Garry, Former Director of GLAAD, Provides Strategic Advice & Coaches Nonprofit CEOs and Board Chairs
New Senior Associate Seth Rosen Will Expand Firm’s Footprint to Development Directors
NEW YORK – Nonprofit consultant Joan Garry announced this morning an expansion of strategic advisory services at Joan Garry Consulting:
- Garry has hired accomplished development director Seth Rosen to join her team as a senior associate, marking her first senior staff hire and the firm’s expansion to support and provide strategic advice to development/fundraising directors.
- Garry also introduced two new online services on her blog JoanGarry.com. The Couch, a new online tool which allows nonprofit leaders a new platform to anonymously “rant, cheer and vent” about their problems and their successes..1-on-1 with Joan allows prospective those who need a direct and confidential level of engagement with Joan about a current challenge they’re facing to schedule inexpensive, 50-minute videoconference sessions with Garry.
“Increasingly, successful not-for-profit CEOs, Executive Directors, Board Chairs and Development Directors are looking for strategic advice and support to enable them to better lead their organizations more effectively,” said Joan Garry, principal of Joan Garry Consulting. “But nonprofits are hardwired to be messy, creating unique leadership challenges for even the most capable professionals. Having been every one of my clients — a nonprofit ED, a board member, etc. – I help leaders use that “mess” to their organization’s great advantage. And I started my blog, and now The Couch, because there simply weren’t enough authentic, practical and funny resources for everyday nonprofit leaders to turn to for support.”
Garry has been consulting with leaders throughout the nonprofit sector since leaving her post at GLAAD — where she served for nearly a decade — in 2005. She launched her blog 18 months ago and is now read by thousands of nonprofit leaders every week.
“When I served on the board of an NYC nonprofit, I suggested that Joan be brought in to help that organization build a more effective management team. That was a home run,” said Kevin Jennings, Executive Director of the Arcus Foundation, which last year launched a major capacity-building initiative to provide grantees the ability to retain strategic consultants. “Today at Arcus, Joan’s blog is a go-to for me and my staff and for every single grantee we have. I often find myself sending links to her blog to ED’s struggling with the challenges of nonprofit management — it may be the single most practical resource for ED’s I have ever seen.”
“After spending over a decade for nonprofits, I know firsthand that there is a real thirst for strategic advice and coaching among nonprofit leaders who want to conquer the challenges in front of them,” said newly hired Senior Associate Seth Rosen. “That’s why I couldn’t be more thrilled to join Joan’s team and begin working with development directors around the country. Just like EDs and board chairs, development directors are critical to ensuring organizational success.”
“What impresses me about Seth and Joan’s business model is that it mirrors my own philosophy of generosity,” said philanthropist/nonprofit expert Jeffrey C. Walker, author of The Generosity Network and a longtime advocate for the professionalization of the nonprofit sector. “It’s not about asking for help. It’s about exploring how all of us can work together in pursuit of a common vision using the unique resources we each have to offer. And it’s about understanding that true generosity is rooted in relatedness. This is what Seth has always understood as a development professional. Clients can benefit greatly from Seth and Joan’s expertise, and the passion and joy they feel about meeting our society’s most difficult challenges.”
Teresa Younger, the new ED of the Ms. Foundation for Women, one of the nation’s leading feminist organizations, had this to say about why she has hired Joan: “Running the Ms. Foundation for Women is my dream job – it’s like making the finals at Wimbledon. Would Billie Jean King have ever walked onto that grass court without a strategic coach by her side? Why would I walk solo? I plan to succeed fabulously and several women I trusted pointed me to Joan. She has sat in every seat at the conference table – board, CEO, donor, fundraiser – and has begun working with me with intelligence, humor, authenticity and a deep commitment to both my personal success and that of the success of the Ms. Foundation.”
To learn more about Joan Garry Consulting’s services, visit her blog at www.joangarry.com
About Joan Garry
For nearly a decade, Joan Garry served as the Executive Director of GLAAD, one of the largest gay rights organizations in the country, where she launched many successful media campaigns, including GLAAD’s successful campaign to lobby the New York Times to include same sex wedding announcements in its Style section. She later served as co-chair of Barack Obama’s LGBT Finance Committee during his 2008 presidential campaign. Today she works with nonprofit leaders, assisting executive directors, CEOs and Board Chairs with crisis management, executive coaching and the building of strong management teams. She also teaches nonprofit media strategy as an Adjunct Professor at the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. Her nonprofit work followed 14 years in executive positions in corporate entertainment, including as a member of the management team that launched MTV in 1981.
About Seth Rosen
Seth is a seasoned nonprofit executive with over ten years of experience raising significant funds for a variety of domestic and international nonprofit organizations. Most recently, Seth served as Managing Director of Development, Communications and Marketing at Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the world’s first HIV/AIDS organization. Before that he was the Assistant Vice President of Development at New York Law School where he oversaw all aspects of the Law School’s fundraising activities, including the management of the Law School’s $100 million endowment campaign. Seth also served as the first Director of Development of two sister organizations, Millennium Promise and Malaria No More, and was the Director of Major Gifts at Amnesty International USA and Manager of Fundraising for International Direct Service Programs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
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