Turnaround Leadership from Someone Who Has Been There
Sylvia DuBeau is a non-profit executive who has raised more than $20M in philanthropic support for various missions by building meaningful relationships and quantifying impact. Through impactful storytelling and data-driven strategy, she has turned around struggling fundraising programs and helped stagnant ones achieve measurable impact.
Sylvia's approach pairs relationship-driven fundraising with the operational infrastructure necessary for sustainable growth. She works with organizations that have outgrown scrappy and are ready to build programs and evaluation mechanisms that result in major gifts that drive organizational impact.
MY STORY
I fell into development by accident. I was an aspiring publicist with a natural talent for managing databases. A small non-profit was in need of $600K philanthropic dollars a year to operate. They thought I was qualified for the job. In my first week as a Development Director, the Executive Director had to borrow money to make payroll. When I asked my board for help, their response was "That's what we hired you for."
We went from red to black in less than a year. I learned everything I could from the internet, thanks to the expertise of consultants like Gail Perry, Amy Einstein, and Jim Langley, among others. That's it. That was the whole system.
A lot has changed since then. There's more conflicting information and an alarming number of companies that rely on transactional fundraising strategies that keep organizations small. I've seen it. The real turning point is the moment a development professional or an executive is comfortable and prepared to advocate for their own organization, passionately, unapologetically, and with the confidence that philanthropy benefits both sides of the table.
I know that the move from direct mail to a direct ask is scary. I've done it myself more than once, in organizations that couldn't afford for me to get it wrong.
Getting there is the hard part. My job is to guide you, reassure you, and hold your hand until your relationship with fundraising shifts from a necessary evil to an activity as rewarding as your mission.