The Studio | Fundraising + Executive Leadership

Philanthropic growth means very little if the underlying structure cannot hold.

I help mission-driven organizations build the fundraising structure, board partnership, and internal clarity required to support real growth. The work can look like interim leadership, fundraising infrastructure, major gifts strategy, or stronger external messaging. What matters to me is growth with integrity.

I’m usually brought in when an organization is rebuilding, transitioning leadership, rethinking its program model, scaling quickly, diversifying revenue, or trying to make sure the fundraising model can actually support the vision ahead. I’ve built nonprofit fundraising teams, grown revenue, learned lessons the hard way, and helped organizations turn momentum into something more durable.

Selected Results

$1M → $5M+

Annual revenue growth helped lead at New Heights Youth.

$22M+

Campaign work across major initiatives, including Brooklyn Bound and Campaign for Hope.

$50M+

Helped co-develop the GivingZone fundraising platform, which has generated more than $50M for youth sports organizations nationwide.

20+ years | 7 build roles

Development leadership, board engagement, partnerships, and institution-building across inaugural, founding, and early-build roles.

For organizations in growth, transition, or fundraising reset

What I do

I’m usually brought in when the mission is clear, the opportunity is real, and the fundraising needs to catch up.

Revenue Growth + Campaign Design

Built and led fundraising strategies that helped grow annual revenue 4x, while supporting major campaigns, donor engagement, and long-term institutional growth.

Experiences That Move People

From in-home board-hosted dinners and theatre salon series to donor galleries and large-scale galas, I design fundraising experiences that deepen connection, carry the story, and move people to give. I pay close attention to trust, timing, belonging, and what helps people genuinely connect to the work.

Board + Leadership Partnership

Known for helping organizations bring more structure, clarity, and accountability to fundraising through close partnership with CEOs, boards, and senior teams.

Major Gifts + Institutional Support

Experience across major gifts, foundation relations, corporate partnerships, donor stewardship, grant strategy, peer-to-peer and digital fundraising, and executive-level external relationship building. I understand that strong fundraising is rarely just about the ask; it is about trust, timing, alignment, and helping people see themselves in the future of the work.

Creative Direction + External Narrative

I partner with photographers, designers, videographers, and content teams—and often do the work myself—to shape the visual language, messaging, and external-facing materials that help people understand, trust, and invest.

Board Training + Facilitation

I develop and lead board trainings, donor presentations, workshops, retreats, off-sites, forums, town halls, and listening sessions that help leadership teams build clarity, strengthen alignment, and move strategy into action. That work is informed not only by facilitation experience, but by having served in governance leadership myself, including as President of the Waterfront School Foundation and current Founding Board Chair of CLYMOVE.

Where I tend to be most useful

  • Interim or fractional development leadership

  • Fundraising strategy and revenue planning

  • Major gifts, donor cultivation, and strategic stewardship

  • Peer-to-peer, digital, and campaign-based fundraising strategy

  • Fundraising products, donor structures, and giving models—from giving circles to crowdfunding

  • Foundation and corporate partnership development

  • Board fundraising engagement and infrastructure

  • Campaign messaging, case development, and donor communications

  • Creative direction, copywriting, design briefs, and external-facing storytelling that translates complex strategy into clear, compelling materials

  • Fundraising event and donor experience design, from intimate dinners to large-scale galas

  • Board training, retreat design, workshop facilitation, donor presentations, forums, town halls, listening sessions, and presentation development for leadership teams and boards

  • Executive coaching for development positioning and external narrative

Selected Proof Points

Built and launched original programs, donor structures, and fundraising concepts—including the Society for American Theatre, Project Hope, Grief in Families Together, The Self Expression Troupe, High-Rise High-Five Fund and The Pop-Up Community Garden

Served as Interim President of the Waterfront School Foundation and currently serve as Founding Board Chair of CLYMOVE, adding hands-on board leadership experience to training, facilitation, and fundraising partnership work

7 build roles across inaugural, founding, and early-stage leadership work in nonprofits and mission-driven ventures—building from concept to structure, story, and scale.

Founding team member of YouthNet, helping shape the brand, identity, and mission of a $6.9M SAMHSA-funded initiative

$50M+ generated through GivingZone, a platform I helped co-develop for youth sports fundraising across the country. LAUNCHING SOON: The GivingZone Academy. 

Why I work this way

This approach started early.

Early in my career, I worked on a System of Care initiative through the South Carolina Department of Mental Health serving three counties. I learned alongside youth and parents with lived experience in the mental health system at a time when that kind of partnership was still far from standard. That experience changed how I think about leadership, voice, and change.

I was also introduced early to social marketing, which felt new in the social sector at the time. The idea that change requires not only strong services, but trust, language, and buy-in stayed with me. A lot of what defines my work now started there.

Most fundraising problems are not really fundraising problems.

Why clients bring me in

Often the deeper issue is not effort. It is a lack of structure, positioning, accountability, access or shared understanding around what development actually requires.

I bring a mix of executive fundraising experience, board fluency, communications instinct, and human-centered leadership. I’ve spent my career helping organizations translate mission into support without losing clarity, trust, or internal alignment.

My background also includes clinical training as a licensed clinical social worker. That shapes how I build relationships, navigate sensitive contexts, and communicate about work that carries real emotional weight.

This work is a strong fit when you:

Best Fit

Need a senior fundraiser or a one-off event or campaign leader but aren’t ready yet for a permanent full-time hire

Need help bringing structure and momentum to development work that feels scattered or reactive

Need someone to train up your development staff or mentor an incoming junior development hire

Want stronger board partnership, clearer donor strategy, and better fundraising follow-through

Need an experienced external-facing leader who can translate mission into support without sounding generic

Contact

Looking for senior fundraising support or a thought partner for growth?

Whether you need interim leadership, sharper strategy, stronger donor structure, or help turning momentum into a more durable development function, I’d be glad to connect.