Most people who work as consultants start out in some career field and then, after acquiring years of experience, move into consulting others in that same career field. That’s what Stuart did. But then he did something most people don’t do. He left consulting and went back to working in planned giving.
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This article was originally published in Giving Tomorrow magazine.
For three decades Stuart worked in fundraising , including some prestigious places like The University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Roanoke College (his alma mater) and Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania.
Then he began consulting with Graham-Pelton.
But then Stuart did something most people don’t do. He left consulting and went back to working in the field.
“I loved consulting, and I had a great experience doing it,” he says. “But I found I was really missing the role of Chief Development Officer. I missed working with boards, leading a team. I missed raising money for an inspiring cause.”
Stuart recalls sitting in meetings with VPs and CDOs of Graham-Pelton’s nonprofit clients helping them work through challenges and form strategies and thinking to himself, “This is really intriguing and challenging and fun—and I miss it.”
Stuart leads a discussion on change management at a conference hosted by the Association of Advancement Services Professionals.
Stuart is one of those rare development professionals among his generation who actually worked in planned giving early in his career. Most of Stuart’s professional counterparts describe stumbling into the field of planned giving, often from a completely unrelated profession. For example, recent cover stories in this magazine include: Troy Nuss, who studied to be a paralegal and an electrician but practiced neither and is now a planned giving officer at The Delaware Music School; Michelle Staes, Senior Manager of Planned giving at the Southern Poverty Law Center, who was first a public defender and then an environmental attorney; and Sam Samuels, Director of Gift Planning at Smith College, who had an acting career before starting down the planned giving path.
But for the next generation—including Stuart’s kids—a career choice in philanthropy from the get-go is much more common. “Both of my children have followed me into this career,” he says. “They made intentional choices in college and have since launched careers in fundraising. “Stuart sees this as a sign of positive changes in the profession. “Fifty years ago you’d have a retiring faculty member or athletic director assigned to be alumni director and maybe do a little bit of fundraising. Even when I started there was not as much specialization in the field as there is today. As the field has grown, the demand for people has grown, and thus there’s been greater professionalization,” he says. “Through technology and training and professionalization, the entire field has become more proficient and more efficient. There is a great deal of of support through companies and associations that make the field that much better—things like AAMC-GIA, AFP, AHP, CASE—plus all the consultant companies as well as advanced degrees and corresponding research in philanthropy.”
Besides the improved quality of the profession, Stuart sees another benefit to the younger generation starting out he gets great conversation partners right in his own family. “My kids and I had dinner the other night and spent half the time talking about work. It’s awesome!”
Now as Chief Development Officer at Shriners Hospitals for Children, Stuart leans on 30 years of experience in the field, as well as the insights he gained counseling other development leaders during his years as a consultant.
“All the organizations that turn to consultants are stuck in some way,” he says. “They’re stuck in a problem or in a place, and they need leverage in some way to move forward. It could be small things or one big thing. For example, maybe they need to raise funds to achieve a set of strategic priorities. Or it could be that their board needs to understand the essence of philanthropy in a different way and they need that outside voice for the board to have a better understand of why and how people make gifts. The purpose of that consultant is to help the organization get past and move beyond a problem, big or small.”
And now that Stuart is back on the ground with a nonprofit organization, would he hire consultants to help him when he’s stuck? “Absolutely! They bring incredible value in any variety of ways. No question.”
Stuart is thrilled to be back in the development game. “I love the feeling that you are working to accomplish something much larger than yourself,” he says. “There’s a higher cause—be that social justice, the environment, education, healthcare… You are making the world a better place by your efforts. It’s only been through philanthropy there has been the kind of medical breakthroughs that have concurred in the last couple hundred years. It’s only through philanthropy that entire generations have been able to attend private schools or higher education. It’s only through philanthropy that social services can provide assistance to families in need. You get that intrinsic reward of being part of something that’s much larger than yourself.”
In addition to the feel-good part of the job, Stuart appreciates how development “provides the opportunity to be very strategic, have a business mentality, constantly measure success, and make sure there’s a healthy ROI.”
A recent gift to Shriner’s served as a strong reminder to Stuart how philanthropic acts are the result of many motivations. A woman had been a patient at Shriners in the 1930s as a child with a complex orthopedic issue. “Carol was treated over multiple years with lengthy stays at our hospitals,” Stuart says. “She and her husband were very much middle class people. They eventually began to make small gifts—less than $100.” At a certain point the couple decided to visit one of the Shriner hospitals, and that inspired them to make a larger gift, which they did through a charitable gift annuity. “They ended up setting up ten CGAs in their 70s and 80s and became very significant donors through these CGAs,” Stuart recalls how as she told her story, Carol recalled being the hospital as a two or three year old and how the treatment Shriner’s provided enabled her to walk and go on to a productive life. “Stories like that remind me how it all goes full circle: we provide care to these children and enable them to go onto a meaningful life. Carol never forgot the experience she had—and as a result made incredibly generous, sacrificial gifts! She passed away in November this past year in her early 90’s. To me she is reflective of true philanthropy and the innate desire donors have to give back to a cause that is meaningful to them.”
Having talked with so many donors over the years about the mark they want to make on the world has given Stuart plenty of opportunity to reflect on his own legacy. He says, “If you enter this field to satisfy your own ego you are in the wrong field. Our job is simply to take this jewel of any organization that we have been handed, polish it, make it a little better and hand it off to the next person. It’s always much much bigger than ourselves. My hope is that I left all of the places I’ve worked better than I found them. If I did that, then I’ve done something meaningful with my life’s work.”
Clockwise from left to right: Stuart Sullivan is thrilled both of his children (pictured here at his daughter’s recent wedding) chose careers in philanthropy; Stuart loves being part of Shriners Hospitals’ 100-year history of helping children with orthopedic conditions and other injuries regardless of the family’s ability to pay; Stuart receives a generous gift from a group of enthusiastic donors at the Shreveport Shriners Hospital location; Stuart welcomes two special guests!
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