Kate Blessing Email & Phone Number

Bloomington, Mn

As the Director of Community Relations for the Martin Luther Campus of Ebenezer in Bloomington, I'm responsible for leading the community relations program for senior living and housing services. My work involves collaborating with both internal and external partners to develop growth opportunities for the non-profit, whilst ensuring brand alignment. I'm also responsible for managing special events, from ideation to post-event follow-up, utilizing my attention to detail and passion for service. With my expertise in compiling data, preparing reports, and presenting recommendations, I'm able to make a major impact on our programs. I'm dedicated to continuously improving relationships with the people we serve and effectively responding to client, regulator, staff, and leadership inquiries with a sense of urgency and accuracy.Results in this role include:• Supports sales and marketing to drive satisfaction of existing and potential customers. • Designs, coordinates, and performs all follow-up on events for residents, community, and staff. • Transformed the volunteer program to create clarity in expectations and facilitate recognitions. • Produces, edits, schedules, and improves content across platforms including digital and social. • Creates and distributes thought leadership content to add value to the customer interactions. • Utilizes the sales and marketing technology to document and automate follow-ups with customers. • Fills in wherever needed in the operations through a period of rapid change to maintain resident safety and communications of protocols to families and providers to ensure trust in the processes.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

I was the annual and employee giving officer for both the Fairview and Ebenezer Foundations during this time. I was promoted to this position that managed the portfolio of donors and supporters of the healthcare foundations. My role was to evaluate opportunities and giving vehicles to suggest strategies to potential and existing donors. I did this while developing, writing, and presenting proposals. I also regularly presented updates to the Foundations’ Leadership and key supporters. I executed multiple campaigns during this time to solicit major gifts. I did this in-person, by phone, and at events. I found success in this capacity with my strong attention to detail and ability to create authentic relationships quickly with a variety of people. Some wins in this position were:• Raised over $1.5M annually for multiple years as the leader of the Fairview employee giving program. • Wrote, edited, deployed, and improved content for all advancement campaigns to ensure brand consistency that also activated donors. • Attended an average of 1 – 5 events weekly to represent the Foundation publicly and to engage donors. • Analyzed donor and fundraising data to identify planning, budgeting, and campaign performance. • Tapped into key partners to activate resources to extend the impact of each campaign.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

As an assistant for the leadership team at foundations, I managed office tasks, coordinated projects, and worked directly with executives. My strong work ethic and quick learning abilities led to a rapid promotion to this role. I eagerly dove into daily operations, always willing to take on any task and thought creatively to achieve the best outcomes. This enabled me to contribute to both the foundations and the people we served. Regular collaboration led to my success in this position.Results in this capacity included:• Collaborated with multiple executives internally and externally to maintain momentum of projects. • Took point on the annual golf tournament that generated a large portion of the annual campaigns. • Recognized volunteers through the execution of multiple campaigns and communications. • Fielded inquiries from the public, donors, and leadership to find solutions in a fast-paced environment.

• Lead event planner managing budgets, contracts, logistics and on-site problem solving • Member of successful event team annually raising $200,000 and hosting 3,500 guests• Managed multiple volunteer planning committees of key stakeholders and major donors • Solicited event sponsorships and ensured correct execution of benefit packages • Secured item donations for silent auction and raffle activities• Created web content and event marketing pieces including invitations and programs • Recruited and trained up to 75 volunteers per event to act as day-of-event staff

• Wrote and secured grant proposals for operating support • Developed deadline and status tracking system for proposals in Raiser’s Edge database• Accurately processed donations and produced acknowledgement letters• Assisted in seamless merger of databases with detailed clean-up of fields and duplicate records