What this work looks like in practice

UNICEF USA

Growing what was already there

Florida had a UNICEF donor base when I arrived. What it didn't have was infrastructure — no regional identity, no clear pipeline, no pathway for younger or first-time donors to get meaningfully involved.

Over three years, I grew the portfolio to just under $5 million. The work was mostly relational — regular visits, proposals matched to what individual donors actually cared about, follow-through that built trust over time. Alongside that, I launched an initiative focused on first-time and millennial donors that brought in roughly $2.1 million.

The structural work mattered too. I helped establish Florida as a distinct UNICEF USA region and built the Steering Committee that was on track to become a Regional Board. That kind of foundation doesn't show up in a single year's numbers, but it changes what an organization can do five years out.

~$4.9M portfolio grown over three years.

Epilepsy Foundation

Building a program that could scale

The Florida operation was doing real work, but the development side was scattered. Multiple offices, inconsistent practices, no shared language around the mission or the ask. The job, at first, was to make it function like one organization.

I standardized the basics, built out an events program that generated roughly $800,000 in new annual revenue on a lean budget, and rebuilt donor relationships that had gone quiet. It worked well enough that I was promoted into a national role.

At the national level, I worked directly with the CEO and board to launch a major gifts program tied to a multi-year plan. My nine-state portfolio contributed more than $15 million toward a capital campaign and related initiatives.

Karen Basha Egozi, CEO of the Epilepsy Foundation of Florida, later wrote that I "dramatically increased funds raised" and helped the organization reduce its dependence on government funding. That was always the goal — not just more money, but a more sustainable mix of it.

$15M+ contributed toward capital campaign across nine states.

Susan B. Anthony Recovery Center

When fundraising is only part of the job

The Susan B. Anthony Recovery Center served homeless mothers working to regain custody of their children. It was expanding quickly, and it needed someone who could hold multiple things at once without dropping any of them.

As COO, I oversaw development, finance, human resources, and program management simultaneously, while also coordinating an $8 million capital campaign during a period of significant organizational growth.

Many of the organizations I work with now are in a version of that same pressure — the executive director is wearing four hats, the board wants to help but isn't sure how, and fundraising feels like one more thing on top of everything else. That experience shapes how I approach the work. I've been inside it.

$8M capital campaign coordinated during rapid expansion.

Daniel Suter Foundation

Building something from nothing, in Senegal

A private donor committed $1 million to support youth entrepreneurship in Dakar. There was no program, no staff, no curriculum — just a commitment and a clear idea of what economic development for young people could look like.

We built it from the ground up: entrepreneurial training, seed funding, mentorship structure. The program ran, it worked, and it worked well enough that both the Education Ministry and the Development Ministry of Senegal officially adopted the model. What started as a privately funded initiative became part of the national education system.

I've worked across more than 15 countries in crisis settings, post-conflict programs, and community development initiatives. That background shapes how I think about organizational problems — especially the ones without obvious playbooks. If you're trying to build something genuinely new, that experience is relevant.

$1M deployed to build a program later adopted into Senegal's national education system.