“Giving Back” a Theme with New AFP Board Members

AFP’s Southeastern Wisconsin chapter welcomes four new members to its Board of Directors.  Despite very different career paths, they all share enthusiasm for the chance to contribute to the chapter’s success.

For Lindsay Just of the Addiction Resource Council, AFP board service is a way to give back for the organization’s influence on her career. When her job was expanded to include grant writing, AFP member Julie Whelan Capell took her under her wing and urged her to join the AFP Grant Writing special interest group.  Lindsay continued learning through AFP, by earning a scholarship to the International Conference and subsequently taking the UW Parkside class on fundraising offered via AFP (former AFP President Amalia Schoone was one of her instructors).  With all that exposure to the education available through AFP, Lindsay will be a natural as the chapter’s VP of Education.

The Girls Scouts’ Shavonn Montgomery Brown began her AFP membership in 1994, when she was just starting her career in fundraising.  She fell away after a few years, but rejoined at the suggestion of member Michelle Fobair.  Like Lindsay Just, she earned an AFP scholarship, which got her “more excited to be part of both the organization and the profession.”  She also sees AFP board service as a way of giving back – which she’ll now do as chair of the Scholarship Committee.

Mike Thirtle spent most of his career in consulting (PricewaterhouseCoopers and RAND Corporation in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles) but, as president and CEO of Bethesda Lutheran Communities, he has jumped into fundraising (and AFP) with both feet.  He attended the International Conference last year, is working on his CFRE, and will chair the National Philanthropy Day committee this year.  Mike is originally from Milwaukee, but has lived in many parts of the country and is looking forward to AFP’s strong networking opportunities here in Wisconsin.

Elizabeth O’Hara found AFP as a college senior, when she was asked to research and prepare a report on career-advancing organizations.  When her college internship at Schools That Can turned into a development job, she remembered the connection and became a member.  Now a major gifts officer at alma mater Alverno College, Elizabeth will leverage her experience in AFP’s Development Professionals Group as an AFP at-large board member.

*Pictured in the photo from left to right - Elizabeth, Shavonn, Lindsay, and Mike.