My journey in philanthropy

From lunch money to corporate fundraising

When I was eight years old I wrapped my lunch money in a piece of notebook paper and mailed it to the Red Cloud Indian tribe in Montana. I had read a story about how the tribe was struggling and wanted to contribute.

My daughter identifies that moment as my first act of philanthropy after hearing stories of my youth.

I would share with my children the stories of the life I had emerged from growing up in Arlington, MA with three siblings, a father who struggled with alcoholism, and my mother who worked two jobs to sustain us with only a 7th grade education. I saw that education was my ticket out of this cycle of poverty so I strove for success.

At that time, college wasn’t on the agenda for me because I was encouraged by my mother to immediately enter the workforce to help support the family. Meanwhile, a teacher who believed in me helped me to apply to colleges. Ultimately, I attended Regis College in Weston, MA because of a scholarship which opened up opportunities for me to travel including the University of Dublin for a semester which has led to a lifelong love of travel to many countries.

My first fundraising position was at Tufts University after graduating Regis with honors. I discovered then that this was my passion and continued my next step at Winchester Hospital where I was able to create the Winchester Hospital Foundation. My next experience was at the Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge where I realized after 3 years that I needed to continue my educational pursuits with a graduate degree. Thrilled to be accepted at Columbia University’s School of International Affairs, I headed to New York City to embark on a brand new experience on my own. While in pursuit of my studies which resulted in a joint degree in marketing and international business at Columbia Business School., I worked within the business school for even more experience.

While I thought my passion might be to open a store in Boston, I, like many, was bogged down with the financial obligations of graduate school. Instead, my talent for fundraising took hold for an exciting 35 year journey starting with Harvard University.

Early in my career I was recruited to work with the CEO of Fleet Bank as the Internal Marketing and Communications with 30,000 employees in 40 states.

As women in the workforce are often faced with additional challenges with childcare, my family was of utmost importance. With the help of my mother, I was able to rely on consistent assistance until she sadly died of cancer when my children were small. With my passion for my career while managing the demands of a family, I began my role as an independent consultant in fundraising for national and small nonprofit organizations.

I have always worked with the board of directors, creating fundraising strategy and strategic marketing. I am a strong relationship manager, so I often develop donor relationships for the organization. I am also a creative person, so I work on creating marketing collateral and these days social media, websites and other areas of communications. I enjoy creating strategic direction with the board around fundraising and external messaging. I often find there are board members who gravitate towards my recommendations and work with me to promote their mission for raising funds to keep the organizations operating.

I am an infrastructure builder. In fundraising, good planning is essential.

Building strong relationships with foundations officers is one of my greatest talents. I create annual giving along with major and principal gifts programs. These last two categories are donations at the levels of $1,000 and above. In fact, I have negotiated gifts at the $5M and above level.

I am known for building and managing large teams, at one point managed a team of 25. My trademark is taking organizations with small fundraising goals and doubling or tripling their funds. In my last consultation, I helped them triple their fundraising from $2M to $6M annually in just 3 years.

My goal at this stage of my career is to work with small or medium size nonprofits, preferably in the arts or in a social service areas that resonate with me personally like my first personal donation to the Red Cloud Indian tribe in Montana. I have been to the top of the mountain, so to speak, and while the view can be breathtaking, I am now interested in causes in the community like helping families with food or shelter insecurity. My life cycle of poverty to philanthropy has brought me back to working with the causes that are important to me.