Faculty

Michael F. Allyn

Experience & Skills: Mike is an independent contractor focusing on prospect development and grant writing. Mike combines 20 years of executive management experience with 14 years of fundraising to help clients develop strategies for increased grant funding. Mike has worked with organizations of all sizes, with a proven record of success. He has authored over 400 grants, resulting in more than $8 million in funding from both public and private sources. Mike is skilled at program analysis, budget development, outcomes establishment, and database research.

Clients: Mike has written successful grants for organizations with missions in education, disability, youth, visual and performing arts, workforce development, cultural heritage, seniors and health. Sacramento area clients include: Elica Health Centers, Society for the Blind; St. John’s Program for Real Change, Meristem, United Cerebral Palsy of Sacramento and Northern California; Touch of Understanding; and California Homebuilders Foundation. Bay Area clients include Lighthouse for the Blind and Jewish Community Foundation of San Francisco.

Services: Mike’s aim is to help organizations re-align their existing fundraising strategies, identify new sources of grant funding, and improve success with current funders. He specializes in helping non-profits express their mission, position their organizations for funding success, and demonstrate their value, impact and sustainability to prospective funders. Likely projects include: funder searches, organizational positioning to maximize grant funding, prospective grant assessment, and grant writing to private foundations, as well as corporate and government sources. Mike can also assist newer organizations to determine their readiness to pursue grants.

Fees: Mike is conscious of the limited resources of non-profit organizations to seek grant funding and works to help clients balance grant seeking expenses with potential funding success. His services are provided on an hourly or project basis. Mike welcomes interested organizations to contact him for an introductory telephone consultation at no charge.

Sally H. Coates Consulting

Sally Coates

Sally has over 30 years of both professional and volunteer nonprofit experience.  Her three Executive Director positions have been with the Court Appointed Special Advocate Program in San Francisco, Episcopal Charities of the Diocese of California and the San Francisco Bay Area affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Sally currently serves on the boards of the Episcopal Senior Communities Foundation and Friends of Child Advocates of Placer County.  Highlights of her volunteer experience include President of the Junior League of San Francisco (1995-96), as Chair of the Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind (2002-04) and as Chair of Episcopal Community Services of America (2006-2009).

Professionally she is on the faculty of the Impact Foundry teaching courses in non-profit organizational development and finance. She also is an operating partner in a family-owned company, Crystal Bay Solutions that consults on and develops integrated software solutions for a wide range of non-profit workflow management challenges.

She has used her professional and volunteer experiences to start her own non-profit consulting company mentoring and coaching non-profit executives and boards as well as consulting on strategic planning, organizational development and team alignment and productivity improvement.

Sally and her husband Cullen live in Lincoln, CA and have two grown children, Elizabeth Coates James, and Alexander Cullen Coates.

Sue Fry

“In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact.” Les Brown

Sue Fry is fiercely committed to guiding executive women to command the respect they deserve; so they can become the powerful leaders they are meant to be, enjoy successful careers and personal lives, and provide examples of what is possible.

Sue Fry is a proven professional who can get you on your path to your most fulfilling life and career. With over 24 years of experience in public-sector positions including 12 years of managing some of the most controversial water issues in the West and stints at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, Sue has learned tools and techniques to navigate the often chaotic work world and create balance in life.

Sue is energized by the ability to make a difference every minute of every day. Sue’s experience sets her apart from other executive coaches. She is skilled at navigating the waters of a highly political executive career. She has experienced this challenge first hand and turned it around to create an enjoyable and supportive workplace and personal life.

Sue is a Certified Co-active Professional Coach with the Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, California and an Associate Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation. Additionally, she is a certified personal trainer and enjoys outdoor activities including mountain and road cycling, cross-country and downhill skiing, and hiking.

Murphy Austin Adams Schoenfeld LLP

Scott E. Galbreath

Scott E. Galbreath leads the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice Team at Murphy Austin but also practices in the tax exempt organization area.  He has more than 30 years of experience in the tax-exempt organization area, including establishing nonprofit corporations and obtaining recognition of exempt status; advising on unrelated business income tax, private foundation status, commercial co-ventures, and private inurement.

Team Giving

Trudy Harris

Team Giving inspires, guides and advocates for local non-profits

by matching them with volunteers to complete volunteer projects.  Our innovative approach addresses vital community needs while building partnerships between businesses, individuals, service clubs and the nonprofit community.

