Margaret Fala

Margaret Fala is a Vice President in the Academic Medicine practice area at GG+A, where she partners with clients to enhance philanthropic programs and outreach in a variety of areas, including strategic planning, campaign planning, major gift program planning and execution, staff and volunteer training, and more. She brings more than 20 years of experience to the firm, with expertise in donor outreach and engagement; fundraising strategy and priorities; moves management; prospect management; campaign planning and implementation; talent acquisition; and frontline fundraising skills development. 

Prior to joining GG+A, Margaret was the Associate Vice President of Advancement and Alumni Engagement at Emory University’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center. Among her contributions at Emory, Margaret rebuilt, managed, mentored, and coached a team of 35 development leaders, major gift officers, and administrative staff; and reorganized team structure, measurements, metrics, and operations to improve performance. In addition, she launched training programs and tools for frontline fundraisers in areas such as prospect qualification and physician engagement and created a clinical gift officer training program. 

Partnering with Emory Healthcare and Medicine senior leaders, Margaret helped optimize the grateful patient program, increasing the pool of prospects by more than 1000%. Within her own portfolio of prospects, she exceeded her $30-million fundraising goal, and worked closely with communications and annual fund leaders to build the direct appeal and events programs for health sciences, leading teams and units that exceeded their fundraising goals by 100% to more than 200% in recent years. Margaret also played a key role in supporting the silent phase and public launch of Emory’s $4-billion campaign.  

Before joining the Advancement team at Emory, Margaret was the Director of Development, and then Assistant Vice President – leading fundraising for multiple service lines at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health. There, she built and managed a diverse pipeline of prospective donors and developed partnerships that garnered six- and seven-figure gifts. During her tenure at Jefferson, she helped facilitate the transition from a three-hospital system to a network of 14 hospitals, along with the acquisition of an undergraduate university. As the Director of Development at Holy Redeemer Health System, she developed an integrated annual fundraising plan, restructured the million-dollar annual appeal communications program, managed a pool of gift prospects, and oversaw content and production for development communications.  

Earlier in her career, Margaret was the Director of Marketing and Development at SERV Behavioral Health System, where she directed a comprehensive fundraising and marketing program for a $28- million multi-site behavioral healthcare organization serving nine counties in Central and Northern New Jersey. She also led the establishment and expansion of all giving initiatives including corporate and foundation relations, special events, direct mail programs, and major gift cultivation.   

Margaret completed her M.B.A. with a concentration in marketing from Villanova University, her M.A. in counseling psychology from Rosemont College, and her B.M. in music therapy from Temple University. She earned a Certificate in Fundraising from the University of Pennsylvania’s College of General Studies, and a Persuasive Leadership Development Certificate from the Wharton School. Additionally, Margaret is a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE). She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the National Association of Cancer Center Development Officers (NAACDO), the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), and the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Institutional Advancement (AAMC-GIA).