Susan Olsen Email & Phone Number

Provide strategic counsel and conceive motivating experiences for meaningful donor engagement. Thought partner, bespoke creative, and extraordinary connector and convener of ideas and people. Strategic thinker, imaginative, entrepreneurial, adaptable, willing to take risk; sees beyond the ordinary to what is possible, including the unexpected. At Harvard, led planning to recognize and publicly announce eight- and nine-figure gifts; drove content and planning for an annual symposium to inspire, connect, and inform selected audiences of benefactors and global leaders; the visual, intellectual, and imaginative experience of the University-wide launch and closing celebrations of The Harvard Campaign; and Your Harvard, a presidential series of programs in 17 cities across the globe. Prior to Harvard served of counsel, KublerWirka, Inc. and held senior and frontline fundraising positions in higher ed and museums, including Director of Development and External Relations at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for a decade. Early in career, served as a teacher at Perkins School for the Blind.What drives me? Curiosity, a sense of wonder, and flashes of inspiration that break open an idea I am puzzling on; the opportunity to weave the message of the beauty in art through the narrative of my work; the belief that anything is possible to create a more generous and just future together.

Listed skills include Event Planning, Nonprofit Organizations, Management, Nonprofits, and 6 others.