Years in field: 28

Years Presenting:16

Organization:  Renner Consulting

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Sandra has more than thirty years experience in the not for profit sector, most of it in fundraising.  She has focused much of her work on developing creative campaign strategies and helping a variety of organizations develop their fundraising infrastructure. Her expertise includes major gifts, development assessments, train­ing, board development, strategic planning and fundraising plan­ning.  In 2005, Sandra formed Renner Consulting in order to provide more specialized and hands-on services to nonprofit organizations.

Prior to forming Renner Consulting, Sandra spent almost seventeen years with the Alford Group, a nationally recognized consulting firm, at its Chicago and Washington DC offices where she became regional manager.  Before joining the Alford Group, she was the Director of The DuPage Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion, the subur­ban affili­ate of The Chicago Community Trust. As its first direc­tor, she was re­sponsi­ble for its overall ad­minis­tra­tion, endowment and operating funds de­velop­ment, and grant mak­ing.

Her previous experience includes serving as the Development Director for two mental health agencies and as a school social worker and special education administrator where she pub­lished a curriculum guide and conducted a variety of work­shops through­out the

Midwest.  She also worked as a sales representative for Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals and Baxter, winning several sales awards.

She has worked with more than 100 local and national organizations at Renner Consulting and the Alford Group, directing numerous successful campaigns and helping clients raise millions of dollars, attract new donors, and significantly enhance their infrastructure and volunteer leadership.  She has served as lead counsel on campaigns ranging from one million to over eighty million dollars.  Her most recent clients include William S. Abell Foundation and its grantees,  Baltimore Council of the Boy Scouts of America, Child Life Council, Montgomery County Collaboration Council for Children, Youth and Families, Community of Hope, and the Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA.)

She is President-Elect of the Association Foundation Group and a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Greater Washing­ton, DC where she was a member of the board of directors and co-chair of National Capital Philanthropy Day.  She currently is chair of the Diversity Committee for the  International Association of Fundraising Professionals and is a board member and chair of the development committee for Seabury Resources for Aging.

Sandra has been an adjunct faculty member on fundraising since 1999 at the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University and served for several years on the Grant Advisory Committee for the Montgomery County Council. She has been a consultant for the Kellogg Foundation’s KAL program and a peer reviewer for the Standards of Excellence program of the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations.  As a recognized leader in the fundraising community, Sandra has been a speaker at many conferences and meetings, including numerous presentations at the International Conference of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.  As a volunteer she presents workshops for the Foundation Center, the Center for Nonprofit Advancement and other organizations.

She has a Bachelors degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and a Mas­ters of Social Work from Wayne State University in Detroit and has been a CFRE since 1995.