Center for Nonprofit Leadership > Faculty

Susan Scribner
Scribner and Associates

Susan Scribner provides on-site assessments, consultation, retreats and training in all aspects of nonprofit financial and organizational development including: Effective Planning and Implementation of Annual, Capital and Endowment Fundraising Programs, Financial and Organizational Development Audits, Board Development, Long Range Planning, Public Relations Strategies, Volunteer Development and Agency Structure and Compliance Issues.

Registered as Funding Counsel with the Attorney General’s Registry of Charitable Trusts, Susan’s services are designed to help board members, staff and volunteers develop practical, usable skills in fundraising and organizational management.  Her clients include health care providers, senior centers, organizations serving people with disabilities, social service agencies, organizations for the arts, women’s shelters, schools and colleges, and community development projects among others.

For more than twenty-eight years, Susan has developed customized annual, capital and planned giving programs, and provided on-site assistance to agencies and boards. She conducts a wide variety of retreats and trainings for board members, staff and volunteers, addressing such issues as Board/Staff Partnerships, Asking for Funds Without Fear, Creating and Implementing Realistic Program Plans, Capital Campaigns, No More Tears Endowment Funds and many others. She frequently is called upon to conduct keynote addresses and trainings throughout the U.S., Canada and other countries for a wide variety of national and regional organizations.

As a member of the faculty of UCLA, Susan teaches Advanced Financial Policy and Board and Organizational Development both on campus and “on-line” via the internet.  Susan designed and taught the first accredited MBA program in the field at the University of Judaism. She teaches a variety of courses in philanthropy and agency management for Cornell University, California State Long Beach and other educational organizations. Susan’s workshops are conducted on-site with individual organizations, and through frequent seminars at Volunteer Centers, Nonprofit Resource Centers, the Points of Light Foundation and other coordinating agencies throughout the country.

Prior to starting her firm in 1984, Susan conducted a wide variety of annual, capital, endowment and special funding activities. She is the former Executive Director of VIVA in Washington, D.C., a national concern group for POWs and MIAs in Southeast Asia, which created the POW/MIA bracelets. Susan has served as the Director of Development for such organizations as the Greater Southeast Community Hospital Foundation and the seven YWCAs of the National Capital Area in Washington, D.C., as well as other nonprofit agencies. She worked in marketing for the Marriott Corporation and in public and media relations for various organizations. Susan is a former Senior Trainer with the Grantsmanship Center in Los Angeles where she conducted fundraising and board development workshops throughout the country.

Susan is the author of, Boards from Hell (to help strengthen nonprofit boards of directors), Are You Chairing a Board by the Seat of Your Pants (for all volunteer leaders and those who love them!), and How to Ask for Money Without Fainting available in a variety of languages. Electronic versions of all the titles include state of the art text indexing, linking, adjustable type size and printing capabilities. Susan also published a book through Cornell University, Board Development for Independent Living Centers, for organizations serving people with disabilities.

Susan Scribner has facilitated the following CNL courses:

• Board Development
• Board Leadership Graduate Seminar