Elizabeth Smith, Vice President, joined Grenzebach Glier and Associates (GG+A) in 2008.  She brings to clients more than 30 years’ experience in fundraising and a successful track record of campaign management and programme development across a range of educational and arts institutions around the world.

Before joining the firm, Liz served as Director of Development and Alumni Relations at the University of Exeter, where she helped prepare and position the University for a multi-million pound campaign.  She led the re-organisation of the Development function, combining fundraising, alumni relations, campaign marketing, Development Services and events into an integrated team of 22 staff.  She also created a comprehensive multi-national Alumni Relations Programme and extended Exeter’s fundraising opportunities in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, and China.

For fifteen years, Liz worked at the University of Nottingham as Director of Development and Alumni Relations, where she designed and led the University’s first full-scale fundraising programme.  She developed and implemented all policies and strategies for fundraising and alumni relations activities.  During her tenure, she led the University through its first capital campaign – one of the first major gift campaigns in the UK to have a publicly announced goal and timescale.  During her time at Nottingham, she also pioneered a number of initiatives that were firsts for a UK University. These included: telephone-based annual giving, prospect rating, moves-management, and the employment of a dedicated legacy giving officer.  She helped build extensive international fundraising strategies, establishing a 501(c) 3 organisation to raise funds in the US and developing numerous advancement opportunities in South East Asia, and China.

Earlier in her career, Liz developed a fundraising strategy at the University of Leicester that focused on raising funds for the Breast Cancer Research Programme of the University’s Medical School.  She has also held Development and External Relations roles with the London School of Economics and Political Science, The University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Malaysian Cultural Association (affiliated with the University of Malaysia), and the Thai Cultural Association (affiliated with the National Museum in Bangkok).

Liz has held multiple volunteer leadership positions with professional organisations related to fundraising, including service as a Trustee of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Europe and Chair of the 2002 CASE Europe International Conference.  She is a regular lecturer at CASE, Higher Education External Relations Association (HEERA), and Association of University Administrators (AUA) conferences.  She was a member of the Ross Group of Development directors, and authored the chapter on fundraising in “Managing External Relations,” published by the Open University in 2001.

Liz holds a BA Hons in sociology from The University of Reading.