News

Creative Fundraising Advisors (CFA) is pleased to announce the promotion of Joanne Curry to Head of Client Success and Principal. Since joining CFA in 2021, she has served as Vice President of Client Success by providing strategic fundraising counsel and building sustained relationships with CFA’s nonprofit client partners. 

“Joanne has helped shape our campaign consulting practice and build a team around delivering best-in-class strategy and solutions throughout the client journey,” states Founder and President Paul Johnson. “I am thrilled to recognize her for being a fearless leader and charting a path to help CFA realize this bold vision.” 

At CFA, Joanne has participated in more than 25 campaign counsel and fundraising consulting projects, including engagements with the Entertainment Community Fund, Friends of the Mississippi River, Headlands Center for the Arts, North Carolina Museum of Art, National Black Theatre, Triangle Land Conservancy, and United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.

Rev. Dr. Cindi Beth Johnson, Vice President for Advancement at United Theological Seminary, notes that, “Joanne’s work has been instrumental to the success of United Seminary’s Comprehensive Campaign. She has been a trusted advisor, careful listener, and a creative thinker. Her expertise, organization, and thoughtful approach to our comprehensive campaign has made our work successful and meaningful.”

In her new role, Joanne will lead CFA’s Client Success team, ensuring that all aspects of CFA’s client partnerships are grounded in the company’s core values of collaboration, transparency, integrity, creativity, and change. Joanne will continue to provide CFA’s clients with counsel on campaign planning and management, prospect development and strategy, and fundraising programs. She will serve as an accountability partner for clients, grounded in her expertise in mentoring development staff and team leadership coaching.

Joanne states, “I am thrilled to step into this new role at CFA. With our values at the forefront, I am excited to lead our Client Success team in delivering impactful strategies. Together, we will continue nurturing relationships and driving positive change through effective fundraising.” 

Joanne began her nonprofit career as Director of Operations and Rehearsal Assistant for two contemporary ballet companies in Missouri, Missouri Contemporary Ballet and Owen/Cox Dance Group, where she managed operations for fundraising and donor management, communications and marketing, and performance and educational outreach programs. She then went on to work as a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor Accountant with Support Kansas City, providing accounting services and training to nonprofits throughout Kansas City.

Before joining CFA, Joanne served as Head of Revenue and Interim Head of Development at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, where she oversaw strategy for earned revenue and development. At the McNay, Joanne was responsible for the database, membership, special events, visitor services, and museum store. Additionally, she launched a monthly membership program and developed and implemented a prospect management system.

A native of Port Jefferson, New York, Joanne holds a BFA in Ballet Performance and Teaching from the University of Utah. She currently resides in New Jersey with her husband and rescue dog.

Creative Fundraising Advisors (CFA) is pleased to announce the promotion of Jake Muszynski to Principal. He has served as Vice President with CFA for the past four years, providing strategic fundraising counsel to help nonprofit organizations achieve their vision.

“Jake is key to Creative Fundraising Advisors’ commitment to provide comprehensive solutions to arts, education, human service, and environmental nonprofit clients,” said Paul Johnson, President of CFA. “He lends considerable expertise to development assessments, campaign feasibility studies, and campaign counsel.”

Since joining CFA in 2018, Muszynski has headed more than 20 projects throughout the country, including multi-year engagements with Dodge Nature Center, New Mexico School for the Arts, Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota, Grief Club of Minnesota, and School for Advanced Research, among others. In partnership with his clients, he has helped raise more than $50 million dollars in support.

In his time at CFA, Muszynski also has led more than a dozen clients through CFA’s campaign feasibility study process, testing over $150 million in potential campaigns. He is currently managing campaigns totaling $125 million.

“From board development to feasibility study to campaign kickoff and implementation, Jake has been a proven and resourceful development professional,” says Jason Sanders, executive director of Dodge Nature Center and Preschool. “He has developed and applied new techniques to tackle complex fundraising challenges during our campaign to position us for a strong finish. Jake is a true leader who you can trust with your most important information.”

Muszynski began his career in higher education, serving as a major gifts officer at the University of Northern Iowa. He moved to the University of Minnesota where he led fundraising efforts for the Arts Quarter of the College of Liberal Arts, representing the School of Music, Department of Art, and Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. During his tenure, the School of Music had two of its largest fundraising years on record. He also launched the first-ever comprehensive campaign for the University’s marching band, including a crowdfunding campaign following the band’s performance in the Super Bowl LII (2018) Halftime Show. 

“I deeply appreciate Jake’s creative approaches to our clients’ unique needs,” said Johnson. “He understands both the art and science of fundraising. He listens to what our clients want and need and adds data-driven decision-making to make wise choices.”

A native of Perham, Minnesota, Muszynski holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from Concordia College. He and his wife have two children and share a love of folk and jazz music. He sings and plays bass.

