About Karla A. Williams, MA, ACFRE
Over the years, Karla’s work as a consultant, teacher, author, and speaker has inspired organizations across the country to accomplish unlimited goals with limited resources. Her students and colleagues have been motivated by her keen sense of the donor environment, her propensity for challenging assumptions, her principled participative leadership philosophy, and her unique classroom levity.
Karla is an organizational consultant with more than 35 years of professional nonprofit leadership. Her firm, The Williams Group, has assisted over 300 nonprofits to develop strong donor focused cultures.
Karla penned the first article on the importance of Creating a Philanthropic Culture, published in Contributions Magazine in 1995. She is the author of two highly-acclaimed books; Donor Focused Strategies for Annual Giving, a fundraising classic, and her newest book written for executive directors, Leading the Fundraising Charge.
As a teacher, Karla has helped shape the fundraising profession while inspiring colleagues to see fundraising as a calling.
She is the Faculty Director and a Founder of the new Leadership Gift School, Institute Philanthropic Leadership in Charlotte, NC. She also serves as adjunct faculty with three universities: The Fundraising School, Lilly Family Center of Philanthropy at IUPUI; the Masters Program in Philanthropy and Development at St. Mary’s University of MN; and the Fundraising Certificate Program at the University of St. Thomas Center of Business Excellence.
View a complete list of upcoming Presentations, Workshops and Training
Credentials
We believe that nonprofit organizations exist to solve problems, improve outcomes, fill gaps, and make the world a little better to live in. Leadership is our game changer.
Leadership principles are embedded in every service provided by The Williams Group – be it consultation, training, or teaching.
We can’t change the world, much less an organization, without stepping up to the challenge of leadership. We define leadership as the achievement of followership.
Our “way of work” is to help you, your staff, and your board exhibit leadership, by using organization development processes that help you define reality, think critically, plan strategically, be resourceful, and achieve greatness.
The Williams Group mission statement is direct and to the point: Building Philanthropic Cultures within Organizations and Communities.
To accomplish this mission, we focus on four major outcomes:
- We strengthen volunteer and staff leadership
- We integrate management, marketing, communications, and development
- We design new philanthropic initiatives
- We create optimal business models and sustainable revenue lines.
Over the past 35 plus years, The Williams Group has worked with more than 350 national nonprofit organizations from every sub-sector across the country. Karla’s work as a consultant, teacher, author, and speaker has inspired organizations across the country to accomplish unlimited goals with limited resources.
Her students and colleagues are motivated by her keen sense of the donor environment, her propensity for challenging assumptions, her principled participative leadership philosophy, and her unique classroom levity.
Karla penned the first article on the importance of Creating a Philanthropic Culture, published in Contributions Magazine in 1995. She is the author of two highly-acclaimed books; a fundraising classic, Donor Focused Strategies for Annual Giving, 1998/2004, and her newest book written for executive directors, Leading the Fundraising Charge, 2013.
As a teacher, Karla has helped shape the fundraising profession while inspiring colleagues to see fundraising as a calling.
She was in the first class to receive the ACFRE designation from the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and is an AFP master trainer. She was also awarded an AFP Outstanding Fundraiser distinction twice, first from the AFP Minnesota Chapter and second from the Charlotte, NC Chapter.