Member Spotlight

In May 2023, Alison Murphy-Bernet will celebrate five years with San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC). SFGC is an arts education nonprofit that serves over 350 brilliant young singers ages 4-18 [...]

As the Associate Director of the Annual Fund at The San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Lisa sets the vision and strategy for their annual giving program, which includes overseeing all the direct [...]

For over 30 years Melanie Hamburger has worked in staff and consulting roles focused on helping mostly small nonprofits grow sustainable revenue.  She has helped raise over $10M for racial, [...]

Erin Branagan is the Communications & Development Director at the Center for the Art of Translation, a San Francisco-based organization that champions literary translation and builds [...]

While working on the program team at Global Exchange nearly 20 years ago, Karolo got his first taste of fundraising by watching the director of major gifts in action at a fundraising event. He [...]

Sonja Fitz is the Director of Development & Marketing for Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), the organization where she has worked for her entire nonprofit career.  BOSS was [...]

Rachel started her career as an “biology and environmental science nerd” and educator which led her to work at NatureBridge in the Marin Headlands, teaching and providing children with new [...]

While working at AT&T, Melissa coordinated the March of Dimes and United Way campaigns for her business unit, reaching thousands of employees.  Realizing she wanted a more fulfilling career, [...]

Melissa Irish is the Managing Associate of Partnership Resources Group (PRG) a northern-California based fundraising consulting firm. She and the founder, Elliot Levin, share responsibility for [...]

Dharna Obermaier joined Save the Children as Director of Philanthropy in February 2020, after a 5-year tenure at CARE USA. Save the Children is the world’s leading humanitarian organization for [...]

Laura Bergman is on the Network Programs team at Candid that provides resources, training, and data to nonprofits to enable them to work more effectively.  She started as an Online Librarian and [...]

Lisa Handley is the Development Director for St. Vincent de Paul of San Francisco, overseeing development, communications and marketing operations.  SVDP runs homeless shelters and domestic [...]

Paul Blaney is the Manager of Individual Giving for LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, working with a five-person Development team, who is responsible for acquisition, cultivation [...]

Valerie Schutz is the Sr. Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at Cal State East Bay, where she’s worked for three years.  Her job is focused on raising philanthropic support from [...]

For more than two decades, Shaké Sulikyan has worked in nonprofits.  She started in the finance office of an organization that was just beginning its fundraising efforts and because Shaké was [...]

Lisa Hoffman is a solo-practitioner coach, consultant, facilitator, and trainer to nonprofit boards and staff (www.lisahoffman.net).  She is also an ordained Zen priest.  This may be a [...]

Patrick Heryford passed away on October 16, 2020. Patrick joined the fundraising profession in 1996 and worked for a broad variety of causes, most recently at Goodwill San Francisco. He began [...]

Brenda Laribee, Senior Development Officer at the East Bay Community Foundation Brenda caught the “fundraising bug” towards the end of graduate school, after a career in corporate finance. The [...]

Louise Yokoi, Principal, Anchor & Seed Philanthropic Consulting Like most of us in development, Louise came to the nonprofit world through an interesting and circuitous path.  She started [...]

Gayle Roberts, Chief Development Officer, Larkin Street Youth Services As head of development for the Bay Area’s largest nonprofit dedicated to ending youth homelessness, Gayle Roberts and her [...]