• Research, cultivate and conduct successful donor briefings and solicitations as part of the organization’s capital campaign.• Increased donor/member engagement through a series of robust offerings including special events, member walks & online briefings/webinars• Analyzed and updated annual donor and member acquisition appeals that have resulted in significant response rate and total revenue raised increases.• Initiated, created and launched a full-fledged and sustainable planned giving campaign including an extensive donor survey, a focused online planned giving platform and an ongoing email campaign to inform prospective donors.• Cultivate and steward individual donor relationships to advance their annual giving including gifts of cash, appreciated stock and IRA contributions• Work closely with donors to facilitate their estate planning including bequests and charitable gift annuities• Work with estate attorneys and executors to finalize donor legacy gifts and bequests• Facilitated and managed the recruitment of a capital campaign feasibility study consulting firm that included identifying and screening potential firms, writing and distributing the RFP, interacting and engaging with proposing firms throughout the interview process, interviewing invited firms and recommending a finalist for CEO review.• Planned, organized and implemented a Board of Directors donor thank-a-thon that achieved the highest level of Board participation and reached more donors than any previous organizational attempt.

• Researched extensively and wrote a detailed set of five-section statements of need as part of the 1199 Funds’ proposals to support the training and retraining of health care workers in New York City and the Hudson Valley region.• Designed, wrote and submitted a multi-year state grant proposal for the New Jersey Coalition for Inclusive Education (NJCIE)• Conceptualized, designed and wrote two law/policy-related, experientially-based curriculum units for an online business.• Provided multi-year consulting services to my former employer (Constitutional Education Foundation) to facilitate the transfer of the organization’s educational programs into a new host entity by submitting various grant renewals and final reports, annual filings and financial statements necessary to dissolve the Foundation.

Throughout his lengthy association with the Constitutional Education Foundation, Thomas Stokes held virtually every title available and performed every organizational function starting as an intern in late 1994 before taking over as the Executive Director in early 2000. Thomas’ leadership in the post 9/11 era was vital towards keeping the organization’s educational programs operational in the face of crippling grant reductions and schools’ reluctance to allow classes to travel to Downtown Manhattan, just a couple of blocks from ground zero, to participate in their culminating experiential activities - Supreme Court Hearings, Senate debates and executive advisory meetings with the President. By diversifying and expanding the funding base, partnering with federal courthouses and historic sites throughout the Metro New York area and creating new units of study, Thomas led the Constitutional Education Foundation into an exciting period of program advancement.