By connecting interested individuals and groups with non-profits that need their time and talents, Team Giving reduces the burden on non-profits and provides community members with an easy and meaningful way to help improve and strengthen their communities.

Since opening our doors in February of 2016, we have partnered with over 60 non-profit organizations in the greater Sacramento region. We have coordinated with over 1400 volunteers and facilitated 7200+ completed volunteer hours, all to serve those most in need.

Team Giving is creating lasting relationships between volunteer groups and nonprofits in their communities. At Team Giving we inspire compassion and promote giving and our work supports personal growth and community development.

By building these relationships, we create the potential for long-term impact in the community.  We create viable connections between those who want to give their time and talents and the nonprofit communities.  Volunteers generate additional resources for the people served and help nonprofits meet their missions and goals.

Please visit our website at teamgiving.org for more information on what we do and how we help in the community.

We look forward to working with you to match your volunteer needs.

EXPRESSIONS

Miriam Houghton

Miriam Houghton is President of EXPRESSIONS (Grant Writing, Consulting, and Training), based in Sacramento, California. Miriam has written and edited more than 1,300 proposals and supporting document packages and reviewed over 900 more. Her work over the last 31 years has resulted in revenue for her clients and employers now totaling $105.2 million. She works all over California and in other states with non-profit organizations, public agencies, and businesses.

In 2014, California’s Capital Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals selected Miriam as their OUTSTANDING FUNDRAISING PROFESSIONAL for 2015.

Miriam has worked in a wide variety of program areas, including healthcare (physical and mental health); education; criminal justice; programs for the disabled and the aging; programs of all types for the economically disadvantaged; domestic violence; the arts; humanities; environmental issues; and microenterprise programs.

She has provided training workshops for the Impact Foundry in Sacramento for the past 26 years, and she regularly makes training presentations at national conventions and for her clients. Miriam has been an active member of the National Association of Fundraising Professionals member for 26 years. She has served as a member of the Board of the AFP’s Sacramento Chapter and she Co-Chaired the Professional Development/Program Committee.

Miriam is a popular presenter. Her grant writing work and her extensive experience with focused and well-received grant writing workshops provide the ideal experience for this training today. As a Grants Consultant, she works with clients to ensure they meet funders’ specific, mandatory requirements for proposal submissions. With these workshops she will walk you through how to get started and how to be more competitive, while still retaining your sanity!
What prior workshop participants had to say about Miriam:

“Miriam was incredibly resourceful and supportive. It was evident that she enjoys teaching these workshops, which made it all the more enjoyable for those attending.”

“Everything the speaker had to say was gold nugget. I recommended her to my coworkers. She knows her biz and I am grateful to have had this opportunity.”

“Miriam’s experience, understanding and insight make her an outstanding presenter. I love coming to her classes.”

Jessica Hubbard

Jessica Hubbard is a corporate social responsibility and philanthropy professional with a particular background in the education sector. She is currently a consultant specializing in those fields, with an emphasis on strategic planning, program design, and partnership development (partner identification, due diligence, negotiations, and management). Jessica is passionate about the intersection of business and society and believes that all companies can improve their competitiveness by engaging more deeply with the social issues that create risk and opportunity for their business models.

Jessica founded and led the CSR function as Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the global education company. In that capacity, she developed and executed an innovative and award-winning employee engagement strategy, built HMH’s reputation through major nonprofit partnerships, and led a multi-stakeholder effort to improve the sustainability of HMH’s supply chain. Previously, she served as a corporate philanthropy consultant at Changing Our World (Omnicom Group), where she advised companies on strategic social engagement; as a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s CSR Initiative; as founder of the blog Reimagining CSR and Corporate Philanthropy Editor for onPhilanthropy.com; and on a short-term project with the MAC AIDS Fund at Estee Lauder’s MAC Cosmetics, where she worked on international grantmaking strategy. Jessica also worked on digital media strategy at WGBH, the public media producer, for the group that produces educational children’s TV shows and other media.

Jessica graduated from Harvard Business School, where she served as co-president of the school’s Social Enterprise Club, and Harvard College, where she was student body vice president.

