Like many in our field, I didn’t set out to be a fundraiser.
I always had a passion for helping people, though, and when I began working for a community nonprofit after college, I quickly realized that I liked raising money for the people and programs I served. That was when I decided to focus my career on fundraising.
Several decades later, I am still committed to helping nonprofits build their philanthropic support.
While I have worked for social service and healthcare organizations, I spent most of my career in higher education. I worked for more than a decade at the University of California, Irvine, as Executive Director of Health Sciences, raising money for both the medical school and the UCI Medical Center. I also served as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Advancement where I helped plan UCI’s first large-scale, comprehensive fundraising campaign.
Later, I had the great privilege of working for my alma mater, California State University, Long Beach as Vice President of University Relations and Development, overseeing a staff of more than 70 development, alumni, communications, and government-relations professionals.
Other career-highlights include:
- Conducting large fundraising campaigns from start to finish. In addition to working on the planning phase of UCI’s first $1 billion campaign, I managed all aspects of CSULB’s comprehensive campaign, which exceeded its goal and raised nearly $240 million.
- Organizing and managing high-level boards and volunteer committees. I launched CSULB’s philanthropic foundation and served as its first CEO. During my tenure, we assembled a first-rate board of alumni, business and community leaders, and more than doubled the endowment.
- Overseeing the success of large teams by fostering a work culture that led to achieving campaign and annual fundraising goals. I have supervised, mentored, and trained many development professionals, and have worked extensively with university presidents, faculty, and other college administrators to hone their fundraising skills.
- Raising money, especially from major and principal gifts. This has been my dedicated focus, and I have been honored to work with hundreds of donors to support their philanthropic vision.
Looking back on my career, I realized that my greatest satisfaction has come from recognizing and cultivating talent. Facilitating the success of others is rewarding on more than a personal level; it has led to building teams of capable fundraisers.