Franny Johnson

I have been in management for over 25 years, starting in the private sector before switching to the public sector about 14 years ago. I've been working with nonprofits for the last 10 plus years. My journey to my current role at Donor Connect began in 2020 during an incredibly difficult time. I was furloughed from my job with another nonprofit, and in the same week, my father passed away and my mom was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and needed a transplant. I went from not knowing anything about donation to learning quite a bit about it in a short amount of time. What really led me here was wanting to do something in honor of my mom and what she experienced, and being able to give back to donor families who have gone through that experience. I spent four and a half years working with our aftercare team, where we facilitated all of the communication with donor families and recipients after they have gone through the donation process. Now I oversee our foundation as Development Director. The foundation is new - we just received our IRS determination letter about 2 months ago - so I am working on building the entire program from the ground up. My area of expertise is really community, programming, and building different kinds of programs that empower our organization to give back to the community. I help support all of the programming within Donor Connect, including supporting our donor families through grief and bereavement programs, public education, and outreach. I'm really the philanthropic arm to Donor Connect, and my days are all over the place with lots of networking and community outreach.