Catawba College is a small institution (student population 1,300) that has enjoyed fundraising success in recent years by connecting value and mission to donor passion. Meg Dees calls this era in the college’s 175-year history “a miraculous, extraordinary time.”

What brought you to Catawba College?

I had a circuitous route here. I was on the Board of Trustees. At the time I was a Vice President of Philanthropic Advancement for the Foundation for the Carolinas. In 2017, I volunteered with a fellow trustee to help out in the college’s development office, which had been without a steady vice president for about five years. (I should note that it had a longtime VP, who retired in 2012 and laid a great foundation for me.) The next thing I know I was “loaned” to the college as interim VP. The foundation and the college shared a lot of the same donors. I took a leave of absence for two years, but was determined to return because I loved my job at the foundation.