For fundraising success, create emotional attachments, leader says

Finding high-level donors for big capital campaigns, one industry leader has learned, is similar to securing customers. Listening and being nimble are key elements.

By Grier Ferguson
| 6:00 a.m. May 31, 2019
| 0 Free Articles Remaining!

Lori Sax. Cheryl Mendelson, CEO of the Van Wezel Foundation, says successful fundraising is about aligning peopleâ€™s values to the needs of the organization.

Strategies

Cheryl Mendelson has a Gulf-sized challenge — and opportunity — in front of her.

The new CEO of the Van Wezel Foundation, a post she was named to earlier this year, Mendelson is charged with leading efforts to raise money for a new performing arts center to replace the current Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, an 80,000-square-foot facility owned and operated by the City of Sarasota. That effort is one part of The Bay, an extensive 53-acre redevelopment along the Sarasota bayfront, a project that requires its own separate fundraising.