Having served hundreds of organizations throughout the United States, the Demont team combines national experience with local knowledge, service, and commitment. The team brings to clients valuable experience and perspective as past managers, directors, board members, and volunteers of not-for-profit organizations throughout the country. Our associates are dedicated to the profession; they are self-motivated with an entrepreneurial spirit, and committed to creating a partnership between client personnel, volunteers, and counsel that promotes fund-raising success to make a difference in the communities we serve.
Robert D. Demont, CFRE
President
Bob Demont has been a proponent of the highest standards in direction and counsel to philanthropic institutions, their staff, and volunteers since 1979. In addition to managing, directing, and counseling hundreds of clients and helping them raise over $800,000,000, Bob has been a teacher, coach, camp counselor, board member, political campaign manager, international performer, and marketing representative. He formed Demont Associates in 1993 after serving as regional manager and president of the New England Division of Ketchum, Inc., when it was the largest fund-raising counseling firm in the world.
Bob has personally chaired six capital campaigns for not-for-profit organizations. He is past president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Northern New England Chapter, was a faculty member of AFP’s First Course and Survey Course, and a guest lecturer at Lesley College. He also has completed the Executive Leadership Institute sponsored by AFP in conjunction with the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy.
Bob is the former Chair of the Board of Visitors of the University of Maine at Machias, President of Yarmouth High School Alumni Association, and President of the Board of Directors of Agawam Council, a private character-based camp serving American youth since 1919. Bob remains a development committee member and summer camp counselor at Camp Agawam, serves on the Yarmouth High School Alumni Association, and is a member of his church’s finance committee, choir member and chair of its $1.1 M endowment campaign for music ministry. He has been an active volunteer and class capital campaign chair at his alma mater, Bowdoin College and also chaired Up With People’s International Alumni Association Founders Campaign.
Kate White Lewis, CFRE
Vice President, New England East
Kate White Lewis has served numerous clients with campaign planning and direction services since 2000. Her primary responsibilities are in the areas of service quality, communication, supervision, training, planning, and marketing direction. In serving clients, she is responsible for creating and implementing campaign plans; recruiting and training volunteers; managing campaign solicitations; managing donor and prospect databases; developing marketing materials; and organizing campaign activities.
Kate has previous experience in political campaigns and public interest organizations. Prior to joining Demont, she completed a fellowship program with the state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs). Her experience in that capacity included fund raising, lobbying, directing media relations, building membership, financial office systems, and training, managing, and motivating staff and volunteers. Kate holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science and French from the University of Vermont, where she concentrated in environmental studies. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Northern New England Chapter of the Association of Fund-Raising Professionals (AFP NNE). She is former co-chair of the Board of Directors for Maine People’s Alliance, current volunteer treasurer for the Maine People’s Resource Center, and has been active with the Sierra Club and South Portland Land Trust.
Lauren Geiger Moye, CFRE
Vice President, New England West
Lauren Geiger Moye supports Demont clients with over 30 years of experience in development, public relations, and media. She serves clients in the areas of feasibility studies, capital campaigns, grant writing, volunteer training, marketing and public relations, and Youth in Philanthropy. She is also responsible for professional training and development of Demont Associates staff.
Lauren is Chair of the national AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) Youth in Philanthropy (YIP) Sub-Committee, whose mission is to advance the youth in philanthropy movement among chapters and the fundraising profession.
During her tenure with Demont Associates and in her previous development positions, Lauren has raised over $37 million in campaign and annual funds. Prior to joining Demont, she served as Executive Director of Kingdom County Productions (Barnet, VT) where she was responsible for fund raising, public relations, marketing, publications, special events, and donor relations for the independent film Disappearances and an Emmy-winning television show, Windy Acres.
Lauren is the former Director of External Relations for the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium (St. Johnsbury, VT) where she designed and implemented programs to increase the Museum’s financial resources and expand its audiences. Responsibilities included marketing, building a larger membership base, planning and managing annual and capital campaigns, and increasing individual, corporate, and foundation support for the Museum’s programs and services.
