Elizabeth Dole Foundation

Chief Development Officer

Saunders 360, LLC - Strategic Philanthropy Consulting

Specializing in Advising your organization's philanthropy efforts, Coaching your future plans, and Guiding your implementation to success.  Services include:
	- Capital Campaign feasibility studies and campaign planning and implementation.
	- Capital Campaign consulting firm relationship brokering - helping your organization find the right firm tailored to its needs.
	- Board of Directors recruiting and giving development.
	- Planned Giving program creation and implementation.
	- ED & CEO fundraising coaching and support.

Consultant

Trust for the National Mall

•	Operated as the Chief Development Officer, built and led team of 9 to successfully grow annual, major, and institutional giving and fund multiple special capital projects.
•	Reported to the CEO and led entire philanthropy enterprise, Development Committee, and consultants.
•	Designed and led process for creating and launching a $250,000,000 capital campaign through consultant selection and extensive work to build campaign themes, strategy, collateral, pipelines, and solicitations.
•	Led revised portfolio and pipeline process for better cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies.
•	Actively maintained a portfolio of high-net-worth individuals, corporations, foundations, and other partners.
•	Administered budgets and prepared summary reports of revenue and expenses for board and committees.

Selected Accomplishments:
•	Secured capital campaign’s lead gifts.
•	During pandemic, raised $5m+ to fully fund two capital projects and secured capstone gifts for a third.

Vice President of Philanthropy

United Way of the National Capital Area

•	Created, implemented, and evaluated department strategy in coordination with organizational strategy as a whole and across teams.
•	Created and lead stewardship strategies to retain and build donor relationships and funding.
•	Managed portfolio and pipeline development work for the cultivation, stewardship, and solicitation efforts for annual fund, mid-level and major donors, prospecting, planned giving, and capital campaign through direct response, one-to-one interactions, and giving and affinity societies.
•	Supervised a staff of 2 and conducted training and coaching for continuous growth in roles.
•	Taught classes to nonprofits on donor stewardship, strategy, and revenue growth through the DoMore24 online day-of-giving and traditional fundraising methods. 
•	Administered department’s budget and prepared summary reports of revenue and expenses.

Selected Accomplishments:
•	Created three-year strategy for creating a Philanthropy Team and increasing revenue that produced more than $1M in donations within the first two years and grew giving among major donors between $10,000 and $1M.
•	Created and launched a planned giving program and secured first gift of $100,000.
•	Created new strategies and structures to increase DoMore24 revenue by $500,000.
•	Overhauled existing stewardship processes and led the Philanthropy Team in creating new processes, new portfolio and pipeline structures, for individual donor cultivation and relationship development.
•      Led Salesforce NPSP implementation.

Director of Philanthropy

Year Up

•	Oversaw the development and retention of high net worth relationships to facilitate fundraising for this job skills training and internship placement organization focused on urban young adults.
•	Supervised a staff of 3 and conducted training and coaching for the development team to continuously grow in their roles.
•	Worked with Board on relationship building for donor cultivation, stewardship, and solicitation.
•	Built effective relationships with corporations and institutions to drive increases in volunteering and giving.
•	Prepared summary reports of individual, corporate, and institutional donors, forecast reports, and budget reports for senior operations and development executives.

Selected Accomplishments:
•	Brought in 10 new high net worth donors, including one with a $100,000+ first gift.
•	Hired a Development Manager that brought in 100-plus mentors for students.
•	Created the organization’s first system to target individuals in partner corporations for cultivation. This led to a pipeline of more than 100 qualified prospects.
•	Personally stewarded a major donor who became the first $1M donor and ensured his continued Board role.

Little Lights Urban Ministries

At Little Lights, I was responsible for creating and leading diversified funding and marketing strategies to increase awareness and build relationship among a broad donor and volunteer base for an organization deeply committed to the communities it serves. 

In this role, we saw a near doubling of individual donors and for the first time saw individual giving surpass institutional giving as a revenue source representing more than 50% of the budget.  This included significant growth in both high dollar giving and annual fund giving campaigns as well as corporate sponsorship.

I gained significant management experience by leading the development and marketing teams in day-to-day operations working closely, as a team, to execute aggressive development and marketing campaigns to achieve organizational growth strategies in donor development, volunteer recruitment, marketing and branding, and long-term sustainability.   Additionally, I worked as part of the senior management team responsible for leading the organization and establishing direction. 

•	Managed fundraising and marketing efforts for academic and afterschool programs for urban youths.
•	Supervised a staff of 3 and administered a $100,000+ department budget.
•	Directed the cultivation of high net worth donors and oversaw solicitation, stewardship, outreach, giving, special event management, digital and print marketing, and external communications.
•	Prepared regular reports for the Board, Finance Committee, and Fundraising Committee.

Selected Accomplishments:
•	Increased direct mail and monthly donations from $33,000 per year to $300,000+ per year by rebuilding the direct mail program and creating the organization’s first annual fund campaign.
•	Grew total donations from $450,000 to $900,000 per year and brought in more than 1,000 new donors.
•	Raised donation levels by leveraging the Board’s contacts and creating new events.

Development and Marketing Director

National Center for Public Policy Research

At National Center, I was responsible for managing the high-dollar direct mail programs, both in-house and prospecting, including purchasing, scheduling, working with vendors, and trading lists with other organizations.  

I was also responsible for managing development staff and interns in day to day supervising, task assignment, and tracking as well as managing the donor database and special donor outreach projects and campaigns geared toward donor cultivation and engagement.

•	Oversaw fundraising for Center focused on business, regulatory, environmental, and healthcare policy.
•	Managed direct mail, list exchange, data management, relationship management, and donor identification.
•	Built and maintained relationships with small, medium, and large donors.
•	Supervised a staff of 2, prepared executive reports, and created fundraising strategies.

Selected Accomplishments:
•	Brought in more than 500 new donors and $2.5M in funds during tenure.
•	Increased annual fund donation levels from $200,000 to $700,000.
•	Developed an aggressive prospect mailing program that included list exchanges with similar organizations and managing a prospecting campaign of 50,000 - 100,000 letters per year.

Director of Development

Shirley & Banister Public Affairs

Writing press releases and updates, booking clients for interview opportunities with local and national media outlets.

Account Executive

West Virginia State Senate

Monitoring and tracking legislation, constituent services, research.

Legislative Assistant

Reagan's Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign that Started it All by Craig Shirley

Researching, fact-checking, and citing quotes and news articles.

Researcher and Fact-checker

Philanthropy is defined as an “active effort to promote human welfare.”

My view of philanthropy is simple.  It’s my privilege to facilitate a relationship between a concerned individual and an organization with a shared mission.  From that relationship, we can work together to empower the lives of others – we can promote human welfare.  

I can’t think of a better way to define my career.

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