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Fundraising Campaign Consultants Serving New York City

Organizational Design, Board Building, and Capital Campaigns

Our mission is to fund yours. We provide management and fundraising counsel to visionary leaders of the nonprofit sector. We enrich New York City charities with vast experience, steady counsel, and innovative thinking around organizational design, board development, and fundraising.

ARTS & CULTURE

Board Building to Capital Campaigns

Arts and Culture Tess O’Dwyer

We build powerful and effective museum boards. We create organizational designs for nonprofit founders. We spearhead winning capital campaigns for iconic New York City buildings. We advise global cultural powerhouses such as The Africa Center, Aperture Foundation, Museum of Arts and Design, National Academy of Design, and Whitney Museum of American Art. We advise the country’s finest performing arts companies, such as American Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music@Lincoln Center, Film@Lincoln Center, Jazz@Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, and New York City Opera. We champion free expression by fundraising for Academy of American Poets, Authors Guild Foundation, PEN, and WNYC Public Radio.

EDUCATION

Strategic Plans to Endowments

Education Tess O’Dwyer

We empower educators with a wealth of fundraising knowledge. New York City charter schools (K-8), private and public high schools, and research universities reap the benefits of our fundraising counsel. We advise STEM schools for the mathematically gifted, an art center for children with disabilities, and a design center that teaches public school students living in poverty how to improve their environments and their lives. We work with leaders of Catholic education as well as the preeminent university of Jewish values. Our roster includes Brilla College Prep, Bronx Science, Educando, Maria Regina, Neighborhood Studios, Publicolor, Seton Education, and Yeshiva University.

HUMAN SERVICES

Gala Benefits to Legacy Campaigns

Human Services Tess O’Dwyer

The largest human services organizations in New York State count on our board building and capital campaign services. Catholic Charities, Food Bank for New York City, Graham Windham, and Urban Pathways tackle the toughest and most complex social issues. Their work spans foster care and adoption, elderly care, food insecurity, homelessness, mental health, and immigration. Our fundraising consultants provide them with board training, strategic plans, feasibility studies, fundraising plans, and capital campaign direction. Our dedication to our clients is matched only by their dedication to the New Yorkers they serve with dignity and compassion, day in, day out.

WE ENRICH CHARITIES

Let our planning and development team position your organization for transformational growth. We offer a full suite of institutional development services, from strategic planning and fundraising direction to database analytics and prospect research.

PLANNING AND FUNDRAISING

Your mission is ours to advance. Our planning and development team will help to create a positive and powerful culture of philanthropy that drives your success.

•  Fundraising Counsel
•  Capital Campaigns
•  Strategic Plans
•  Turnarounds
•  Feasibility Studies
•  Board Building
•  Donor Councils
•  Major Gift Strategies
•  Solicitation Workshops
•  Corporate Sponsorship
•  Foundation Grants
•  Patrons Programs
•  Membership
•  Annual Fund
•  Special Events
•  Interim Direction

PROSPECT RESEARCH

Our prospect researchers conduct database wealth scans and create major donor profiles using premium tech resources, including:

•  CorpTech
•  Donorscape
•  Dun & Bradstreet
•  EDGAR
•  Hoover’s Business
•  Larkspur
•  Lexis-Nexis
•  Marquis Who’s Who
•  RealQuest
•  Reuters Market Guide
•  VeriGift by iWave

NYC FUNDRAISING CONSULTANTS

Arts and Culture, Education, and Human Services

20+ Yrs.

Of Experience

$1+ Billion

In Campaign Fundraising

1st Choice

For New York Nonprofits

OUR CLIENTS LEAD THE WAY

We are grateful for the opportunity to advance the mission of these exceptional nonprofit organizations that improve the world in miraculous ways. 

•  The Africa Center
•  Aid for AIDS International
•  American Symphony Orchestra
•  Aperture Foundation
•  Authors Guild Foundation
•  Brilla College Prep
•  Bronx High School of Science
•  Catholic Charities
•  Chamber Music@Lincoln Center
•  Educando (World Fund)
•  Film@Lincoln Center
•  Food Bank for NYC
•  Graham Windham

•  Jazz@Lincoln Center
•  Jazz Foundation of America
•  Maria Regina High School
•  Museum of Arts and Design
•  National Academy of Design
•  New York City Opera
•  Publicolor
•  Seton Education Partners
•  Symphony Space
•  Urban Pathways
•  Whitney Museum of American Art
•  WNYC Public Radio
•  Yeshiva University

Our capital campaign projects to fund the development and revitalization of iconic New York City buildings, include:

•  The Africa Center
•  Alice Tully Hall
•  Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center
•  Frederick P. Rose Hall
•  Jerome L. Green Performance Space
•  Leonard A. Lauder Building
•  Symphony Space

HARNESSING THE POWER OF PHILANTHROPY

Tess O’Dwyer is a fundraising consultant and turnaround expert who has transformed countless charities in New York City. She specializes in institutional design, board building, and capital campaigns for art museums, cultural centers, schools, universities, and human services organizations.

Fundraising Campaign Consultant Manhattan, NY, Tess O'Dwyer

Prior to her consultancy, Tess served as Vice President for Cultural Affairs and Development at the Americas Society and Council of the Americas, Director of Development at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Associate Director of Major and Individual Gifts at Lincoln Center. She has produced international cultural festivals, directed successful capital campaigns, and created record-breaking gala benefits. Her fundraising operations ranked Top 10 in a survey of 200+ museums by the Association of American Art Museum Directors. Her events ranked 1st in net revenue and Top 10 in style by Bizbash. She has provided fundraising commentary to The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Grant Writing, Bloomberg News, and The New York Times.

Tess is the Board Chair of the Academy of American Poets. She has served on the boards of the Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard University, Evergreen Review, Garden State Film Festival, and PEN America. With a Masters in English from Rutgers University, she won the Columbia University Translation Center Award. Her books in translation include the social realist novel Martin Rivas (Oxford) by Alberto Blest Gana and the postmodern classics Empire of Dreams (Yale) and Yo-Yo Boing! (AmazonCrossing) by Giannina Braschi. Tess co-edited Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas (Routledge) and Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi (Pittsburgh).  She is an avid collector of contemporary art and design.

NONPROFIT BOARD RESOURCES

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