Elizabeth Halloran, The Minneapolis Foundation
Title: Senior vice president of advancement
Age: 53
Social services and fundraising leader Elizabeth Halloran is aiming to increase and diversify revenue streams as the newly named senior vice president of advancement at the Minneapolis Foundation.
In merging her experience in both social work and charitable campaigns, the foundation role serves as a "capstone on my career, where we are talking about community needs and people living out their values through their actions," she said.
In her new role, Halloran oversees the foundation's philanthropic services group and its external relations team, shaping the foundation's fundraising strategy and donor services program while working with donors to support their passions and increasing the foundation's community reach.
Halloran, who has almost 30 years of experience in fundraising and social services, joined the foundation from Grinnell College, where she was vice president for development and alumni relations. She previously worked as assistant to the vice president at the University of Michigan's development office, served at the Mayo Center and was a clinician and manager in geriatric services for the state of Minnesota. She also worked as the manager of senior social services for the Milwaukee Catholic Home.
She has a degree in social work from the College of St. Teresa in Winona, an MBA from the University of St. Thomas and a master's in social welfare from the University of Wisconsin.
The Minneapolis Foundation manages more than $600 million in assets, administers more than 1,100 charitable funds and distributes $40 million in grants yearly.
Q: What are your responsibilities at the foundation?
A: The foundation looked at our staffing structure and thought one opportunity was to make sure marketing and communications and philanthropic advising were working closely together, to tell the right story. This position was created to oversee the great work already being done by those two divisions but to move that to a new level of communication as we move into the next century of the foundation.
Q: What are your plans for the foundation's fundraising strategy and donor services program?
A: We're going to have a much more intentional focus and engage those people who are already partnering with us to make sure that they understand the full breadth of the services available to them. We are structuring ourselves to be efficient … to make sure we're having the deepest investment and impact we can on the community.
Q: What motivated you to work in both social services and charitable campaigns?
A: Both professions share a solid base, which is values-driven decisionmaking and living out one's core values in your day-to-day living. It's the same conversation with very different outcomes.