A freelance writer and public relations consultant to organizations such as Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital, Chelsea Green Publishing, Readers’ Digest Books, Scribner’s, and Athenaeum Publishing, Lauren also served as Senior Publicist at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and as Associate Manager of Public Relations at The New York Public Library during the Library’s renaissance under the leadership of Vartan Gregorian. She created and executed publicity campaigns for exhibitions, major gifts and acquisitions, benefits, public programs and a $307 million fund-raising campaign combined with the 75th anniversary of the Library.
Lauren holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Middlebury College and has studied at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She is a Board Member and Development Chair of Kingdom County Productions and has recently served as Vice Chair and Development Chair of the Vermont Women’s Fund. She also served as Recruiting Chair for Stevens School (Peacham, Vermont). She is a former president of the Board of the Association of Fundraising Professionals of Northern New England, and a former Board member of the St Johnsbury Athenaeum. Lauren is a Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium Fellow and a recipient of the AFP Chamberlain Scholarship.
She lives in St. Johnsbury, Vermont with her husband Richard and has one daughter, Lizzie, currently enrolled at Barnard College in New York City.
Sheri M. Leahan
Director of Campaign Systems
Sheri Leahan offers over fifteen years of development expertise in prospect research and analysis, capital campaign procedures and documentation, and donor database assessments and management to client staff and Demont campaign directors and associates. She holds extensive knowledge in prospect and foundation research techniques utilizing on-line and print resources. Sheri supervises the set up of campaign offices, gift and acknowledgement procedures, database management, and training on campaign database coding, report writing, and prospect management systems. In addition to administering internal assessments and planning studies, Sheri has served Demont Associates as a campaign associate for numerous capital campaigns throughout New England and as the firm’s marketing coordinator.
She brings significant museum leadership, research, and curatorial experience to the firm having earned an M.A. in History Museum Studies through the Cooperstown Graduate Program at the State University of New York College at Oneonta. She is the former Curator of the Senator Margaret Chase Smith Library and Museum in Skowhegan, Maine and former Director of the Noyes House Museum in Vermont. She provides valuable project management, educational, marketing, and other skills from her work with a variety of museums throughout Greater New England. Sheri is a graduate of the University of Southern Maine with a B.A. in History, a board member of Maine Archives and Museums, and an active volunteer for the New England Museum Association and the Central Kennebec Heritage Council (Maine). She is a member of the New England Development Research Association.
Abbi Rusinek
Associate
Abbi Rusinek provides operational support to Demont counselors and campaign planning and management services to clients in the New England region. She is responsible for responding to inquiries and proposal requests, as well as internal operations, contracts, billing, prospect research and production of planning studies. In addition, she serves as a Campaign Officer Manager for capital campaign clients.
Abbi received a B.A. in Communications and Advertising from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she graduated Cum Laude. Prior to joining Demont Associates, she worked in New York City, for a Tribune-owned television station, where she gained experience with client services and advertising sales. In addition, Abbi has a background in public relations and marketing from a small full-service agency, based in Poughkeepsie, NY.
She has been an active volunteer for the Student Conservation Association (SCA). An outdoor enthusiast, environmental conservation is still a primary passion. Additional volunteer work has included coordinating blood drives for the American Red Cross, as well as organizing Relay for Life walks for the American Cancer Society. She currently resides in her hometown of Yarmouth, ME.
Teri Bordenave
Consulting Associate
Teri Bordenave, MHSA has worked in the nonprofit sector since 1979 in a variety of senior leadership roles and as a consultant. Her expertise includes strategic planning, leadership development, strategic restructuring, organizational development, governance, change management and relationship building.
For twenty years, Teri served as President/CEO of Girls Incorporated of the Greater Capital Region in New York during which time the organization saw unprecedented growth – from serving approximately 4,000 girls in only one county to serving over 20,000 girls in seven counties.
An advocate for girls’ rights, Teri served on the national Girls Incorporated Board of Directors for seven years, was a member of its Executive Committee and chaired its Board Development Committee. She also spearheaded a governance structure change as well as the organization’s shift to a corporate model. She has served on a number of Boards of Directors including that of the Center for Women in Government and Civil Society, several Chamber of Commerce Boards of Directors and others at the local and state level.
Concerned with the relationship between the for-profit and nonprofit sectors and their respective roles in economic development, Teri was a founding member, Steering Committee member and Chair of the Tech Valley Nonprofit Business Council, an innovative, collaborative effort of several local Chambers of Commerce. Teri’s experience as a trustee on both local and national governing boards, plus her 20 years as a non-profit CEO, gives her a unique perspective and much expertise in the area of effective governance and management.
