Why Covenant Calls?
Covenant Calls is unique in the marketplace because of the background and experience of Jay Steenhuysen. Jay has more than 20 years of planning experience working with individuals, families, and charitable organizations to develop their philanthropic interests and find ways to express those interests through charitable giving and programs.
Jay provides consulting services to many nationally recognized charitable organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, the American Cancer Society, AARP, UNICEF, NPR and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Jay created The Strategic Gift System, a training curriculum for planned and major gift fundraisers. He has conducted this training for The Nature Conservancy, the University of Massachusetts and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and other charities – empowering their major and planned giving staff to connect with donors, discover their agendas, and act accordingly. Jay speaks regularly at fundraising conferences, is widely published, and recognized as one of the leading major gift and gift planning experts in the country.
Before developing his consulting practice, Jay worked at Brown University to develop its philanthropic planning program. He worked at World Vision, Inc., an international relief and development organization, serving in various roles including private giving counsel, director of gift planning, and capital campaign director. These programs sought to facilitate the philanthropic planning needs of World Vision’s most significant donors.
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Theresa Curran has 17 years of experience designing and implementing fundraising programs for nonprofit organizations. Before joining Jay as a Partner in Covenant Calls, Theresa spent her career working for companies that specialize in outbound fundraising, including The Share Group, Donor Services Group and Stephen Dunn & Associates.
At both Share and Donor Services Group, Theresa acted as Vice President of Client Services, overseeing all client programs, and working with national organizations such as the Sierra Club, UNICEF, The Anti-Defamation League, the ASPCA, and the Democratic National Committee. As a member of the senior management team at both companies, she helped to establish the strategic direction, oversaw business development efforts and managed several departments, placing an emphasis on outstanding customer service.
Theresa has worked with charities and consultants to develop a wide range of caller training and donor messaging that resulted in successful programs – from lapsed donor to high dollar upgrade to bequest qualification.
Covenant Calls offers Theresa the opportunity to apply her extensive nonprofit and program management experience to high-touch cultivation programs that develop the individual donor relationship.