Derric Bakker

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.