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Jen grew up in a family with a strong sense of social justice, and has been working within or for the nonprofit sector her entire career. For four years, Jen served as a Senior Director at Elevate with clients of all sizes, budgets, and issue areas. Jen is a problem solver and strategic thinker who loved to help her clients find their voice in grant writing to support important programs and progressive action. Jen has experience fundraising in higher education, early childhood education, out-of-school time programming, music education, human and social services, immigration, health/disease, environmental education and conservation, and international development.
In 2021, Jen became Elevate’s first-ever Director of Learning and Development, overseeing internal training and external learning product development, including customized webinar and workshop trainings. Jen loves being in a position to help make everyone’s lives easier through learning.
Before joining Elevate, Jen worked for over a decade for the Bringing Theory to Practice project, a national initiative in higher education focused on student civic engagement and well-being, and consulted for a small international nonprofit focused on women and children’s education and empowerment in Jordan and Palestine.
Jen earned her Master of Public Policy with a concentration in Philosophy and Social Policy and a Bachelor’s degree majoring in Psychology and Women’s Studies, both from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. She also has a Certificate in Executive Nonprofit Management from Georgetown University.
Jen grew up in the suburbs of Chicago but has now lived in and around the DC metropolitan area for just as long, calling both places “home.” Jen loves to cook and explore the ever-changing DC food scene, loves to be around friends and chosen family, and spends most of her non-working time being tutored in Minecraft by her son.
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Zach entered the fundraising profession out of a desire to use his writing and critical analysis skills to affect positive, progressive social change. Since joining Elevate in 2018, he has supported local and national clients working in issue areas, including K-12 education, college access and persistence, youth organizing, and social services. His past clients range from nonprofits just launching their grants programs to established organizations seeking to grow their funding portfolios, with budgets from less than $1 million to almost $20 million.
His pre-Elevate nonprofit experience includes two years at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, where he helped curate one of the largest existing collections of jazz performances on film.
A native of Southeast Michigan, Zach holds an MA in Media Arts from the University of Arizona. He has BA’s in both Film and Video Studies and Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Michigan, where he graduated with High Honors. Outside of his day job, Zach enjoys reading, record collecting, writing and podcasting about popular music, and playing video games with his son.
Corinne has worked in grant writing and development for several years; she takes pride in helping nonprofits do what they do best through the research, strategy, and collaboration that make up the grant writing process.
At Elevate, she writes grants for social services, education, and arts organizations in the DC area and across the country, spanning from the East to West Coast. She is particularly inspired when writing for programs that promote childhood development.
Prior to coming to Elevate, Corinne wrote grants and provided development support for a social service agency in Cincinnati, which operated Head Start preschools that prepared children for kindergarten, provided affordable housing for women, and ran a recovery program for victims of human trafficking.
Corinne was prompted to begin grant writing when her passion led to working with a nonprofit that empowers middle school girls and college-aged women to be successful leaders.
Corinne studied English at The Ohio State University with minors in Psychology and Professional Writing.
In her free time, Corinne enjoys reading literature–or simply the latest popular mystery novel–and spending time with her two clingy-yet-adorable cats.
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As Elevate’s first Vice President of Client Services, Kelsey leads work to continuously improve all client services and develop systems and processes to support the career development of all 50+ client-facing staff. She is a member of Elevate’s 4-person executive team and leads the Client Services Management Team.
Kelsey first joined Elevate as a Grant Writer in August 2014, at a time when the company could still fit all staff around a single conference table. From that position, she grew along with Elevate, taking leadership roles on client teams and, eventually, as a member of the management team. In her current role, Kelsey strives to support staff members’ professional growth within the company, navigate the growth and evolution of the Client Services department, and build relationships with other consultants and nonprofit leaders working to strengthen the sector. “Getting Better at Everything, All the Time” remains her favorite Elevate value.
While Kelsey no longer serves Elevate clients directly, she continues to leverage her experience fundraising in the arts, education, and social services fields to support staff and consult with clients exploring changes to their contract to meet evolving needs and develop new tools to strengthen our services to clients.
Kelsey serves on the board of Jubilee JumpStart, an award-winning early childhood education center in Adams Morgan. She is a graduate of Grinnell College in Iowa.
Michael comes to Elevate with a passion for the arts and education and is committed to providing a range of knowledge on fundraising and management for arts organizations, particularly the performing arts. Recently, he served as a Development Associate for the Cathedral Choral Society in DC, assisting with the Society’s institutional and individual fundraising goals. During this time, he served as the lead writer of letters-of-intent, grant applications, grant reports, quarterly appeals, and donation acknowledgements. Michael also served as a primary point of contact for the Society’s donors.
Previously, Michael served as a Grant Program Assistant with the Illinois Arts Council Agency, helping to coordinate the Arts and Foreign Language Grant Program serving the state’s public and charter schools. He also served as the volunteer Grants Manager with Two Pence Theatre Company, based in Chicago, where he worked as a teaching artist and performer. With Two Pence, Michael served as the lead writer for applications supporting youth education programs and professional productions.
Michael graduated from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theatre BFA Actor Training Program and attended North Park University’s Nonprofit Fundraising Certificate Program in Chicago. Outside of Elevate, he is a museum maven and a fan of all things theater.
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Mary brings a lifelong passion for service and youth development to Elevate. In her role, she is committed to making DC nonprofits better by leveraging the unique vantage points and perspectives that local nonprofits bring. Before joining Elevate in 2014, she spent seven years working with Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma. While working for the Girl Scouts, she facilitated programs for youth and volunteers, including mentoring for children and their incarcerated mothers, bully prevention, financial literacy, outdoor recreation skills, and youth leadership development.
Mary graduated from the University of Tulsa, earning her BA in Women’s and Gender Studies with a minor in English Literature. While at the University of Tulsa, her studies focused on the intersections of history, film, literature, and feminist theory, and enabled her to critically review power structures around gender, race, sexuality, and class throughout American history.
Outside of Elevate, Mary is a self-declared history nerd and enjoys watching her dog play at the dog park and reading fantasy/sci-fi novels.
