MEET KAREN
MEET KAREN
Karen Ancillai is a consultant based in Washington, DC, providing strategic advice and fundraising support to non-profit organizations. In her 20 years of professional experience, she has doubled fundraising productivity for programs she led at two institutions. She is also an expert in the operations that support fundraising, having led board and donor relations, prospect research, grants administration, events and stewardship, for a fundraising shop raising $70 million annually. She is known for facilitating collaborative partnerships across institutions to promote broader understanding about raising money, and the robust systems necessary to support it.
A SEASONED PROFESSIONALFrom 2011-2017, Ms. Ancillai was a Senior Director in Philanthropic Partnerships at The Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, DC. Her accomplishments include directing comprehensive planning projects and securing board approval for two consecutive multi-year strategic plans for fundraising; designing the organizational structure and recruiting, hiring, and training staff to increase capacity for fundraising by 260% over six years; and stewarding the growth of Pew’s donor-advised fund portfolio by 200%. She was responsible for developing quarterly updates to the board of directors, and was part of the senior team responsible for planning the board's annual trips to see the institution's work in the field and engage with the donors supporting it.
Previously, Ms. Ancillai spent eight years in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations at the School of Business at The George Washington University in progressively more senior roles, culminating with Executive Director. She redesigned the board of advisors following the completion of capital campaign, to provide the dean with new leadership to support the human capital needs of the institution, and created the first-ever advisory board to the real estate research center, resulting in a 36% increase in revenue. She also identified, cultivated, solicited, and stewarded donors for gifts to create five new endowed scholarships and 14 new term scholarships. |
A PROVEN TRACK RECORDMs. Ancillai’s first position in development was at the Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, where she developed training for major donors responsible for conducting peer-to-peer solicitations for the university’s $200 million campaign, and wrote and edited for the award-winning Northeastern Law magazine.
Ms. Ancillai began her professional career as an account executive at the advertising and public relations firm Allied Advertising (now Allied Integrated Marketing) in Washington, DC, and worked briefly as a journalist. Ms. Ancillai holds a BA in political communication with a journalism minor from The George Washington University, and a MEd from Northeastern University. She is the chairman of the board of directors at Money Management International, a nonprofit, full-service credit counseling agency based in Sugar Land, Texas. Ancillai Solutions LLC is registered with the U.S. Federal government's System for Award Management (SAM) and eligible to do business with the Federal government. |