Jessica Stillwell

I've always had a heart for giving back, even as a child through volunteer service in my community, whether serving meals at a soup kitchen or other activities through school and church. I went to college in New York and studied theater, which I loved, but as I reached the end of my undergraduate career, I realized I didn't really want to pursue a career in the arts because it's just hard, and doing it in New York makes it even harder. I signed up for a year of service with AmeriCorps as a bridge to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I moved from New York to Dallas and was assigned a nonprofit employer where I worked in volunteer recruitment and coordination, which is under the umbrella of fundraising. That experience solidified my passion for this work. I've been in this field for 9 years now, starting as a development director for a nonprofit providing housing for families experiencing homelessness, and then transitioning about 5 years ago to consulting with Mission Advancement, a small Dallas-based firm. What I love about this firm is that we all have a shared methodology and philosophy in our approach to fundraising - we're all about building strong relationships. I work with about 10 nonprofit clients in areas like human services, social services, homeless shelters, anti-trafficking organizations, senior homes for residents with Alzheimer's, and independent schools. I give them best practices, counsel and coaching on how to fundraise, whether for large capital campaigns needing $40 million to build new facilities, increasing annual fundraising, training their staff, or grant writing to seek funding from private family foundations. Fundraising through COVID as a young professional was very trying but it solidified that I do indeed want to do this for the rest of my life. The pressure was intense because it really mattered - we were serving families experiencing homelessness, and if we weren't getting the funding to keep the lights on, we would be putting people out who had already fallen on hard times. Getting through that was a really big threshold for me, and it pushed me to consider how I can maximize my impact, which led me to shift into the consulting world. I'm happy that I don't go to work and make widgets all day - the impact I have is real because I get to train fundraisers to be successful at what they do so that their nonprofit has more funding to reach more people. I'm currently going back to school to get a master's in philanthropic studies because I've seen the needs of the community over the last 10 years and I want to be even more equipped to serve fundraisers and nonprofits.