Pearl D. Shaw, CFRE, is a fund development strategist and nationally syndicated writer with management experience in the private and non-profit sectors. As a principal at Saad&Shaw she works directly with diverse nonprofit and higher education leaders conducting feasibility studies, designing fundraising programs, and leading training sessions that engage trustees, volunteers and staff.
Olivia Cummings is the Community Marketing Lead at Relay. Relay is a no-fee, online business banking and money management platform to understand precisely what your business is earning, spending and saving.
LaMonica Love recognized there was a real-world need for minorities and women business owners to have access to quality and affordable legal representation. She stepped in to fill that gap by founding The Love Law Group And Consulting Services, PLLC. The Love Law Group provides top-notch legal services and business solutions to over 1,800 clients including start-ups, small/medium-sized businesses, and Fortune 100 Companies. LaMonica has received many top honors including 2021 Houston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, 2019 Top 30 Influential Women in Houston, 2021 Cumberland School of Law – Distinguished Young Alumna Award, and 2019 National Bar Association Top 40 Lawyers Under 40.
Witnie A. Martinez is the Founder & CEO of Absolute Impact Consulting—a social impact advisory firm that helps nonprofits maximize their impact through expert consultation and professional development opportunities led by industry experts. Witnie thrives at the intersection of education, philanthropy, and leadership.
For over a decade, her career has focused on expanding & diversifying revenue streams, increasing organizational impact, building systems and driving brand awareness for nonprofits across the country. Martinez has helped organizations generate revenue for multi-million dollar annual budgets and campaigns alike. Through these experiences, she saw a need to shift how philanthropic and educational resources are distributed throughout the nonprofit ecosystem. To be a part of the solution—Witnie launched Absolute Impact Consulting. She speaks about and leads a variety of professional development opportunities focused on increasing effectiveness for organizations, teams and individuals.
Her passion for helping others through her work comes from growing up in low-income communities and realizing the need for access to basic resources that can bring about transformational change in people’s lives. As a former teacher, Martinez believes that children in under-resourced communities—particularly Black children—need equitable access to quality and holistic educational experiences, to break systemic cycles of generational poverty.
Martinez was born in Haiti and is a first generation college graduate. She holds an Ed.S. in Educational Leadership and a M.S. in Psychology—both from Nova Southeastern University; a certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University; a B.A. in Theatre and a B.S in Health Sciences both from Florida International University. Martinez lives in the Charlotte Metropolitan area with her husband and two young children. Her values of faith, family and integrity keep her grounded.
Derric Bakker is one of those rare individuals who has been in fundraising for almost his entire career. In 1990 – just a couple years out of college – Derric was approached by a colleague serving on a Board seeking to fill a key fundraising position. It soon became apparent that fundraising was a strong fit for his unique set of gifts and what started as a whim grew into a lifelong career.
Over the next ten years Derric would hone his craft working at three different nonprofit organizations. In 2001 he shifted into consulting. Over most of the next decade Derric worked for two different firms providing consulting services to dozens of different nonprofit organizations. In 2010 Derric started his own consulting firm, which became DickersonBakker after a merger with Clark Dickerson’s Denver-based firm in 2012. Since then, he has served as President of DickersonBakker. Under his leadership, Derric has fostered a culture at DickersonBakker that has been magnetic to talent, enabling the company to build a nationally recognized team of over forty highly skilled full-time professionals, who collectively serve well over a hundred different nonprofit organizations each year.
Derric’s particular specialty is in major gift development. He has successfully solicited countless major gifts, including many multi-million-dollar gifts and some in the tens of millions of dollars. He has coached dozens of fundraisers in the art of major giving and teaches and writes regularly on the subject. With over three decades’ experience across multiple sectors of the industry he is also now a sought-after expert on strategy and organizational development.
First, & most importantly, I’m a husband of a beautiful wife & father to an amazing 2 year old.
Of secondary importance, I am the owner of Beard & Bowler Productions, a Commercial Filmmaking creative company that helps nonprofits raise funds & awareness through the power of storytelling via video.
I have worn all the hats, including an English bowler, in my time building this company & have been privileged to work with a long list of businesses, agencies, & organizations. There is genuine power to the art of storytelling and I’m proud to be part of a company that uses this power to make an impact in our world.
As with any good story there are numerous details I must not go into great detail over here. From my days as a hard news journalist to A.J. Video to Beard & Bowler I continue to learn & grow. Only greater things to come… just you wait.
Jesse Lane, founder of Branches Mission Lab and goodmakerU, has worked in the nonprofit and ministry space for over a decade and helped raise over $100 million. Through his work Jesse has helped thousands of nonprofits and ministries grow their reach, raise more money, and have greater impact. Jesse is passionate about making Jesus famous in all nations and lives in Northwest Arkansas with his wife and three daughters.
Erik Rubadeau is an experienced digital strategist, online fundraiser and non-profit technology specialist. Erik is currently the CEO of Yeeboo Digital, a data driven, full service online fundraising and technology agency.
Erik is driven to help nonprofits unlock their capacity, free up precious time and generate increased revenue through technology adoption and digital fundraising.
Erik speaks on technology, innovation and digital revenue generation. His expertise on digitally lead fundraising and tech innovation and adoption has helped hundreds of nonprofits launch new initiatives and grow their revenue.
With over 15 years of cross-functional digital fundraising, marketing, mobile, design, analytics and web dev experience, Erik provides expert insight and strategic direction on a wide range of client programs.
Tyler is Church Communication’s marketing director and creative hype man in addition to working in demand generation marketing for a tech company. He and his wife are worship and ministry leaders at Hope Village Church in Redmond, Washington. In previous roles, Tyler has led as a youth ministry leader, church creative director, marketing for a handful of tech companies, and development for non-profits local to Seattle.
As a founder of RealHR, Susan’s commitment to our clients begins with her career-long mission to blend legal and regulatory rigor with common sense and fairness in real workplace settings. With experience practicing employment law as well as leading human resources departments, Susan has held roles in the non-profit, government and corporate sectors. She takes pride in her ability to hone-in on client needs and build trusting partnerships in order to help them understand their goals and put them into action.
Prior to founding RealHR Solutions, Susan was the Director of Human Resources at the Medical and Health Research Association of New York City, now named Public Health Solutions, and served in legal and Human Resources leadership roles at the New York Clearing House Association. She began her legal career at the New York City Commission on Human Rights.
When not running the day-to-day business of RealHR or presenting training on employment law or HR management topics, Susan spends her time exploring museums, art galleries, music and great food in her hometown of New York City and her adopted home in the Berkshires, and as often as possible travels to London and the Catskills where she and her husband visit with their two daughters. Susan holds a B.A. in History from Georgetown University and a J.D. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington D.C.
