Kathy and Carol of KDD Philanthropy are experts in their field. Our Glenridge Charitable Foundation team works with their fundraising coaching services for several years and have found each session to be very helpful, informative, and empowering. Working with Carol has opened many possibilities for our future success as an organization, helping us to identify ways where we can make a positive difference through growth and change. We engage in discussions that guide us to discover and to affirm our organization’s purpose, focus and plan. We couldn’t ask for a better partnership.

I worked with Carol Spychalski when I was applying for my current position as the Assistant Dean for Advancement in Natural Resources. I needed assistance telling my story and positioning myself for this leadership role. Carol not only worked with me on my cover letter, resume, and interview preparation, she listened intently and helped pull out the most impactful things I’ve done in my career and distill my answers into the best possible responses. Working with Carol gave me confidence to tell my story in an efficient, meaningful and impactful way that positioned me for success.

We worked with Kathy and Carol on their coaching service around fundraising. The years of experience they both bring to the fundraising is incredible. As a small nonprofit, we lack the in-house capacity and knowledge around fundraising. Their coaching sessions were not only immediately helpful for troubleshooting and moving our fundraising goals forward, it gave us the confidence to continue to persevere. In particular, the tools they provided and the five meeting model scenario sessions were incredibly helpful. Thank you Kathy and Carol for what you do!

We brought Kathy to High Point University to provide training specific to frontline fundraising around closing major gifts and with our parent population. One of the things that is so impressive about Kathy is she works hard to tailor her training materials to the culture and circumstances of our campus. She worked hard to make it specific to High Point, and it was very helpful to have training scenarios and conversations that really fit what we were encountering daily in our work. As a result of her training, our team has increased their confidence around fundraising.

I hired Kathy because I was about 20 years into my advancement career and wanted to invest in my professional development in a different way. I interviewed three different coaches, and Kathy was the only one with the advancement experience that matched my needs. Kathy understood the challenges I faced and helped me adapt, shift my mindset and habits, and gave me very tangible ways to do that. … Kathy has deep and varied experience in advancement and she comes to her work with enthusiasm and energy. She is honest and doesn’t sugar coat, but also provides practical solutions and advice to help move forward through situations and challenges. Kathy wants to help people anchor in and make the profession better. She wants you to be successful and that comes across.

Kathy has worked with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Health on several occasions.  She has worked with major gift officers to assist them with strengthening their portfolios and cultivating new donors, and she has advised us about how to better leverage events and work with our philanthropic advisory boards. Kathy is very skilled at helping us with strategy and approach, but she’s also very skilled at translating that robust strategy to tactical actions. As a leader, I appreciate her clear thinking and analytical approach combined with down-to-earth tactical action. When we’ve talked with her about the key areas we want to address or challenges we face, she always does a great job of coming up with a program that’s well prepared to deliver in those areas.

I’ve been working with Kathy for almost two years. From the very first time we met, I’ve felt like she’s a coach who has my best interests at heart. She helps me advocate for myself and my team, ensuring our success, both personally and professionally, and she cares about the entire individual, not just our professional selves. … In our time together, we have covered a lot of ground and topics, including building a board/champion model and working with individuals, corporations and faculty. She’s also helped me with time and calendar management, managing up and down, leading a team, and being an interim assistant dean. One of the things I value most about Kathy is there has not been any topic I’ve thrown at her that she cannot handle. She always responds with amazing ideas, thoughts and suggestions.

After hearing Kathy speak at Clemson’s University Development Team retreat, I knew I wanted to work one-on-one with her. I manage a team of unit fundraisers and I’ve worked with Kathy on topics such as management, leadership and utilizing data to help gift officer performance. She has given me so much more confidence to be able to have constructive conversations with my gift officers to help them achieve their goals. … When Kathy came to our team retreat, she really got to know our team without having ever been on the Clemson campus. With Kathy, it never feels like I’m talking to a stranger who is only giving me canned responses. She knows our culture, and I really enjoy working with and learning from her.

I attended yesterday’s How to Hone Your Success as a Unit Fundraising Lead webinar as well as today’s through Academic Impressions on overcoming objections. After some burnout on webinars, these are the first two I’ve attended in a few months, because the topics were so interesting, and you did not disappoint. I really enjoyed both, and learned so much that I can put to use immediately. I will definitely re-watch them as a refresher at some point as well. And I added a donor objections agenda item for our next team meeting.

I participated in Wednesday’s "How to Hone Your Success as a Unit Fundraising Lead" session and departed the session inspired – both in my role as a manager and development officer. For Wednesday’s session, I encouraged my team of frontline fundraisers and our analyst to attend. Each has different levels of experience, learning interests and work styles. Each team member found useful information and is ready to put it into practice. I left with ideas for our upcoming business planning prep work (starting with some visioning exercises for the team and for each of us individually). The training also provided me with ideas for how I can better support each team member as they staff our faculty leads and how I myself do the same. Your one hour sessions have the right focus and are a great use of time. ... I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of many of your trainings – both in person and virtually. All of them leave me wanting more. Your direct, practical and real advice is fabulous. No matter the course, I always walk away motivated and with at least a couple very doable tips to help me in my daily work.