Kelly brings a passion for campaign planning and strategy to her work with clients—backed up by deep experience with campaigns as both a leader and a consultant. Heading Benefactor Group’s campaign service line, Kelly advises clients on campaign and donor strategy. She drives innovation and problem solving and fosters collaborative, productive relationships within and between teams.

Kelly’s background is in higher education fundraising: she held leadership positions at Eastern Michigan University Foundation, most recently as Assistant Vice President, Alumni and Donor Engagement. In this role, she led Eastern Michigan University’s largest and most successful fundraising campaign to date, Give Rise, surpassing its $100 million goal by nearly 20%. Kelly was responsible for a collaborative team focused on engaging the university’s extensive network of 180,000 alumni, annual giving, donor relations, advancement communications, prospect research, and reporting. Her leadership resulted in the development of a comprehensive strategic plan for alumni engagement, the introduction of innovative tools such as an alumni engagement scoring system and life-stage segmentation model, and the creation of new strategies for engaging young and local alumni. In addition, as a fundraising consultant, Kelly has worked closely with clients from all sectors, leading feasibility studies and providing expert campaign counsel.

Kelly is a repeat conference presenter; she’s presented for the American Council on Education (ACE), the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). She is also a frequent guest speaker on fundraising fundamentals for nonprofit-focused programs at Eastern Michigan University and is a founding member and treasurer of the university’s Women in Philanthropy initiative. Kelly lives in southeast Michigan.