

“No health insurance, no retirement program, and I had to raise 100% of my salary and all expenses from friends and family. But I was fired up!”

That was 13 years ago.

At Children of the Nations, Fraser started out organizing and leading the volunteers who packed meal packets for poor children. But he was drawn into fundraising out of necessity.

“It was a relatively new organization in those days, and we were given the freedom to come up with ideas and try things,” he says. “But too often we would always come back to the roadblock, ‘We don’t have the money for it.’”

Eventually Fraser was thrust into a role where he was forced to learn how to do some serious fundraising. The organization’s COO saw potential and charged him with building a major gift team and taking on a caseload of the organization’s top donors.

“I said, ‘you’re asking me to be a major gift fundraiser, which I’ve never done before, and also manage a team of fundraisers?’ And she said, basically, yes.”

In the midst of this sink-or-swim situation, a friend steered him to Veritus Group.

"He told me I had to read the Veritus Group’s Passionate Donor blog,” said Fraser. “I read two whole years of blog posts. It was so great. It was gold, and I couldn’t believe it was free.”

Fraser’s appreciation of the blog eventually led to signing on with Veritus for major gift consulting.

He says he really appreciates the discipline and consistency he gets from the relationship. He says his Veritus Client Experience Leader, Debi Dunham, helps him to stay focused on what’s really important.

“She will ask me, ‘It’s great you’re managing all these things, but what about the 25 families on your caseload?’” says Fraser. “It’s true in fundraising and it’s true in life too. It’s not some giant move you make all at once. It’s a lot of little moves you make over time with consistency.”

Fraser also appreciates being encouraged to ask for a big gift.

“I’m usually pretty aggressive. I like to challenge myself to think bigger. I like to compete and win. But sometimes I can forget to ask for more. And Debi will remind me.”

Today, Fraser is thrilled he took a chance and switched careers when he did. And he sees the hand of providence all along the way.

“I see that God was preparing me for ministry,” he says. “And it all came together.”

He says he has found the joy of doing meaningful work that includes inspiring his donors to use their resources to change children’s lives around the world.

“If just one of the meals we provide saves one child’s life, my whole career will have been worth it.”

“This is the best job I’ve ever had, and I’ve never looked back. Thousands of volunteers and millions of dollars raised to help the poorest children in the world rise up to become leaders in their own countries has been a dream come true.”