Morgan Zehner Introduction

My name is Morgan Zehner and I am the newest member of the DonorCast Team. I want to introduce myself to the awesome community that we serve and I thought that a blog entry would be a good place to start. I will be the primary analyst for all of DonorCast’s program analysis projects. I am really looking forward to providing continued innovation to the DonorCast forecasting methodology and designing nonprofit sector metrics to better understand development productivity and performance. And, like Josh did, I am going to write a book. 

So, a little about ME (visit my web page and watch my bio-video). I began my career in nonprofit leadership as the Executive Director of Dupont Circle Main Streets. Dupont Circle is an internationally recognized commercial district in Washington, DC. I first joined the nonprofit world because I was passionate about a specific mission – urban revitalization – but I quickly realized that I had a knack for fundraising. While in Dupont, I was able to quadruple the organization’s budget by executing a portfolio of fundraising methods – from annual giving and grant writing to special events and securing a $90K major gift. After leading the organization through this growth period, I started my own consulting business where I provided small businesses and nonprofit organizations with counsel in the areas of market research, strategic planning, and fundraising development.

While the first part of my career has been incredible and full of accomplishments, I have always wanted to do technical, analytical work. As an undergraduate student at McGill University, I was drawn to quantitative social research and wanted to use those skills, or as Alex says “flex those muscles”, in my career. With that as my calling, I attended the full-time MBA program at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota where I focused my studies on market research and strategic management. It is this combination of experience and education that has made Bentz Whaley Flessner, and DonorCast in particular, a perfect fit. BWF is an entrepreneurial and innovative small consulting shop where I use my technical skills to serve an industry I respect. Nothing could be better and I am greatly looking forward to working with all of you.  

If you have any questions or would like to introduce yourself to me (please do!) drop me a line or follow me on Twitter

mzehner@bwf.com

@morganmz

Thanks! and looking forward to working with you,

Morgan