Linebarger Grantseeking Services

Suzanne Linebarger

Suzanne Linebarger is an independent consultant providing a full array of professional grantseeking services, from foundation research and grant writing to grant program development and training.

With 22 years of experience in various fields of fund development, she has a rare understanding of the strategy of grantseeking within the context of other fundraising efforts. Suzanne has concentrated on grant writing for the past 13 years, raising more than $49 million for her clients. Suzanne has broad experience in a variety of program areas, with a strong focus in children’s issues, social services, education, health, and aging.

Suzanne has provided trainings through the Sacramento Nonprofit Resource Center, Modesto NSFRE (now AFP), Association of Fundraising Professionals (Capital Chapter) and as a guest speaker at Technical Writing, Composition, and Seniors Honors classes at University of the Pacific.

Mann, Urrutia, Nelson CPAs and Associates LLP

Michelle O. Nelson

Michelle is one of the founding Partners of Mann, Urrutia, Nelson CPAs and Associates LLP. She has specialized in tax and audit for over 30 years, focusing on such industries as not-for-profit and for-profit companies, as well as governmental and retirement plan entities. Michelle provides tax preparation, tax planning and business advisory services for exempt organizations, corporations, partnerships, and individuals.

As a Certified Fraud Examiner, Michelle has provided expert insight in the areas of fraud prevention, detection and the implementation of processes to hinder fraud. She is committed to non-profit accounting and helping organizations implement best practices. As philanthropy is an integral part of her core values she serves on the boards of three local non-profit organizations.

Jessica Rhodes

Jessica’s role as the Director of Strategy at 3fold is, well, three-fold. With an MBA in nonprofit management and marketing, Jess helps our clients in identifying and creating business strategies to help them meet their goals; she is a master strategist, absorbing dreams and capabilities and transforming them to implementable plans. She is an expert in managing and monitoring inbound and outbound communications to help our clients reach their target audiences.

Executive Director, Triad Family Services

Nancy Reagh

Nancy Reagh, Executive Director Triad Family Services, received a Masters of Social Welfare in 1994 at UC Berkeley starting a new career in mid-life. She began as an entry level social worker, and has held every position at a series of foster care agencies through the years. She has been at Triad Family Services for 12 years and has been the CEO since January 2015.

Public Interest Management Group (PIMG)

Scott Schaffer

The Third Sector Company

Jeffrey Wilcox

Jeffrey Wilcox is an experienced grant-maker, nonprofit executive and fundraiser turned entrepreneur.  As President and CEO of The Third Sector Company, he leads one of the largest teams of professionals in the United States dedicated to the study, teaching, and practice of succession planning, interim executive leadership and chief executive performance advancement for the nonprofit sector. Third Sector Company has bases of operations in Long Beach, Orange County, and Sacramento, California; Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Since its founding in 2002, Third Sector Company has provided services to over 600 nonprofits in the United States and Canada and has provided interim leadership to organizations, congregations and associations whose combined assets total more than $1 billion. He is the former Senior Vice President of United Way of Greater Los Angeles, and Valley of the Sun United Way in Phoenix, Arizona, and executive director of CHOC Children’s Hospital Foundation in Orange County, CA.

Wilcox is the former nonprofit columnist for the Long Beach Business Journal; founder of “The Board Chairs Academy;” and author of “The Nonprofit Leader of the New Decade.” He co-developed and is the former lead trainer for the Wells Fargo New Executive Directors Institute of Greater Los Angeles and the Developing Development Program/Sustaining a Culture of Philanthropy in partnership with Executive Service Corps of Southern California. He is on the board of AFP Advancement Northwest in Seattle and is the immediate past chairman of the Executive Advisory Board of the School of Business, Government and Economics at Seattle Pacific University. He is also the former chapter President of AFP Orange County (CA), a trainer for the CFRE review course, and is a former national chairman of the Executive Transitions and Succession Planning Affinity Group for the Alliance for Nonprofit Management.

YDN Strengths Development Network

Helen Yee

Positivity-Achiever-Relator-Activator-Arranger

Ms. Helen Yee, a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach with YDN Strengths Development Network with over 25 years of nonprofit board and organizational experience brings expertise on team building, event coordination, training, facilitation and fund and board development to her tenure of service. Ms. Yee’s focus is to bring the strengths-based approach to the workplace, including boards to optimize team engagement and promote lasting changes in their workplace culture. She is also in a select group certified to lead the CliftonStrengths Discovery Course.

