The recipient of 2008 Horton Lifetime Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Nancy estimates she has helped raise $200,000,000 throughout her career. Nancy is one of approximately 100 persons in the US to be recognized as an Advanced Certified Fund Raising Professional (ACFRE) by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). Recently, she served on a national task force to make recommendations for updating that process. She is a Certified Association Executive (CAE) and has proctored the CAE exam for the American Society of Association Executives.
Author of Increasing Board Effectiveness, an easy-to-use handbook for nonprofit boards, the University of South Florida has called upon Nancy to teach board development using the book as a text. She has also taught fundraising, and has served as adjunct faculty for their Masters of Public Administration Program teaching grantwriting. Nancy is a former adjunct faculty member of the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy Fund Raising School and St. Petersburg College.
Nancy is Past President of the Suncoast Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), where she was named Fund Raising Executive of the Year in the 1990s. She is Past President and Founding Member of the Association of Philanthropic Counsel (APC). Qualified to administer Myers Briggs preference and DiSC personality profiles, she also has been certified to use human subjects in research. A graduate of Leadership Tampa Bay and Leadership Pinellas, she enjoys walking, animal rescue and live theatre in her spare time.
Designs in Development collaborates with associates in a wide variety of fields to serve clients creatively and effectively. The following individuals have worked with Designs in Development in the past year:
Nancy L. Brown, MBA, ACFRE, CAE, President
Nancy has provided philanthropic counsel to clients across the southeastern United States. Nancy founded the firm more than two decades ago. Experienced in human relations, marketing and management early in her career, she now guides associates in providing a variety of fundraising, executive search and strategic planning services to clients. A skilled facilitator, she has developed more than one dozen full and half-day training courses. Holly Blackburn
Holly creates logos, design elements for case statements, annual reports and brochures. She uses numerous desktop publishing applications including Photoshop and InDesign. Holly is completing a degree at American Art Institute and also provides web design using Dreamweaver.Michael Sparks
Michael supports our design process with freelance photography and was the proud 9th place winner of a national Photoshop contest in 2010. A Navy veteran with a degree from American River College, he also provides research and general office support.Jean Kappus
Jean is an IT management professional with a background in MIS and accounting. Her husband is currently deployed in Iraq, and she is the volunteer FRG Leader for the 317th MP Battalion. Jean has an MA and certificates in business and project management. She has built data bases and solved computer problems for the firm.