Development & Fundraising

• Created and planned the development activities of Public School Forum of NC from the ground up. Formalized all fundraising and development functions and put policies, goals, and objectives in place. Realigned the Development Committee within the Board of Directors and created repeatable programs and events that increased annual gifts exponentially.

• Overcame a massive reduction of state funding for the Public School Forum in 2015 that accounted for as much as 77 percent of the total annual budget to less than 5 percent in 2016 -- and still grew stratgeic reserves from a negative fund balance of $70,000 in 2016 ago to a positive fund balance on July 1, 2019 of $264,000.

• Identified and built relationships with new donors bringing in $2.3M in funds from first-time givers over 4 years.

• Launched Time Warner Cable’s (the largest cable provider in NC) signature philanthropic initiative, “Connect a Million Minds” in the Triangle. Promoted STEM education by developing over a dozen new partnerships with key organizations such as NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Morehead Planetarium, NC Science Olympiad, and Wake County Boys & Girls Club.

• Developed the Public School Forum’s “Color of Education” partnership with Duke Policy Bridge at Sanford and the Samuel Dubois Cook Center for Social Equity at Duke University.  Launched and managed a sold-out inaugural event in 2018 with guest speaker NY Times Magazine’s Nikole Hannah-Jones ($46K in sponsorships). Doubled event performance in 2019 with $85,000 in sponsorships with keynoter Ta-Nehisi Coates.

• Dramatically increased sponsorships and giving at the Jay Robinson Award Gala from $5,000 in 2014 to $105,442 in 2019. Changed the lunch event to an evening gala and improved marketing and promotion of the event.

• Created the Eggs & Issues Breakfast in 2015 to serve as a major event to release annual Top 10 Education issues. Partnered with NC SPIN to televise a panel discussion and later used the Public School Forum’s own television platform Education Matters. Grew sponsorship from zero to $30,000 annually in five years.

• Much of the new Public School Forum revenue was generated through innovative new programs like the NC Resilience & Learning Project focused on childhood trauma and Color of Education, a racial equity initiative. More than $1.5 million has been raised for the Resilience & Learning Project to date that we launched as a pilot in 3 schools/2 school districts in 2017 and expanded into 14 districts in 2018-2019 providing direct support for students and staff in 23 schools.