In her role as a member of the Leadership Team for the Nonprofit Executive Roundtable, a project of Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, Teri co–authored the 2006 case study entitled, High Tech Growth and Community Well-Being: Lessons Learned from Austin, Texas. She has also contributed to several publications on nonprofit governance and management.
Teri has received numerous awards including, the General Electric Accolade Award for Community Leadership, the Business Review’s Nonprofit of the Year Award, the Women’s Fund of the Capital Region’s Trailblazer Award, the Chamber of Commerce Women of Excellence Award, the YWCA Women of Achievement Award, the Agency Chief Executives’ Leadership Award, the Business and Professional Women’s Woman of the Year Award and the John F. Kennedy Community Service Award.
Teri holds a Masters of Human Services Administration from Antioch/New England Graduate School where she focused on organizational development and training/consulting.
Teri has consulted with diverse clients including: Family Planning Advocates of New York State, Mohawk Valley Physicians Health Plan, New York State AFL–CIO Workforce Development Institute, Rensselaer County Chamber of Commerce Leadership Institute, Capital District YMCA, Work Family Directions in Boston MA, Northeast Regional Council of the YWCA of the USA, Study Circles Diversity Project in Amherst MA, YWCA of Hawaii Island, Make A Wish Foundation, Women Work! in Washington DC, Women’s Center of Greater Lansing Michigan, Union College Graduate School and numerous Girls Incorporated affiliates across the country.
Robert J. Buckla, Ed.D.
Senior Associate
Rob Buckla offers Demont clients more than 25 years of fund-raising, public relations, and consulting experience. For the last ten years at Demont, he has served clients with comprehensive capital and endowment campaign counsel; institutional advancement counsel; strategic planning; program assessment & analysis; and marketing program development.
Rob currently serves as Senior Director of College Programs in the Office of Institutional Advancement at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Rob most recently served as vice president of development & external relations at Hyde Schools where he oversaw a four-campus group of boarding and public charter schools. Prior to his appointment to Hyde’s administration, Rob engineered the boarding school’s $16.3 million capital and endowment campaign as a Demont & Associates’ consultant and campaign director. He has served as vice president for institutional advancement at Averett University in Virginia, as well as associate vice president for Development at Regis University, in Denver, CO, Director of Development at Theological College of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, Director of Development and Alumni Relations at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence, MA, and Director of Development and Alumni Relations at Doane Stuart School in Albany, NY.
Throughout his career, Rob has specialized in fund raising at values-centered, religious-affiliated institutions and organizations. He holds a bachelor’s degree from St. Bonaventure University in New York and a master of education degree from Vanderbilt University. He also holds a doctorate from Vanderbilt, where he studied the impact of organizational culture on fund-raising effectiveness. Rob has been actively involved in the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) throughout his career and has attended Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) conferences. He volunteers his time and expertise at his undergraduate alma mater, St. Bonaventure.
Cathy Coffman
Consulting Associate
Cathy Coffman has over twenty-five years of experience working for nonprofits. Although she has worked for large institutions, such as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, her particular interest is in assisting small nonprofits to improve their fund-raising capacity, strengthen organizational leadership, and tell their story more effectively.
Cathy has held positions across the spectrum of nonprofit advancement and management. Her fund-raising positions have ranged from director of development to campaign director to annual fund director, and her communications positions from publications editor to director of public affairs. For nine years, she served as both chief financial officer and director of advancement at Thornton Academy in Saco, Maine. As a consultant she has conducted planning studies, annual fund reviews, image assessment studies, data analysis, and board retreats. She has worked for or consulted with social service agencies, environmental and scientific organizations, universities, and independent schools.
A graduate of both Ohio State University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she completed her doctoral coursework, Cathy lives in Saco, has served on local community boards and efforts, and enjoys volunteering in the summer at the Fifth Maine Museum.
Christopher E. Crooker
Consulting Associate
Chris Crooker has been connecting alumni, parents and friends with Cornell University since 1997. Most recently, as the assistant dean for alumni affairs and development for the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, he has experience in all phases of alumni relations and fund raising for Cornell.
