Fundamentals of Fundraising Speakers: 

Kristin Campbell, CFRE - Volunteers- Partners in Fundraising 

Priscilla Guajardo Cortez, M.Ed., J.D. - Management and Accountability 

Amy Jackson, CFREBuilding and Sustaining Relationships

Tim Kubatzky, CFRE Securing the Gift 

Marion Lee, CFRE - Management and Accountability

Mollie O'Hara, CFRE, CFRM - Overview of Fundraising 

Michelle Vryn, CFRE - Marketing for Ongoing Success 

Angela Watkins - Developing an Integrated Fundraising Program

 

 

Kristin Campbell, CFRE

Kristin Campbell is the Director of Development at Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Texas (RMHC-CTX) where she is responsible for planning and organizing all fundraising strategies to support RMHC CTX’s four programs: Ronald McDonald House®, Ronald McDonald Family Rooms®, Healings Hearts and Happy Wheels Carts. She focuses on identifying needs and opportunities, developing strategies and building relationships to support families with critically ill or injured children. 

Prior to joining RMHC CTX, Kristin was the Chief Development Officer at the National Domestic Violence Hotline where she developed strategies to increase private funding. She also served as the Development Officer at the Presbyterian Communities and Services.

Kristin is very active within the Austin community and in addition to serving on the board with AFP, she is an active member of the Junior League of Austin and volunteer with KLRU. Prior to joining RMHC CTX, she participated on the Friends of the House Leadership Council for RMHC CTX’s young professional group.  Kristin has a Masters of Public Affairs from University of Texas at Dallas. 

 

Priscilla Guajardo Cortez, M.Ed., J.D.
Over the past twenty years, Priscilla has worked with a diverse group of local and national nonprofit organizations focusing on: 1) community-based program design and management; 2) fund development; and 3) nonprofit leadership. As an attorney and consultant, she has a strong combination of education and experience in the field of gift and estate planning and overall nonprofit governance and administration.

Priscilla currently serves as Executive Director of Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas, a pro bono civil legal service provider. She previously served as Executive Director of Philanthropy for Strategic Priorities for The University of Texas System, providing vision and direction in support of transformation gift fundraising for the Chancellor’s strategic priorities. She also served as Interim Vice President for Institutional Advancement at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley where she helped build a new comprehensive institutional advancement program.

Priscilla earned a bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University, a master's degree in education administration from The University of Texas at Austin, and a law degree from St. Mary's University School of Law. Priscilla currently serves on the boards of Ballet Austin and Lawyer Referral Service of Central Texas. She is a founding member of FuturoFund Austin and a graduate of Leadership Austin's Emerge and Essential programs. Priscilla is married to John-Michael V. Cortez and together they have a daughter, Isabella. With her husband, she was awarded Leadership Austin’s Ascendant Award and she was recently recognized as a Latina Industry Leader (Nonprofit Category) by the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

 

Amy Jackson, CFRE
Amy has over 15 years of development and resource management experience.  She currently serves as the Director of Development for Caritas of Austin—an Austin-based organization for over 50 years whose mission is to make homelessness rare, brief and non-reoccurring.  Each year, Caritas serves thousands of families who do not have a stable place to call home.  Through comprehensive, relationship-based services, clients are able to go from “surviving to thriving,” empowering them toward the life they want to live.   

Prior to moving to Austin in 2011, Amy served as the Director of Special Gifts and Director of Development for Meals-on-Wheels of Johnson & Ellis Counties for over 10 years.  There she oversaw all things fundraising and communications, as well as successfully led the major gifts program, “The Kitchen” capital campaign and launched their planned giving program.  She has also consulted for smaller nonprofits in resource development and contracted with the Texas Public Policy Foundation working on their annual Policy Orientation and capital project.     

Amy is a graduate of Abilene Christian University and holds a Masters in Public Administration with a certification in Nonprofit Management from the University of Texas at Arlington.  She is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) receiving her accreditation in June 2008.    
 

Tim Kubatzky
Tim Kubatzky is an Associate Director of Development at Moody College of Communication at UT-Austin, with a special emphasis on the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life. He has nearly 40 years of fund development experience working with boards, presidents, deans and executive directors. Tim has held positions of responsibility on comprehensive campaigns at The University of Texas, Rice University, Southwestern University in Georgetown, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and the University of Houston. 

Tim closed his first $1 million gift from an individual donor at Rice in the early 1990s. Prior to that, he wrote successful foundation grants for $5 million and $30 million for DePelchin Children’s Services and the University of Houston, respectively. 

Since moving to Central Texas in 1995, he has raised millions of philanthropic gifts for scholarships, faculty chairs, and facilities. Tim served on the development team that raised $80 million in seven years for the University of Texas School of Law. 
He is a strong advocate for donor-centric fundraising. 
Tim earned a journalism degree from the University of Missouri. He lives north of Georgetown with Katherine Kerr, his wife of 38 years, and their Sphinx cat, Harry, on a lot that is too big to be a lawn and too small to be a ranch. 

