Reach for the Stars: The 2014 Fundraising Professionals of the Year Awards Winners
In 2013, a major donor put God's Love We Deliver in contact with Christiane Lemieux, owner of DwellStudio, who wanted to partner with Dominique Ansel, famed pastry chef and creator of the phenomenon known as the Cronut, to raise money and awareness for GLWD.
Emmett Findley and Stephen Covello hatched the idea for The Cronut Mission, through which GLWD would ask New York City influencers to design Cronut carriers that would then be auctioned to raise money for the organization. Influencers were chosen based on their celebrity, connection to GLWD and social-media reach.
The Cronut Mission raised $8,800 for GLWD and was a huge social-media success. Findley and Covello managed PR for the campaign, bringing huge awareness to GLWD and its mission.
According to David Ludwigson, chief development officer at GLWD, "The initiative was fun and light, and our influencers enjoyed participating, helping to solidify their connection to the agency. Emmett made it easy for them do their work by helping them craft personal social-media messages each could use to get the word out. Stephen worked his major-donor connections to ensure healthy bidding on each special Cronut carrier (with some selling for as much as $1,200 each)."
We applaud Findley and Covello, who started their careers at GLWD as volunteer coordinators, for their understanding of how to engage and empower volunteers, as well as knowing the importance of projects that donors and evangelists alike can really sink their teeth into!
Lisa Buchs,
development coordinator & grant writer
From up-and-coming fundraisers (above) who made a splash with social media, we turn to one who was nominated "because she has applied her formidable talents to achieving excellence in good, old-fashioned fundraising."
According to Heather Laing, development director at Calvary Women's Services, "Lisa Buchs builds and nurtures relationships, she helps individuals and institutions find meaningful ways to connect with philanthropic work, and she keeps the clients we serve at the center of all that she does. Through those efforts, she has dramatically increased institutional support at our organization and exceeded ambitious goals to fund new programs and services."
