About
A house of sources.
Fonte House is named for the Portuguese word for source. It's a fundraising research instrument built inside Nehiley Strategies, a Rhode Island consultancy.
01 · The name
Where "Fonte" comes from.
Fonte is Portuguese for "spring" or "source": a place where fresh water begins. The word carries a quiet authority in Portuguese. A fonte is not just where water comes out, it's the original wellspring, the place upstream.
That register matched the brand we wanted: a research instrument that lets fundraisers work upstream, closer to the source, instead of chasing donations after the fact. The Cape Verdean roots in the name are deliberate.
02 · Nehiley Strategies
Built inside a working consultancy.
Nehiley Strategies is a Rhode Island fundraising consultancy founded by Nicole Nehiley. The firm runs major-donor research, prospect cultivation, and campaign strategy for small and mid-size nonprofits across the state.
Fonte House started as the firm's internal tool: the research instrument Nicole wished existed but couldn't find at the price point a small consultancy could afford. After eighteen months of running every Nehiley engagement on it, we decided to open it up.
03 · What we built it for
A tool that lives between research and the ask.
The fundraising tools market is split. On one end: iWave, DonorSearch, Blackbaud, $4K to $50K per year, designed for enterprise development shops with full-time researchers. On the other end: a Google Doc, a spreadsheet, and a lot of unbillable hours.
Fonte House sits in the middle. Curated regional density (Rhode Island first, more states coming). Modern interface. Funder + donor + match in one workspace. Priced for the small consultancy and the in-house development team of three.
04 · The team
Two people, for now.
Nicole Nehiley is the founder of Nehiley Strategies and the domain expert behind every Fonte House feature. If it surfaces something useful in the product, Nicole asked for it.
Emmanuel Colmenares is the build partner. Brown MPA 2026, builds the codebase, deploys the platform, owns the technical decisions. Cape Verdean heritage; the brand name is his.