Kel is a NYC & Maine-based fundraising trainer, coach, and speaker. She’s also a Senior Consultant at Donorly. During 18+ years in the non-profit sector, she’s personally made over 20,000 fundraising Asks and trained non-profit organizations to raise over $16M (primarily in donations under $2K), which inspired her 5-Minute Fundraising Ask Training Program.

Kel’s work boils down to “Taking the Ick out of the Ask” ©. She’s passionate about shifting fundraising conversations away from transactional encounters and toward relationship-building opportunities.

She spent 20 years as a theater director, and her fundraising methodology is based on how she led a rehearsal room: focusing on what makes each of us unique and engaging. She empowers non-profit administrators, leadership, board members, and artists with the knowledge that they already possess the most critical tools needed to be skilled fundraisers: empathy, candor, vulnerability, enthusiasm, and storytelling.

Kel has worked with such organizations as: MCC Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Signature Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Glimmerglass Festival, Berkshire Theatre Group, Marin Theatre Company, BroadwayUnlocked, American Composers Forum, and RIP Medical Debt.

When she’s not training clients on how to “take the ick of the ask,” you’ll find Kel seeking out all kinds of artistic experiences, taking nature walks with her rescue pup, playing extremely intricate board games, and attempting to recreate the fabulous meals she & her husband (Michael Grew - actor/grant strategist), have enjoyed on their various travels.