Lifetime Achievement
President & CEO,
Gail Battle, senior consultant at the Browne Innovation Group, nominated Geoff Peters for his "assiduous dedication to advance and protect the rights of the nonprofit industry," and we had to agree.
Geoff's long (35 years) and very public association with the fundraising sector stretches far beyond his role as a consultant who helps nonprofit organizations raise money to further their missions — though as president and CEO of CDR Fundraising Group, he certainly has done his share of that.
He is an internationally recognized expert on the regulation of nonprofits in the U.S. and Europe, and is well-known in North America as a volunteer attorney litigating landmark cases on behalf of nonprofits. In 2004 he won a five-year battle with Pinellas County, Fla., over its regulation of nonprofits, representing the Direct Marketing Association and DMA Nonprofit Federation, as well as other industry groups. He donated the awarded legal fees of more than $250,000 to a nonprofit public-interest law firm that continues to represent nonprofits.
In 2005 he again represented the DMA and DMA Nonprofit Federation, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, the National Health Council, the National Catholic Development Conference, and five other nonprofit-sector groups in successful briefs to the Supreme Court of the United States regarding the regulation of nonprofit fundraising.
Geoff is well-known as a direct-response fundraising guru who spends a great deal of time as a volunteer teaching direct-response fundraising. His teaching credentials include more than 11 years of teaching at the graduate level; presentations at more than 100 continuing-education programs; authoring more than 50 articles, book chapters and monographs on various topics; and regular contributions to courses on fundraising and direct-response marketing. He is one of the top-rated faculty members of the International Fundraising Congress, which he chaired in 2011, and he was instrumental in the founding of the Bridge to Integrated Marketing & Fundraising Conference.
Geoff has been involved in nearly every form of fundraising, ranging from capital campaigns to deferred giving, major gifts, annual fund, online, alumni membership, government grants and service contracts, corporate sponsorships, special events, cause-related programs, and of course, direct response. He has a breadth of knowledge about developing new fundraising programs in multiple markets. He currently works with clients developing integrated fundraising strategies and direct-response fundraising programs in North America, and consults with international NGOs on new market entry and global marketing strategies.
Geoff is a past board member and past-president of the Direct Marketing Association of Washington, and was a board member of the AFP-DC Metropolitan Chapter. He recently completed a two-year term as vice-chair of the Advisory Council of the DMA Nonprofit Federation. In March 2001, Geoff was awarded the DMA Nonprofit Federation's Public Service Award for his various volunteer efforts on behalf of the nonprofit community. In 2004 he was recognized by the DMAW for his volunteer service, and in 2009 was selected as Volunteer of the Year. In 2005 and again in 2006 he was cited by The NonProfit Times as one of the 50 most influential leaders in the nonprofit sector in the United States, and in 2006 he was recognized by FundRaising Success as one of the Top 10 Men in Fundraising.
Throughout his career, Geoff has not only strived to do outstanding work on behalf of his client organizations, but he also has exhibited a dogged commitment to the betterment of the sector as a whole and the advancement of fundraising professionals around the world. FS