During his career he has been entrusted to work with key volunteer leaders throughout the organization, from trustees to class officers and alumni club presidents. Crossing the spectrum of non-profit fund raising, Chris has built participation in annual fund and reunion giving programs, provided staff leadership to campaigns, developed and executed major gift strategies and coordinated and conducted gift planning discussions. He has worked on the project teams for Cornell’s $200 million scholarship challenge campaign and an $85 million campaign for the university’s athletic programs. He currently leads the ILR School’s $60 million capital campaign.
Prior to his time at Cornell, Chris served in the U.S. Navy as a surface warfare officer for seven years, including service in the Northern Arabian Gulf during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. He remains in the Navy Reserve.
Chris volunteers his time as a board member of the Ithaca, NY Babe Ruth Baseball League, and as a trustee of the Alpha Psi of Chi Psi Fraternity Educational Trust.
J. Patrick Gugerty
Consulting Associate
Pat Gugerty brings to Demont nearly two decades of corporate and philanthropic experience. Throughout his professional career he has been involved with many aspects of consumer marketing, executive administration, human resources management, education and development, and not-for-profit board governance.
Pat held a variety of key leadership positions for MBNA, which at the time was one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing banking organizations. He was responsible for partnerships and marketing with numerous organizations headquartered in New England. As an executive Board member for a national education foundation, he and his colleagues were responsible for the approval of teacher grant requests and student scholarship awards for the New England portion of the $60 million fund.
As board and committee member, Pat has played a pivotal role for various organizations, including: Penobscot Bay Medical Center’s occupational health arm, Health Connections, Penobscot Bay YMCA, and Tanglewood 4H Camp and Learning Center, all located in mid-coast Maine, and Ursuline Academy in Wilmington, Delaware. Pat has also worked independently as a consultant to organizations to develop strategic plans, case statements, and campaign planning and feasibility studies.
Pat holds a bachelors degree from the University of Maryland at College Park and resides in Wilmington, Delaware.
Sean P. Ireland, J.D.
Consulting Associate
Sean brings extensive and varied advancement experience to the Demont team, and is involved in campaign management and study direction. He has been involved in all aspects of fundraising, including annual fund, major and leadership giving, creating cases for support for special fundraising projects, planned giving, and volunteer training.
Sean also has experience in all aspects of constituent relations, including event planning, creating and coordinating regional affinity groups, and marketing, communications and media outreach strategies.
Finally, Board of Directors/Governors committee structure, governance, by-laws, and board development and strategic planning are areas of experience and interest.
Sean’s professional advancement experience includes positions at the following institutions: Hyde Schools, Executive Director of Advancement (Bath, ME; Woodstock, CT); Hyde Schools, Director of Development (Bath, ME); Saint Joseph’s College, Director of Planned and Leadership Giving (Standish, ME); Saint Joseph’s College, Senior Assistant Director of Admission (Standish, ME); Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity, Leadership Consultant (Champaign, IL).
Sean also practiced law at the firm of Skelton, Taintor & Abbott in Auburn, Maine, where his area of practice was assisting in all aspects of the firm’s trial and litigation group. While practicing law Sean was recognized by the Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project for his work with children as a volunteer Guardian ad Litem.
He graduated from the University of New Hampshire (Durham, NH) with a B.A. in Political Science and earned a Juris Doctorate at the University of Maine School of Law. His volunteer work includes serving as a Founding Board Member, Admissions Chair, and a member of the Marketing and Communications Committee of the Friends School of Portland. He is also a member and volunteer at the Maine Track Club.
Phyllis Ives
Senior Associate
Phyllis Ives brings extensive professional business development; project and office management; and marketing and public relations experience to Demont clients. She serves as an on-site Campaign Director, managing all aspects of capital campaigns such as prospect research and review; database management; public awareness and cultivation programs; volunteers; and campaign divisions. Phyllis’ experience combines healthcare administration and business development, having worked for medical centers, large physician groups, major health plans, and the United Way.
Phyllis has served as a loaned executive and campaign coordinator for the United Way of Greater Portland. As a former senior practice administrator for PracticePartners of Portland, Maine, she provided leadership and direction on planning and coordinating the operations of 10 primary care physician practices. Phyllis has provided business and project management for Connecticut Multispecialty Group in Hartford, Connecticut and the Permanente Medical Association in Dallas, Texas. While in Dallas, she also provided product development and marketing services for Baylor Health Care System and Cigna Healthplan. Phyllis is a graduate of Trenton State College with a bachelor of arts degree in psychology. She is an active volunteer for the Second Congregational Church in Newcastle, and is on the Board of Directors of the Carpenter’s Boat Shop and the Coastal Chorale.