“I am delighted to assume the role of Principal play a role in the future of Creative Fundraising Advisors and in our clients’ success,” Muszynski said. “I am passionate about helping organizations inspire giving and developing the systems and approaches to lead and sustain change.”

(Saint Paul, MINN) — Creative Fundraising Advisors (CFA), a national strategic fundraising firm based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is expanding its staff to include Principal Tony Grundhauser, who brings more than 25 years of fundraising experience to CFA’s practice, and Creative Services Director Sara Johnson, who most recently served as Vice President Creative Director at KNOCK.

“We are so pleased to have Tony and Sara as members of our growing team,” said CFA President Paul Johnson. “They, like the rest of our group, believe in the power of nonprofit organizations to transform the world. People of the caliber of Tony and Sara, who are at the peak of their careers, add considerable strength to CFA’s bench and will be a major asset for our clients. Their addition helps us truly be a full-service consulting firm.”

About Tony Grundhauser

Most recently, Grundhauser was the executive director for the Minnesota Zoo Foundation. There, he led the foundation to its best fundraising year in history, doubling results from prior years. Under his leadership, the Zoo improved its annual fundraising performance, raised its largest gift in history, and launched the ambitious “Step Into Nature” capital campaign. Tony is passionate about the outdoors and started his career as the first campaign director for the Minnesota Environmental Fund where he increased the number of workplaces conducting campaigns on behalf of environmental organizations. From there, he moved to The Nature Conservancy’s Minnesota Chapter where he built a 30-member Corporate Council and helped shape its $15 million Campaign for Conservation. He rose rapidly through the ranks at TNC and ultimately was promoted to director and senior manager to lead the Conservancy’s work in Canada. From 2003 to 2006, he co-led an international campaign that raised $60 million to secure the permanent protection of more than 5 million acres in British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest.

After several years of intense travel, Grundhauser settled back in the Twin Cities to work in higher education, first as director of individual gifts at Macalester College and then for eight years as vice president for institutional advancement at Hamline University. Tony was recognized for his leadership at Hamline when he was nominated and accepted to the prestigious Harvard University Institute for Educational Management.

In his new position with CFA, Grundhauser has immediately applied his considerable experience working with environmental nonprofits to help launch Dodge Nature Center’s $40 million “Nourishing Everyone’s Need for Nature” campaign and leading CFA’s work with the Friends of the Mississippi River. He is also a part of the leadership team working with The Actors Fund in New York and Los Angeles on a proposed national campaign.

About Sara Johnson

Johnson has brought purpose, intention, and truth to visual storytelling and brand communications for clients around the world. Her core disciplines include design and creative direction for print, video, websites, and social content creation. She has more than 20 years of experience in the creative space, having worked as a graphic designer for Target Corp and then as the vice president creative director at KNOCK, one of the top branding and design agencies in the region.

At Creative Fundraising Advisors, Sara provides branding consultation, designs visual assets, and counsels clients on the creative direction of their campaigns.

“Having a Creative Services Director is unusual for a fundraising firm, but storytelling and design play an integral and vital part in the success of fundraising,” said Johnson. “Sara brings a level of excellence to our firm that will help our clients share their mission and vision with excitement, impact and effectiveness.”

About Creative Fundraising Advisors

Creative Fundraising Advisors is a full-service consulting firm dedicated to transformational fundraising counsel and implementation. The firm prides itself on developing and applying new techniques to tackle complex fundraising challenges. CFA’s services include campaign counsel, development assessment, strategic planning, annual giving, creative services and data analytics.

CFA’s clients include Dodge Nature Center (Saint Paul, MN), Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (Los Angeles, CA), The Gabriella Foundation (Los Angeles), Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, WI), Portland Museum of Art (Portland, ME), The McNay Art Museum (San Antonio, TX), St. John’s College (Annapolis, MD/Santa Fe, NM), The School for Advanced Research (Santa Fe, NM), The New Mexico School for the Arts (Santa Fe, NM), Northside Achievement Zone (Minneapolis MN), The Actors Fund (New York), Philadelphia Contemporary Art (Philadelphia, PA), Liberty Community Church (Minneapolis) among many others.

Creative Fundraising Advisors was founded in 2015 and has grown rapidly; in partnership with its nonprofit clients, CFA has raised more than $1 billion in the past five years. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic took our country by storm in spring 2020, most of our clients were thrown into a world of the unknown. How do we continue to raise money in a pandemic? What do we say to donors? Do we cancel events? What can we do online?

Those were just a few of the questions that Creative Fundraising Advisors began to tackle. Our firm does its best to stay on top of trends and issues and to share our knowledge freely with our clients. We spent hours listening, discussing, reading and watching to better understand the situation at hand and ahead.