 

Marion Lee, CFRE
Marion Lee is the owner of Lee + Associates. She has more than 27 years of experience in capital and major gift campaigns, recruitment and nonprofit management, strategic planning, development assessments, board and staff education and philanthropic fund management. Building strong development processes and preparing organizations for sustainable growth is Marion’s passion and fuels her goal to keep our consulting services relevant to contemporary nonprofit needs.

Marion began her nonprofit career as special assistant to the Director of the Witte Museum, facilitating fundraising endeavors and developing the Witte’s adventure travel group, the Texas Camel Corps. She then became a Development Associate at the University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures where she developed the fund raising skills that are the core of her nonprofit career. 

Marion also served as Capital Campaign Director and Assistant Executive Director for the San Antonio Public Library Foundation to support the $175 million campaign to build the new Central Library. The Library Foundation raised more than $32 million to provide technology and other enhancements for the new Central Library and System.

She later became the CEO of the San Antonio Area Foundation, where she led the Board in its first strategic plan, reorganized the grant and scholarships programs, assisted the Board in developing policies and procedures for donor relations and investment management and increased the Foundation’s assets to more than $102 million.

She currently serves on the Board of YWCA of San Antonio and is a past member of the Boards of Any Baby Can, Humane Society of San Antonio and San Antonio 100. Marion received AFP San Antonio’s 2004 Fundraising Professional of the Year award and is a member of the Leadership Texas class of 2007.

Marion and her husband, Cameron, enjoy the country life with their two German Shepherds and Leopard Catahoula Heeler, scuba diving and planning the next great trip.

Mollie O'Hara, CFRE
Mollie O’Hara offers over 25 years of hands-on experience in successful development programs, both as a consultant and professional fundraiser. She has worked with organizations of all kinds, from small, social service groups to major universities. With a desire to provide high-quality capital campaign consulting to the Austin nonprofit community, Mollie founded the company in December 2010 and continues to be recognized by her peers as an expert in fundraising. A member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals since 1996, Mollie was named Outstanding Fundraising Professional in 2004 and served as president of the Greater Austin Chapter in 2012. Additionally, Mollie earned the Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) distinction in 2001 and a Certificate in Fund Raising Management from Indiana University in 2017. 

  

Michelle Vryn, CFRE 
Michelle Vryn has 10 years of fundraising, program management, and communications experience in the nonprofit and education sector. Over that time she has raised tens of millions of dollars, managed development and communications teams and successfully created and led volunteer boards. Most of all, Michelle enjoys helping nonprofits scale their innovative work by bringing together donors, strategic partnerships and a compelling case for support! Before joining Bat Conservation International, Michelle led communications and development at a nature center in Houston. She has also worked for the national consultancy, Dini Spheris, as well as directed membership for the Galveston Bay Foundation. Michelle recently served on both the Board of Directors and Advisory Board of Exploration Green Conservancy and helped establish the $28MM creation of Exploration Green – the largest greenspace in Bay Area Houston. During Hurricane Harvey, phase one of this newly established 200-acre park held 100 million gallons of stormwater and saved an estimated 100 homes from flooding.

Michelle holds a Bachelor and Master of Arts in environmental anthropology from the University of Texas-San Antonio as well as a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) certification. She also serves on the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)-Greater Austin Chapter Communications Committee and is an active AFP mentor. Outside of the office Michelle enjoys hiking, live music, and any spontaneous outdoor adventure!

 

Angela Watkins
Angela Hall Watkins is Executive Director of Provost Initiatives and Campus-Wide Priorities at The University of Texas at Austin.  She serves on the Vice President for Development's leadership team and engages key constituents to raise funds for student success and upward mobility. Prior to joining UT in 2018, Angela was Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Huston-Tillotson University where she directed the University’s fund development, alumni engagement, and communications programs. Angela spent nine years at ACT, the leading US college admissions testing company, where she launched a professional learning division that designed and delivered product training to more than 30,000 staff and customers annually.  She previously served as Managing Director of the National Center for Educational Achievement, a K-12 educational research and advocacy organization.  

Angela is Co-founder of Capacity to Grow, a nonprofit organization created to help K-12 school systems’ leaders and teachers ensure the data and data processes necessary to make important decisions about student learning are present in all school systems.  She is a former board member of Hospice Austin, SafePlace, Travis County’s Children’s Advocacy Center, Trinity Episcopal School, and the current Vice President of Welcome Table, Inc., an organization that provides nutrition, health care, and educational services to low-income families in East Austin.  

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Angela received her BA in Human Biology from Stanford University and her MA in Education from the University of Michigan.  Angela lives in Austin, Texas with her husband S. Craig Watkins, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin.