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About
A Purposeful Approach
Prosper & Bloom is a consultancy designed to guide and support you in achieving your goals. I work with CEOs, their executive teams, boards of directors, and community leaders, using a customized, inquiry-based process that includes deep listening, candid feedback and co-created goals and action planning. As a former CEO, my counsel is informed by extensive experience, empathy, and technical knowledge.
I have worked with community-based organizations of all shapes and sizes for more than 30 years, including one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country, a public television station, and a community foundation. I have practiced as a philanthropic advisor for the last ten years, helping individuals and families create giving strategies to increase their impact, and I have served on several boards and committees as a volunteer in my community.
Services
Coaching
Prosper & Bloom offers individual executive coaching, team coaching, and organizational consulting that can be focused on strategy, governance or board development, individual giving, or leadership succession planning. After an initial conversation to determine your needs, we co-create a scope of work that meets those needs within an agreed upon timeline and budget.
Please send me a brief email if you're interested in learning more, or if you want to set up an exploration appointment, click on the link below to book time.
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Office Hours
Prosper & Bloom hosts virtual office hours at noon on the first Wednesday of each month, providing a
low-key forum for leaders to explore timely issues in a small group. These office hours are free and
designed to be a collaborative space for CEOs and Executive Directors to share ideas and resources.
Send an email to Katie to reserve a spot and receive a Zoom link.
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2024 Office Hour Dates:
May 1
June 5
July 10 (moved to the 2nd Wednesday due to the holiday)
August 7
September 4
October 2
November 6
December 4
Philanthropic Advising
Many of us seek guidance from experts with specific knowledge in law, taxes, accounting, investments and finance to help us plan effectively and make the most of our resources. If you contribute to organizations annually and don't have a giving plan, you could be missing opportunities to be even more generous or have greater impact on causes you care about. If you're curious about how to make a bigger difference with your giving or create a plan that is even more generous than you can imagine, schedule a free info session to learn more.
Testimonials
Dennis P. Duquette
Head of Community Responsibility for MassMutual and President & CEO of MassMutual Foundation
"Thank you very much for leading such a great and
fruitful session for the MassMutual Foundation Board of Directors. . .I feel like you brought out some of our best thinking on where we go next and how best to get there!"
Patricia Canavan
CEO, Tech Foundry
"Katie helped the Tech Foundry team create a forward-thinking, 2-year development plan to ensure growth and sustainability. She consistently demonstrates an uncanny ability to strategically think through issues, identify opportunities, diplomatically communicate ideas, and support progress. She accomplishes her work with positivity, a warm sense of humor and genuine care for all those with whom she interacts."
A Bit More Background
Growing up, I learned about philanthropy from my family, church and even my public high school. We held neighborhood carnivals to raise money to cure muscular dystrophy, cooked for the homeless shelter, danced for 24 hours to raise money for AIDS, volunteered at the Special Olympics, sold cookies for the Girl Scouts, and sang holiday songs at local nursing homes. My experience in service to others was as a volunteer. Then, after graduating from college, I unknowingly wrote my way into a career in philanthropy. I was out of work, and a friend of a friend told me about a grant opportunity. My first ever grant funded me to teach writing in the county jail, and it also opened my eyes to the stark consequences of poverty and inequity.
The year I worked at the jail, I also took on a temporary data-entry position at the public television station a few blocks away. These early experiences bloomed into three decades of community-based work.
From Springfield's York Street Jail and WGBY, I headed north to Amherst College and then south again to the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. I honed skills in fundraising, strategic thinking, people management, and governance–all in service to creating a more vibrant, just, and equitable community.
Working with incredible mentors and experts in the field, I learned on the job. I ran an annual giving program for a membership organization that included direct mail for 20,000 households, on-air pledge campaigns and major gifts. Building on those four years, I managed an intensive, highly complex annual fund program at Amherst College with over 1500 volunteers across the country, worked on a $100 million comprehensive campaign, and ran a major milestone reunion program that included event planning and major gift solicitation. After ten years, I began my first stint as a consultant while my children were young, providing fundraising strategy and program support for local non-profits and Amherst College. One of the consulting projects was with my community foundation. Those initial three months of consulting turned into 17 years, the first nearly 8 of which I spent job-sharing the role of VP for Philanthropy and the last 10 years serving as CEO. The diverse Foundation experiences taught me how to be an effective grant-maker, a strong manager, a philanthropic advisor and community partner. I honed strategic planning skills, culture and systems building to advance access, equity, and inclusion, and individual gift fundraising, including planned giving,
I have worked with many different types of boards of directors, volunteer committees, event planning groups, and have always been a volunteer myself, working in the public schools as a reader, chair of a local education foundation, serving on the patient care committee of my local hospital, and I currently serve on my town's Community Preservation Act Committee. These experiences have given me a deep understanding of and myriad examples of effective volunteer engagement and board governance.