I want to thank you for all your support and good thinking over the years. It has always been a pleasure to talk with you. Your smile, your sense of humor, as well as your knowledge in the field really made you an integral part of the Springfield community.
— Rabbi Mark Dov Shapiro, Sinai Temple
Deborah Kaplan Polivy uses her experience and expertise to help not for profit organizations succeed at raising money in support of their programs. She provides volunteers and staff with the knowledge to plan and implement feasible fund raising campaigns, whether they be annual, capital and/or endowment. She teaches people how to manage the entire fund raising schema from identifying and cultivating prospects, pursuing leads, asking for a gift, to following up with donors. She leads workshops on fund raising tools and techniques, managing change within development departments, and building strong and passionate boards who will share in the enterprise both as donors and solicitors. Dr. Polivy is particularly skilled in the creation of endowment campaigns and teaching individuals how these differ from annual and capital initiatives and what is necessary to make them successful.
Deborah began her professional career at Allied Jewish Community Services in Montreal, Quebec and since then helped establish two Jewish Federation foundations and also served as the Director of Total Financial Resource Development for the New Haven Federation. She was the Director of Development of Goodspeed Musicals, the originator of Annie, where she managed the initial stages of a capital campaign for a new theatre. She served as a major gift and endowment consultant for Connecticut Public Broadcasting as well as Research Associate at Yale University’s Program on Nonprofit Organizations. Clients include the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, Ashdod (Israel) Emergency Medical Center, Loomis Communities (life care facility in Holyoke, Massachusetts), Jewish Family and Life! and the Pioneer Valley Montessori School among others. She has taught at McGill University, Smith and Trinity colleges, and has published numerous articles on fund raising and the nonprofit sector. Her doctoral degree is from The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.