Susannah H. Kerest
Consulting Associate
Susannah Kerest provides campaign and study direction for Demont clients. Throughout 15 years of fund-raising experience, Susannah has conducted major gift fund raising in organizations of varying scale across New England.
Susannah has held development positions in leadership giving at Wesleyan University, Cornell University, University of Vermont, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Horizons for Homeless Children (Boston), and LearningWorks in Portland, Maine. After a recent move to Burlington, Vermont, Susannah now joins the King Street Center as Development Director.
A graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, Susannah has held volunteer roles with Wesleyan University, local public radio stations, Portland Community Rowing Association, the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, as well as her children’s school.
David W. Lawrence
Senior Associate
David Lawrence, an expert in healthcare fund raising and advancement, provides Demont’s not-for-profit clients with institutional advancement counsel; comprehensive capital campaign management and counsel; ongoing/periodic program counsel; and strategic planning, awareness, and development program marketing and operational organization counsel.
In addition to his role as senior associate with Demont & Associates, David has served as senior philanthropic advisor for the Office of Resource Development at Harvard Medical School, providing strategic guidance for philanthropic support of medical research and educational programs. He currently serves in a similar capacity for the Sick Kids Foundation of the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto. He has also counseled Duke University Medical Center, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Georgetown University Medical Center, Jackson Laboratory, Bates College, National Parkinson Foundation, and several health systems nationwide.
Previously, David served two years as president of the Northwestern Memorial Foundation affiliated with Northwestern University Medical School. He also served 18 years as chief development officer for Mayo Foundation, leading the Mayo Clinic’s multi-site philanthropy activities.
A graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, David holds a master of arts degree from George Washington University. David completed 23 years of service as an active and reserve naval officer retiring at the rank of Captain.
Thomas W. Smith, CFP®
Senior Planned Giving Associate
With more than 30 years of planned giving experience, Tom is a private consultant in planned giving and senior philanthropic advisor at The Vermont Community Foundation. His additional experience includes eight years at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA, and 11 years at the University of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont. Tom is active in local and national levels of planned giving and currently serves on the Editorial Review Panel of The Journal of Gift Planning, published by the National Committee on Planned Giving. Prior to his career in development, Tom was a language professor on the college level.
Tom has an A.B. degree from Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio, and an M.A. degree from the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. In 1986, he received his certified financial planner designation from the College for Financial Planning in Denver, Colorado. He currently resides in Ripton, Vermont.
Additional Demont Partners
Ted Adler Founder and President of Union Street Media
Union Street Media has developed web sites for hundreds of businesses, non-profit organizations, and educational institutions. We nurture long term, mutually-beneficial relationships with our clients. Our focus is on customer centricity. To us, that means starting every conversation with your needs, goals and limitations, then recommending solutions accordingly—not the other way around.
Union Street Media was founded by Ted Adler in the fall of 1999. Under his leadership, USM has grown to be one of the leading web development companies in the northeast. Ted’s education includes a B.A. from Middlebury College, fourteen years at Brunswick School and six summers at Keewaydin Camp on Lake Dunmore.
Andrea Kihlstedt Author, Consultant, and Co-Founder of Asking Matters
Dan Osgood Producer and Director
Dan Osgood began his career as a radio copywriter while in school at Columbia College in Chicago, where he majored in film production and received his BA in 1972.
In the early 70’s he returned home to Maine, worked briefly at a Bangor Ad Agency and WVII-TV.
In 1977 Dan founded VP Films. In 1983 he moved the company to Portland, developed it into a highly respected company, and directed hundreds of commercials and television programs. In 1993 he sold the company and continued on as senior producer/director. Today he’s a freelance writer, producer and director.
His recent works include programs, commercials & PSAs for:
• Partnership for a Tobacco-Free Maine
• Dirigo Health
• Maine’s Office of Energy Efficiency
• Husson College
• Emanuel College
• The Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence
• UNUM Provident
• MEMIC
• AmericaSpeaks