We met quickly with current and pro bono clients to help individuals and organizations make plans and to adhere to long-held and emerging best practices.

A few weeks into our country’s quarantine due to COVID-19, we partnered with two other fundraising consultants to create a helpful webinar and platform for discussion. Five client partners presented their plans and took questions in a webinar that has now been viewed by thousands. Our goal was to help provide direction to manage through the next few months. Watch the webinar here.

We also partnered with the strategic planning and communications firm of Parenteau Graves to conduct a webinar training and discussion for Artspace’s Immersion Cohort. Again, the goal was to help individuals and small arts organizations develop best practices for donor relations in the time of a pandemic.

As our clients emerge from quarantine and begin to make plans to re-open — with uncertainty still a guarantee — and as our country grapples with oppressive, system racism, we are committed to working in partnership, to sharing what we know and to listening to one another.

The disorienting effect of COVID-19 has illuminated the healing role the arts play in our mental and emotional lives and inspired a new awareness amongst major donors.

In a post-coronavirus milieu, arts nonprofits have an opportunity to reassert their relevance to our individual resiliency and societal cohesion.

How have you seen the healing effect of art, in your own life or in your organization? Can you articulate those feelings into a clear statement?

These questions are more important now than ever.  In this compelling article from Inside Philanthropy, Mike Scutari illustrates how arts and arts education nonprofits are increasingly able to make the case for their status as a societal necessity, and not a luxury.

In the wake of COVID-19 a number of major gift donors have dedicated themselves to bolstering the arts and cultural institutions . In New York, a range of funders including Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Ford Foundation pledged to contribute to the $75 million NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund  intended for cultural and social services.

As recently as March 20, 2020, the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund joined the group as well. Tisch, a former co-chair of the Whitney Museum’s board of trustees — among other prestigious positions — has been a major donor in arts and arts education for over a decade.

Her recent move to contribute to a struggling arts sector during the international pandemic is symptomatic of a larger phenomenon — major donors are seeing the healing and stimulating value of arts and cultural institutions during times of crisis.

It’s important for art, art education, and cultural nonprofits to reflect on the ways their value is, in fact, tangible — and be able to express that in clear language to the public, the donor base, and future potential benefactors.

Never-Miss Fundraising Steps to Donor Fulfillment

Have you ever had the sinking feeling that you could have done more to thank a donor and share with them the impact of their gift? Do you ever get to your internal deadline—the end of year or the public phase of a major campaign—and wonder why you haven’t heard from a tried-and-true donor?

If a donor disappeared, maybe it’s because you haven’t made stewardship a priority in your weekly tasks. It’s understandable. Your development shop is busy and there’s always that goal to reach. Plus, it’s not like donors go away mad. They simply go away.

Today’s donors are more savvy philanthropists and they want to make a difference. So, when you begin to “expect” regular gifts without investing in the relationship, some of your donors may move you down their charitable giving priority list.

Being lackadaisical about what a donor thinks, wants and needs can especially backfire if your organization has a crisis — your mission is called under question or your Board Chair makes a public misstep. And let’s face it, it smarts when you see a donor stretch to make a sizeable gift to another local organization. It could have been your organization getting that big gift instead!

Follow Your Heart but Use Your Head

You’re probably not in this business because the job selling real estate wasn’t available. Development and Advancement professionals are salespeople: we “sell” mission and passion for changing the world for good.

Here are a few never-miss steps to jumpstart your stewardship efforts:

1. Set time aside in your week for stewardship tasks. Make stewardship as active a part of your workweek as donor research and annual fund mailings.
2. Host a thank you event, and resist the pull to ask for more support.
3. Lift donors up as examples. Profile giving in your newsletters and annual reports.
4. Thank your donors via social media. Add a space on your donor forms to collect social media handles for platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn.
5. Pen a personal thank you note.
6. Use the phone and visit! Make time for human interaction. What’s their life perspective, how’s their family, what are their hopes and dreams as a benefactor? Don’t miss a career change or big event in someone’s life because you are overly-focused on meeting your deadline.
7. Use your calendar and other tools to monitor interactions and remind you when it’s time for you, your director or a Board member to reach out.
8. Recognize generosity through print, online, signage and at events. Get creative. Perhaps you can monitor how many years they have been giving and remind them how thankful you are for their impact over time.
9. Say thanks again. Let them know their philanthropy makes a difference in the world. And, if you missed the first opportunity to say it, know it’s never too late to say “thank you.”

The gift is the beginning. Not the end.

Your job is donor fulfillment. After all, you connect donors with their dreams.

Donors invest where they see impact. You can leave a bad taste in the mouth, or even money on the table, when you don’t invest time back in your donors.

So, what’s the wait? Get started today. You’ll be glad you invested in stewardship this time next year.