You know someone with arthritis. One of every four adults suffers and an estimated 300,000 children - one in 250 - struggles with arthritis or another rheumatic condition. With more than 100 types of diseases attacking joints and surrounding tissues, arthritis is more than a disease of the elderly or stiff joints. Arthritis demands that you be brave. Hired for my successful track record in leveraging relationships with major donors and corporations, as well as deep event planning experience, I was solely responsible for re-building and executing the AF's annual signature event within a compressed timeframe. I personally solicited major gifts and corporate sponsorships, including the premiere corporate and personal gift from the AF's national board chair/ CEO of Sound Community Bank. I recruited and led the all-volunteer gala committee of 8 and coached them in securing $25K+ in personal gifts. At the Four Seasons Hilton, I successfully piloted the AF's Western Region's first mobile silent auction.

Poverty homelessness, family tragedy or other unforeseen circumstances are profound barriers to students' success. InvestED is there for families who struggle to keep up with the basic necessities. Students without warm shoes, coats and glasses, for instance, can suffer from chronic absenteeism, putting them at higher risk of dropping out. InvestED is helping middle and high school students get to school, engage in school and graduate from school. It provides immediate and discrete funding via on-site InvestED coordinators who have direct access to students and can identify and respond their needs. We supported 25,245 students in 660 schools across Washington and distributed $924,990 in the 2016-2017 school year. As a member of the five person staff, I was responsible for fundraising revenue and management ($600K) and exceeded my goal by 20%. I developed its major gifts and planned giving program, and engaged its leadership and board of directors in philanthropy and raised individual giving by 40%. I established InvestED's first digital peer-to-peer giving platform, raising $20K in one week, exceeding goal by 100%. I also fortified its monthly giving program, developing a stewardship program, and monthly giving increased by 8 fold.

Established in 2008, Sound Discipline is transforming schools, teachers and administrators and students by changing school culture and policy, daily interactions student/adult behavior. Sound Discipline provides trauma-informed practices and parenting tools so children, families, schools, and communities thrive and foster academic excellence, citizenship, equity, and democracy.As Sound Discipline's first development and communications director, I established and managed fundraising and development efforts with a focus on diversifying revenue by building out individual giving. In an effort to increase our program effectiveness, and more deeply meet the needs of those with whom we served, I developed and led a Board Recruitment Initiative with the goal to attract people of color with a passion for our mission to serve. Under my leadership and execution, we doubled the board of directors from 6 to 12 which included five people of color.

We knew we could make a greater impact in our communities if we simplified our language, shared our personal stories and leveraged our network. And, we were right. We unified our brand and the SVP network is stronger because of it. During my tenure, Social Venture Partners International comprised of 39 affiliates in eight countries with 3,500+ philanthropists and grant-making portfolio of 700+ nonprofit investees which have contributed $54 million and thousands of strategic volunteer expertise to improve their communities. It was my responsibility to lead and manage the network's global brand strategy as well as develop brand standards, messaging frameworks, customizable collateral templates, social media and website content for the affiliate template and the Network site. I also developed and executed the SVP Network Office conference promotions and produced all publications. I am proud to have helped build a story-telling culture.Our brand unification effort was highlighted in The Brand IDEA: Managing Nonprofit Brands with Integrity, Democracy, and Affinity.

Child Care Resources is ensuring that every child gets a great start in our community. CCR is building a strong early learning system, working with families, caregivers and early learning professionals, and they collaborate with community partners to make sure every child has access to resources for a shining future. As the lead on major gifts, I worked side-by-side board members and individual investors to meet goals while also recruiting and managing 80+ table captains to help us exceed our revenue for this important annual celebration.As communications director, I spearheaded communications for the statewide "Seeds to Success", $1.25 million Gates Foundation funded early learning initiative. I secured more than 45 media exposures in an effort to bringing providers, families and our partners to embrace a quality rating and improvement system for child care.

Facing the Future is changing the way youth interact with their world. FTF resources build global awareness, develop critical thinking skills and engage students with diverse needs—with rigorous, teacher-tested curricula. As its first staff member dedicated solely to development and communications, I facilitated diversity of income through relationship development and major gift acquisition. I was successful in expanding the number of individual investors by 60 percent. And, I secured new funding from local and national entities such as State Farm Companies Foundation, Starbucks Foundation and Puget Sound Energy.A master at data collection and proving impact, the FTF program was so successful it was acquired by Western Washington University and is now a part of their curriculum.

CARE is one of the leading humanitarian organizations in the world fighting poverty. My experience as a Peace Corps volunteer allowed me to understand - and tell stories - about the challenges, needs and daily lives of people who live on less than $1 a day around the world. I shared leadership for securing $4.3 million in major gifts from the 13 state area. I was successful in raising $1.7 million in investments from individual donors, corporations and foundations. One of my most meaningful experiences was working closely with Peter Bell, the CEO at the time, as we worked directly with a generous Seattle native who subsequently gave the organization's largest contribution, a $27 million legacy gift, towards girls' education. I oversaw and stewarded that relationship in the latter part of her life in which she was invested $2.5 million annually. Educating girls is crucial to sustainable poverty alleviation in developing communities. I developed and mobilized the the Pacific Northwest Women's Initiative for Girls Education, comprised mostly of women bankers in the region to support raise money for girls' education programming, as well as activating advocates in the State Capital and in Washington, D.C. These major donors engaged Washington and Oregon policy-makers to increase spending for international development. With my leadership, within six months we hired someone full time for this work.CARE works with 72 million people in 90 countries and has since focused its brand on the rights of girls as a primary way to alleviate poverty.

The Northwest Burn Foundation was a statewide organization focused on burn prevention and providing support and programs for burn survivors. We managed a summer camp approximately 100 children who survived burns, a cosmetics program, counseling, housing for families while the loved ones were being treated at Harborview's Burn Center. We granted funds for burn programs, as well.In my five+ years at NWBF, I was promoted from Development Officer to Development Director in 1996 and then promoted form Development Director to Interim Executive Director in 1998. I did all the jobs - from corporate and foundation grant-writing, to grassroots special events like billiard tournaments and bowl-a-thons to auctions and volunteer phone campaigns. I also managed over 100 volunteers for an annual statewide fundraiser that secured $90,000 in a single day. In addition to initiating a major gifts program, I supervised the acquisition of two planned gifts and recommended investment strategies to the board of directors. While at NWBF, I was entrenched in public relations, as well. I produced videos, newsletters, annual reports, brochures and secured over 120 broadcast, radio and print exposures.