4 ways to engage major donors during the COVID-19 crisis
(Editor's note: This article originally appeared in the Chronicle of...
Suzanne Hilser-Wiles
President
A genuine leader is not a seeker of consensus, but a molder of consensus. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Biography
Suzanne Hilser-Wiles, President, has more than 25 years of experience in advancement, program building, and campaign planning and implementation. Her work has benefited a wide range of nonprofit organizations including those in higher education, healthcare, and the artistic and cultural sector. Suzanne joined GG+A in 2011, became a member of the firm’s executive committee in 2013, and oversees the firm’s practice in higher education, arts and culture, independent schools, and Europe and UK. In 2016, she was appointed GG+A’s third president, and its first woman president in the firm’s 55-year history.
Suzanne has partnered with GG+A clients across every sector, providing strategic counsel to Development teams as well as institutional leadership. This vast array of clients include Aalto University, the Barack Obama Foundation, Georgia State University, IESE Business School, INSEAD, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, New York Philharmonic, Pennsylvania State University, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Museum, Tate, and William Penn Charter School.
Her extensive previous professional experience includes fundraising, communications, and marketing development, specifically admissions marketing, alumni relations, and press office management. She has developed and implemented individual major giving programs and designed training and support programs to engage executives, deans, and trustees in fundraising.
Prior to joining the firm, Suzanne served as Vice-Chancellor for Advancement at University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), where she also served on an executive team advising the university Chancellor on all major policy decisions and as the primary staff member for the Advancement Committee of the Board of Trustees. Suzanne joined UNCSA from CancerCare, a national healthcare nonprofit based in New York City, where she served as Director of External Affairs, overseeing the evaluation and redesign of four major programs: direct mail, gift processing, major gifts, and sponsorship. In this role, she helped grow philanthropic support to more than $20 million annually. She was involved in developing strategy and soliciting all gifts of $500,000 to $10 million.
Before joining CancerCare, Suzanne served as Senior Development Officer for Corporate Annual Programs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she oversaw the Museum’s annual corporate fundraising program and staffed the Museum’s business committee. Previously, Suzanne served as Associate Director of Individual and Leadership Giving at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Suzanne began her career in institutional advancement with Pets are Wonderful Support in San Francisco, where she served as Director of Development.
Suzanne received her bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master’s degree in arts administration from the Golden Gate University in San Francisco.