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Elizabeth Posner

Elizabeth Posner

Director of Business Development & Senior Director
Hometown: Poughkeepsie, NY

Elizabeth has more than a decade of fundraising and project management experience and a passion for social justice. She loves helping nonprofit organizations secure the resources they need to pursue their missions and create positive social change effectively.
As a Senior Director at Elevate, Elizabeth leads client teams of all sizes, providing development strategy and institutional fundraising expertise to organizations working on a range of issues, including public health, civic engagement and advocacy, social services, immigrants’ rights, international development, and education.

Elizabeth loves forming close relationships with clients to help them build and sustain a tailored grants program that meets their organizational needs and goals, addresses their capacities, and can be adapted to meet challenges as they arise. She is especially skilled at working with organizations with multiple tax statuses, including 501c3s, 501c4s, and fiscal sponsorships. Clients who are new to grant funding benefit from Elizabeth’s expertise in setting up the internal infrastructure (budgets, program design, systems) necessary to prepare to pursue grants.

Prior to Elevate, Elizabeth was the Director of Foundation Relations at Alliance for Justice, a national advocacy organization. She was responsible for planning and implementing the organization’s $3 million foundation fundraising program. She also worked as the Assistant Director of Development for Foundation Relations at Hillel International, where she oversaw foundation relations for a $26 million international organization. She began her career in development at various international organizations, including the Centre for Development and Population Activities, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and the Council of the Americas/Americas Society.
Elizabeth holds an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and graduated with a BA cum laude in Anthropology from New York University. She is also a certified ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) teacher and spent two years teaching English in Mexico and Europe.

Elizabeth lives in Maryland with her husband and two children. Outside of Elevate, she enjoys hiking and biking with her family, swimming, reading fiction, and listening to various podcasts.

What's your favorite thing to do in DC?

I love to swim, and so I can’t get enough of the free outdoor public pools in DC. I like to hop around to different neighborhoods but I especially love the Upshur and Banneker pools. 

What's your hidden talent?

I am great at historical reenactments. You can catch me playing a confederate spy in a Civil War documentary on the Smithsonian Channel.

What book could you read 50 times?

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. 

What's your favorite way to spend a Sunday afternoon?

Going for a bike ride through Rock Creek Park with my family and stopping for a picnic lunch.

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