ClearView Fundraising Solutions

My Story

Hi, I’m Laurie—a career fundraiser and nonprofit structural engineer.

I’m the one you call to keep revenue flowing while you fix what’s happening behind the scenes—when budgets don’t balance, teams won’t align, fundraising stalls, and boards disengage.

I’m also a classically trained cellist and former college instructor with a business education. I bring a musician’s creativity and listening skills, an educator’s commitment to clear thinking, and a business strategist’s focus on data and outcomes to everything I do.

It started unexpectedly. I couldn’t find a job.

Near the end of graduate studies in the humanities, my classmates and I faced a sobering reality: the profession we loved was disappearing. A clerical job at my university’s business school—taken simply to pay the bills—changed everything.

Business school faculty encouraged me to think differently about my career. Communication and presentation skills, research and case-building strengths, and years of writing proposals to fund my education all pointed in one direction: fundraising.

Thirty years later, I’ve led fundraising across mission sectors and organizational scales—from community-based nonprofits to premier educational institutions and international NGOs. At the heart of my work is a simple belief: fundraising unites nonprofits and donor communities with a vision for positive change.

What it’s like to work with me.

Revenue architecture and strategy are where I do some of my strongest work. For me, strategy is a decision-making tool, not an academic exercise. As a fundraiser, I’m also a pragmatist. I know teamwork based on shared understanding and clean systems is how the magic happens. I’ll move quickly downstream from strategy to execution—helping the teams at your organization do the real work of building pipelines, developing donor relationships, and delivering results.

If my career journey has taught me anything, it’s that solving complex problems requires multiple lenses. My hardest lessons learned demonstrate that process discipline is preferable to deficit repair. My goal is to make timely fundraising and business guidance accessible to nonprofits when they need it most.

Bona Fides.

I hold a Ph.D. and an M.A. in musicology from UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, respectively. I earned an M.B.A. in management from the University of Miami and a B.Mus. from Houghton University. I also have advanced business training from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, where I met those life-changing mentors.

Extra Credit.

When I’m not working with nonprofits, I enjoy gardening, cooking, reading, and exploring the natural beauty of North Carolina with my husband and our two lively rescue dogs.