Kay Sprinkel Grace, CFRE, is a San Francisco-based organizational consultant, providing workshops and consultation to local, regional, national and international organizations in strategic development planning, case and board development, staff development, and other issues related to leadership of the fund raising process. Recent clients (2008 – 2011) include: KQED; KOCE; Music in the Mountains; Family Violence Prevention Fund; San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center; Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; Dixie Regional Medical Center, Utah; Piper Trust, Arizona; Goodwill of San Francisco/Marin/San Mateo; Catalina Island Land Trust; Loma Linda University and Medical Center; Fresno State University; Cal State East Bay; Ventura College Foundation; Mendocino College Foundation; Petaluma Education Fund. From March 2004 to June 2007 she was principal external consultant to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Major Giving Initiative. 110 public television licensees participated in the program.
Her B.A. (Communications-Journalism) and M.A. (Education) are from Stanford University, where she served as the first woman Volunteer Chair of the Stanford Fund. She has received Stanford’s highest award for volunteer service, the Gold Spike, as well as their Associates’ Award, Outstanding Achievement Award, two Awards of Merit, and the Centennial Medal.
She speaks frequently at regional, national and international conferences including CASE, AFP, AHP and DMA. In recent years she was a featured presenter at the Fundraising Institute Australia, the Swedish Fundraising Council and the International Fund Raising Conference in The Netherlands. In 2007 she organized and co-presented the first seminar on philanthropy for NGOs in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. In 2008 she presented at a fundraising conference in Moscow, and in 2008 and 2009 she participated in the International Fundraising Festival in Prague and will again in 2011. In 2010 she delivered sessions at professional conferences including AFP Mid-America, Santa Barbara, Southern Colorado and Silicon Valley; Utah Society of Fund Raisers, Wyoming Philanthropy Days, Mid-Valley (Oregon) Professionals, NACHRI, NAYDO, CCEF and CEN.
She is the author of six books, all available through “Books” on her web site, www.kaygrace.org: Beyond Fund Raising: New Strategies for Nonprofit Innovation and Investment (John P. Wiley, 1997; second edition, 2005); High Impact Philanthropy: How Donors, Boards, and Nonprofit Organizations Can Transform Communities, co-author, with the late Alan Wendroff (John P. Wiley, 2001); Over Goal! What You Must Know to Excel at Fundraising Today (Emerson & Church, 2003 and 2006); The Ultimate Board Member’s Book (Emerson & Church, 2003 and 2008); Fundraising Mistakes That Bedevil All Boards (Emerson & Church, 2004 and 2008); The AAA Way to Fundraising Success (Whit Press, 2009); and co-author of the booklet, The Nonprofit Board’s Role in Mission, Planning and Evaluation (Board Source, 2008). She has contributed chapters to several books including the first two editions of Achieving Excellence in Fund Raising by Henry A. Rosso and Associates (Jossey Bass, 1987 and 2003), Taking Fund Raising Seriously, Taking Trusteeship Seriously and, to be released in May 2010, Nonprofit Management 101, edited by Darian Heyman.
She serves on the Advisory Board of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University, and on the board of Philharmonia Baroque. She previously served on the boards of the Djerassi Resident Artist Program (Woodside, CA), the Women’s Philanthropy Institute, the Alliance of Artists Communities and the Advisory Board for the University of San Francisco Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management. She lives in San Francisco and is passionate about philanthropy, writing, travel and her photography.