I. Leadership
Staff, mission and board, in that order.
An organization keeps its promises to the people it serves only when its people are equipped, its mission is clear and its board holds leadership to account. My work has been to build those three things, often under pressure.
$32.4M
secured from 27 donors in 18 months for the Fatherhood Society
90 days
to restore regulatory compliance at Sound Start Foundation
85%
matriculation into general education after redesigning services around the child
$15M
single gift that sustained a gene therapy program for congenital deafness
Building a philanthropic institution from a blank page
- Situation
- Organizations that keep fathers present and families intact, by addressing poverty, addiction and homelessness, lack a dedicated national funder.
- Decision
- Designed the institution from inception: mission, governance, board architecture and a decentralized funding model. Formed alliances with three national family-focused organizations and advocated in Albany for Assembly Bill A1211.
- Result
- $32.4 million secured from 27 donors in 18 months toward a $50 million target, including a $2 million lead gift. An executive director is being recruited in a planned founder-to-successor transition, at the donors’ request.
Rescuing a children’s organization from dissolution
- Situation
- A twenty-seven-year-old organization serving children with deafness, deaf-blindness and developmental disability faced Chapter 7 dissolution.
- Decision
- Raised emergency capital, restored compliance, and redesigned assessment, delivery and family support around the child. Executed a merger while training a successor Head of School.
- Result
- $1.2 million of emergency capital in four months; compliance restored within 90 days; matriculation into general education raised to 85 percent; telehealth launched for rural families.
A single gift that saved a research program
- Situation
- An over-budget gene therapy program for congenital deafness was at risk of closure.
- Decision
- Secured a $15 million gift from one Singaporean family to sustain the program.
- Result
- The program continued and went on to improve hearing in all ten patients it treated.
Governance from the board side of the table
- Situation
- Providers serving people with intellectual and developmental disability face rising scrutiny of their finances and their use of technology.
- Decision
- Elected director of Brightway, a provider approaching $180 million, chairing its Artificial Intelligence Committee and serving on Finance and Fundraising. Elected director of AAIDD, Region X.
- Result
- Board-level oversight of AI adoption, finance and fundraising at one of the region’s larger providers.