MICHELLE SPEAS, MA,CFRE
Founder & President - The NonProfit Collaborative, Advance, NC
Expertise: Organizational assessments, strategic planning, customized board retreats, governance, development and membership audits, grant writing, starting major gift and planned giving programs, capital campaigns, annual giving and international gifs.
Michelle has worked in Japan, the United States and Africa. In Japan, she served as a public relations officer for the Office of the Governor of Toyama Prefecture for two years. In Uganda, Africa, since 2009, she has provided counsel to Ekissa, Africa Renewal Ministries, and Bridge Africa International. She continues to travel several times a year to Uganda.
Since 1996 Michelle has held various positions, including National Partnership Director of Africa Renewal Ministries U.S. Office, Chief Operating Officer of the Chordoma Foundation (medical research), Vice President for Development & External Relations for Old Salem Museums & Gardens, the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Mebane Charitable Foundation, a private family foundation in North Carolina, and Director of Development and Alumni Relations at Oak Ridge Military Academy, the oldest private secondary school in North Carolina. She has also served on the campaign staff of United Way of Greater High Point and volunteered her time for two years to coordinate the efforts of her church’s, Cornerstone Christian Church, $3M capital campaign committee.
Recognition by her peers includes: · 2008 Fundraising Professional of the Year, by the NC Triad Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, November 2008. · 2008 Fundraiser of the Year by Fundraising Success, a national magazine for fundraising professionals, February 2008. · Recipient of the Piedmont Triad’s 40 Leaders Under Forty, presented by The Business Journal, February 2008. · Council for Advancement and Support of Education District III (CASE) awards in 1999 and 2000 for Excellence in Total Fundraising (1st Place), Educational Fundraising Projects (2nd Place) and Overall Alumni Relations Programs (3rd place.)
Michelle has been a member of the NC Triad Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals since 1997 and is also a member of the NC Planned Giving Council.
She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC serving on the governance committee, a board member of Family Services, Inc, a director of the NC Triad Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals serving as its mentoring committee chair, and chair of the World Missions Committee at her church, Cornerstone Christian Church.
She graduated cum laude from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. degree in history and magna cum laude with a M.A. in history from the University of Mississippi at Oxford. She is a graduate of Duke University’s Nonprofit Management program and the international Leadership Development Program at the Center for Creative Leadership.