Reach for the Stars!

FUNDRAISER OF THE YEAR

Michelle Speas
Vice president of development and external relations
Old Salem Museums & Gardens

When Michelle Speas arrived late in 2006 at Old Salem Museums & Gardens — one of the top five visited museum institutions in North Carolina with more than 100,000 annual visitors — she inherited a development program in decline. Although Old Salem is a 54-year-old institution and maintains a $50 million endowment, the development department’s efforts had been unable to keep pace with the growing needs of the institution over the past 10 years, and the annual operating deficit had reached $880,000.