As a consultant, Steven Ross Loevy, Ph.D. understands large institutional advancement issues as well as the discrete fund-raising requirements of smaller units and independent organizations.  He helps clients manage relationships among staff, board members, executives, donors, and the public, in order to secure resources for their organizations, and he understands that careful internal negotiations are often required to serve the greatest good.  He is particularly skilled in helping clients build organizational capacity, and develop and manage philanthropic relationships of all kinds.

Steven brings to his work thirty years of direct experience as a front-line fundraiser, nonprofit executive, educator, and consultant.  He gained strategic perspective and fundraising experience from his roles on senior leadership teams at DePaul University, Urban Gateways: The Center for Arts in Education, and the University of Chicago.   He is known for innovative problem solving that combines evidence-based strategic thinking with an intuitive creativity unique in the field.

Steven has served on the faculties of the University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Iowa, University of Chicago, Beloit College, Columbia College, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and DePaul University’s Fund Raising Management Certificate Program.

His own education reflects the broad range of his interests and worldview, starting with a B.A. as an English major at the University of Michigan.  He then earned a Ph.D. in the interdisciplinary field of American Civilization from the University of Iowa, studying  American literature, intellectual history, and music.  and writing his dissertation on William Carlos Williams.  He then took graduate coursework in economics, statistics, and political analysis at the University of Chicago.

From 1999 to 2002, Steven served as Chief Development Executive (Associate Vice President) of DePaul University, reporting directly to the President.  His office supported broad institutional needs, plus nine colleges and schools, as well as Academic Affairs, Athletics, and Student Affairs.  Starting in early 1999, he re‑engineered the major gifts function, forming a 38-person staff responsible for gifts larger than $1,000.  Among his accomplishments at DePaul, he:

• Developed the strategy and case, and directed a $7.15 million capital campaign for a new science building.  Signficant gifts included $2.5 million from the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund and a $750,000 Kresge Challenge.  This was DePaul’s first new building funded entirely from external sources.
• Created innovative systems and work processes for identifying and cultivating high-capacity prospects and donors, including use of economic modeling data.  This effort reversed a five-year decline in annual gift revenue and increased significantly the number and amount of charitable gifts at all levels above $1,000.
• Developed and implemented, with a team of three colleagues and a consultant, a year-long strategy for soliciting a Trustee’s family, resulting in the $5 million gift to establish a Center for Community-based Service Learning (see article in Chicago Tribune, January 6, 2002).
• Wrote DePaul’s first policy on endowed faculty positions.
• Designed and institutionalized a model system to collect and report non-financial, quantitative measures of professional staff effectiveness (see article in CASE – Currents, February 2002).