Prior to founding RAINMAKER Consulting, I worked as a salesperson and manager of the Christal Corporation in Los Angeles, California, a national manufacturer of beauty products. After leaving Christal, I formed Coast to Coast Distributors, Inc., a national wholesale distribution company of beauty products, and became its chief executive officer. Starting with a loan of just $5,000, I oversaw the growth of Coast to Coast from a one-woman enterprise to one that in three years time employed 22 employees in four locations and generated sales that peaked at $1.6 million annually.

Getting support to start this business was pivotal for me. Not only did it help my success in Coast to Coast, it made it clear to me that entrepreneurs and leaders need nurturing and support. This concept later became the foundation for my work at RAINMAKER Consulting.

While I enjoyed working in the for-profit sector, my heart was in the non-profit volunteerism that I was doing with RESULTS, an international citizen's organization dedicated to eradicating the worst aspects of poverty. I sold the assets of Coast to Coast and began working for RESULTS. As its grassroots fundraising director and director of development, I trained, managed and coached volunteer leaders for more than 40 fundraising events each year and created systems to cultivate and care for donors generated from these events. This resulted in some important fundraising firsts for the organization: they had their most successful single event, raising $135,000, and obtained their first million-dollar pledge.

Since then I have raised millions of dollars and helped create similar fundraising breakthroughs in a number of organizations, including The Care Center, the National Priorities Project and the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts. In all cases, fundraising events I supported raised 3 to 4 times more money than prior fundraising activities.

I have served on the boards of directors of both local and national organizations, including Women in Philanthropy and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. I have served on the board of directors of both local and national organizations, including Women in Philanthropy, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and the National Priorities Project. I have experience speaking to groups small and large —— from 10 to 400 —— on such issues as fundraising, board development and new paradigms for utilizing philanthropy as an empowering, intentional tool for social change.

Additionally, I was trained in January 2007 by former Vice President Al Gore as a Climate Project Presenter. The Climate Project is a non-profit organization with the mission of increasing public awareness of the climate crisis at a grassroots level throughout the United States and abroad. The Climate Project has trained volunteers to present a slide show on which the Academy Award-winning film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is based. The heart of The Climate Project lies in the commitment, dedication, and passion of its presenters to educate, encourage, and increase dialogue about the climate crisis and its solutions.