Ms. Yee brings Strengths to life through her extensive professional experience . She has been actively involved in several major fundraising campaigns and her biggest leadership achievement occurred when she chaired “Libraries for Our Future” which was responsible for the passage of a library ballot measure resulting in millions of dollars of funding for Sacramento City Libraries. Currently she serves on several boards including Sutter Medical Center Foundation, California Museum, and Impact Foundry. Ms. Yee has also been a speaker at major conferences including District Dental Society’s Mid-Winter Convention and the What If Conference for California non-profits. Currently she facilitates workshops regularly for Impact Foundry and the California Capital Business Center on various Strengths topics.

Prior to work with nonprofits, Ms. Yee was a serial entrepreneur opening stores in a major Sacramento mall and a pharmaceutical sales representative, receiving a top national award for professional sales success.

Ms. Yee’s broad array of experience and commitment to bringing out the best in people has fueled her Strengths development and provides many real experiences her clients can relate to and use to enhance their personal and professional journey.

Carolyn Rich Curtis, Ph.D.

Carolyn Rich Curtis, Ph.D. is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She is author of Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience, a psychoeducational program to overcome trauma. She founded and was the former Executive Director of the Relationship Skills Center. In her clinical practice of thirty-five years, she specialized in working with couples, alcohol and drug abuse, and trauma. She was an Adjunct faculty member in the Psychology Department of California State University, Sacramento and American River College. Dr. Curtis is a trainer of facilitators in several major relationship education programs: Bringing Baby Home, Mastering the Mysteries of Love, Relationship Enhancement, PAIRS. She is a Certified Imago Therapist and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. She presented papers at major national and international conferences including speaking at the White House. She is a recipient of the Presidential Point of Light Award.

Wendie Skala

Wendie graduated from San Jose State University and holds a Masters’ degree in Military Science. Following her graduation, she specialized in intensive care and emergency nursing with emphasis on cardiovascular disease. Wendie flew for Stanford Life Flight 10 years and honed her skills in prehospital transport of critically injured patients. She joined the Air Force Reserve in 1999 and achieved the rank of Lt Col while serving 7 deployments overseas in support of OPERATION IRAQI AND ENDURING FREEDOM. She assumed command and control roles and functioned as the Chief Nurse for air operations in Afghanistan. She served as the Injury Prevention Coordinator for Kaiser Permanente’s first trauma center in South Sacramento. There she implemented the Sacramento Violence Intervention Program. As a community leader in ACEs and Trauma Informed Care, Wendie championed the Alternatives to Violence Program, Resilient Sac, an ACEs Connection Collaborative, and served on various boards working with law enforcement, schools, non-profits, and government agencies. She has presented nationally and is a contributing author and educator of the American Trauma Society’s Injury Prevention Course. Wendie is Adjunct Faculty at Samuel Merritt’s School of Nursing in Sacramento.

The Yoga Seed Collective

Celeste Sekigahama

Celeste is the Interim Executive Director at The Yoga Seed Collective and has over 5 years of yoga teaching experience. She has mostly taught in non-traditional settings such as jail, psychiatric hospitals, youth detention facilities, and with sexual assault survivor groups. Her background includes a degree in Feminist Studies as well as 500+ hours of yoga teacher training. She has also earned a certification for “Women in Leadership” from Cornell. Her self-care seminar focuses on the stressful lifestyle of the non-profit professional and the importance of the care taker taking care of themselves. It includes some light yoga, whys stress is harmful, and tips and tricks to manage stress.

Eaton Nonprofit Solutions

Rick Eaton

Rick led the Sierra Service Project (SSP), a regional nonprofit headquartered in Sacramento, from 2001 until 2018. Under his leadership, SSP tripled its budget and increased is operational footprint by 50 percent. Charitable contributions grew from less than $40,000 to over $500,000 annually.

Prior to joining Sierra Service Project, Rick spent 20 years as a software developer and technology manager in the high-tech sector. He managed enterprise-scale software development projects focused on logistics and administrative applications.

Rick is a proud Chico State graduate with Bachelor and Master degrees in Computer Science. He has lived in Sacramento since 1976.

Rick’s website: www.eatonnpsolutions.com