I’ve spent my career studying what actually works in partnerships—and why most don’t.
The Experience Behind the Thinking
I’ve spent three decades working at the intersection of nonprofits, businesses, and partnerships—raising millions of dollars and watching, up close, what actually works.
Along the way, I’ve written three books on partnerships and cause marketing, including Fundraising with Businesses, published by Wiley. Selfish Giving is the web’s longest-running blog on partnerships and cause marketing.
I teach in Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, speak to organizations around the world, and have been quoted in outlets ranging from The Wall Street Journal to The New York Times. But the most important part of my work has always been practical: helping organizations turn partnership ideas into results.
Selfish Isn’t Selfish When It’s ‘Wise.’
“We are naturally driven by self-interest; it’s necessary to survive. But we need wise self-interest that is generous and cooperative, taking others’ interests into account.”
Why Selfish Giving?
Selfish Giving began in 2004 as a way to share ideas I was already sending by email. When someone suggested I put them all in one place, the blog was born—and it quickly became a space to explore what I was seeing firsthand in partnerships between nonprofits and businesses.
What became clear early on is that the most effective partnerships aren’t purely altruistic or purely transactional. They’re built on shared, well-understood self-interest.
I chose the name Selfish Giving because it describes the reality of good partnerships. When businesses and nonprofits work together effectively, both sides benefit. The intentions are often generous—but they’re also practical. That combination isn’t a flaw. It’s the point.
An early version of the Selfish Giving logo!
How Experience Shapes My Work Today.
Before starting my own business, I led corporate partnerships for a Boston hospital, where I built a partnership program from the ground up and worked closely with marketing, sales, and event teams.
Since then, I’ve helped organizations design and execute partnership campaigns with local and national companies—work that’s given me a clear view of what holds up in the real world, and what looks good only on paper.
That hands-on experience is what informs how I think about partnerships today: practical, grounded, and focused on alignment—not theory.
Today, my work is focused on one thing: helping nonprofits and businesses build partnerships that actually hold up—strategically, financially, and over time.
I don’t believe in one-off campaigns or performative partnerships. I believe in alignment, clarity, and shared value—because that’s what creates results both sides can stand behind.
That’s me on the left…I think.
My Backstory
If you are interested in that kind of stuff.
I grew up in a working-class family in Brockton, Massachusetts. I’m a twin and the youngest of seven children.
Brockton during the 1970s was a great place to grow up. My childhood was full of adventures with family and friends. But our neighborhood also had its share of poverty, neglect, alcoholism, and abuse.
My first fundraising experience was going door to door on Labor Day Weekend, collecting donations for the Jerry Lewis Telethon and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).
After high school, I attended Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. After classes, I worked the graveyard shift at a local hospital—starting in the linen room across from the morgue, then later in the emergency department, registering patients.
Those early experiences shaped how I think about work, money, and partnerships—practical, unsentimental, and grounded in reality.
Me with team members of a Boston bagel store chain. They raised $25,000 for charity with donation boxes.
Learning By Doing
After graduating from Stonehill, I attended the Pennsylvania State University, where I studied rhetorical criticism and early American public address. After completing my master’s, I considered pursuing a doctorate—but chose not to. Instead, I returned to Boston and took a temporary fundraising role at the Muscular Dystrophy Association (the same charity I collected for as a kid).
From there, I worked across nonprofit, business, and media environments—including the Arthritis Foundation, the Boston Chamber of Commerce, public television, and seven years at Boston Medical Center, New England’s largest safety-net hospital.
It wasn’t a straight line. There were detours, experiments, and dead ends. But two things stuck: an interest in how businesses and nonprofits work together—and a deep appreciation for practices, technology, and ideas that actually work.