Ginger Choy, Assistant Vice President, CCS Fundraising, brings 18-years’ knowledge working in nonprofit fundraising. She has a diverse set of development experiences including individual and major gift philanthropy, corporate and foundation relations, association membership, political campaign fundraising, and event planning for organizations in Minneapolis, MN and New York City. Ginger has held in-house roles with Books For Africa, Minnesota Technology Association, Twin Cities PBS, New York Hall of Science, The New York Botanical Garden, and YWCA of the City of New York.

Ginger holds a B.S. in Business Marketing and Management from St. Catherine University, is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer having served in Zambia, Africa, and is a U.S. – Japan Foundation Leadership Fellow.

Select Client Partners

  • Ripple + ReThink Health Foundation
  • Saint Peter’s University
  • International Cancer Expert Corps (ICEC)
  • Children’s Health Fund
  • The Rockefeller Foundation Pandemic Prevention Institute
  • Dayton Ohio Metro Library

Sarah is passionate about empowering nonprofits with the knowledge, expertise, and resources necessary to elevate their philanthropy. She is committed to helping organizations live up to their desire to make the world a better place. She believes that fundraising activities should be designed to cultivate meaningful and lasting relationships with donors, with the end goal to build sustainable funding solutions for organizations.

A marketing and development executive for over 25 years, Sarah has direct and deep experience in all facets of fundraising, including major gift strategies, capital campaigns, feasibility studies, volunteer engagement, donor relations, board development, cultivation events, and corporate partnerships. An adaptable and enthusiastic problem solver, she has built a strong reputation using creative strategies and leveraging opportunities.

Sarah is inspired by the nonprofit sector and motivated by the intellectual curiosity and creativity of those with whom she works. For play, Sarah can be found exploring and enjoying the outdoors no matter the weather.

Sarah earned an MA in Philanthropic Studies from the School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, an M Ed in Mental Health Counseling from Cambridge College, and a BA in Business Management from Notre Dame College.

select client partners

  • Archdiocese of Boston
  • Bangor YMCA
  • Bridgton Academy
  • Brigham and Woman’s Hospital
  • Coastal Humane Society
  • Family Services of the Merrimack Valley
  • Home and Hospice Care of Rhode Island
  • Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health
  • Salem State University
  • St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute
  • The Guidance Center
  • Tree Care Industry Association
  • University of Massachusetts – Lowell
  • WGBH/Nova

Jose Rodriguez began his career alongside CCS in 2018. Jose’s expertise includes working with bilingual communities, project leadership, volunteer leadership, major gifts, organizational and project marketing, and team building.

Jose’s fundraising career achievements include:

  • Received over $150 million in pledged gifts towards campaign goals
  • Worked with over 300 nonprofits in 9 metros with offertory assistance,
  • feasibility studies, and capital campaign management and Spanish translations
  • Managed multidirector teams on large scale capital campaigns
  • Successfully closed multiple seven-figure gifts in major gift efforts

His philanthropic interests center on religious and educational charities.

Jose holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Joseph Seminary College and an Executive Master’s degree in Business Administration from Marquette University.

Jose is a native of Southern California who has called Texas, Louisiana, Colorado, Ohio and Wisconsin home. In his free time, Jose spends time with his wife and son, cooking and exploring the latest city to which his fundraising career has led them.

select client partners

  • Catholic Foundation for the Diocese of Green Bay, Green Bay, WI
  • Diocese of Austin, Austin, TX
  • Diocese of El Paso, El Paso, TX

Margot is a Vice President at CCS with experience developing key fundraising and leadership gift strategies for clients local to New York City as well as those with a national presence. Margot brings a collaborative and tailored approach to each of her engagements and has worked with clients with goals ranging from $12 million to $150 million. Her areas of expertise include campaign management, major and leadership giving, board development, capacity building, and fiscal management. During her tenure she has served and counseled organizations that span sectors including arts and culture, advocacy, independent and boarding schools, and public-private partnerships. Within CCS, Margot serves on the Fiscal Management working group and has developed internal education on the topic.

Prior to joining CCS Margot managed corporate giving for Girls on the Run, a youth social-emotional learning program, where she expanded leadership support and developed new avenues for mission-driven funding for programs in 500+ Chicago-area schools. She has supported advancement efforts at cultural institutions, including the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Thomas Cole National Historic Site, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Margot holds a BA from Boston University. A native of Chicago, she resides in Manhattan where she enjoys the many cultural gems the city has to offer. Margot is an avid reader, casual racquet sport player, and active runner.

select client partners

  • American Ballet Theatre
  • Global CEO Alliance Foundation
  • The Masters School
  • Race Forward
  • Saint Ann’s School
  • Scuola d’Italia Guglielmo Marconi

Sean has worked with a wide range of non-profit organizations in the education, faith-based fundraising, healthcare, human services and environmental sectors. Sean has devised and planned successful capital campaigns, including implementing strategic plans with leadership, board members and volunteers.

Recently, Sean worked with The Archdiocese of New York to maintain and enhance their Annual Fund. He managed a team of 12 gift officers, while providing direction, training, and mentorship. Reporting and data analysis was enhanced to allow deeper understanding of strengths and weaknesses, ensuring that the appeal goal was met.

Sean partnered with The Stony Brook School to lay the foundation for the early phases of a capital campaign. Part of this early planning work included creating Gift Acceptance Policies for the campaign that met the needs of the school as well as those of an ever evolving and more sophisticated donor.

Sean has also collaborated with Catholic Schools of Brooklyn and Queens to develop successful fundraising plans that increase awareness of the difficulties that Catholic schools faced opening in the midst of a pandemic, and to increase the support of their benefactors in a post-COVID-19 environment.

select client partners

  • The Archdiocese of New York
  • The National Urban League
  • The Guide Dog Foundation
  • America’s VetDogs
  • The Stony Brook School
  • The Diocese of Brooklyn
  • Futures in Education
  • Northern Westchester Hospital
  • St. Ephrem’s Church

For more than 17 years, Kate has been a trusted advisor alongside transformational nonprofit and philanthropic leaders. In collaboration with philanthropic, government, and community partners, Kate has achieved goals in healthcare, housing, politics, equitable leadership, education, and community development.

Leadership roles on development, operations, and executive teams have provided Kate a well-rounded view of the complex ecosystem that nonprofit leaders navigate in service of their mission. Expert in strategic planning, executive coaching, board development, event planning, capacity building, scalable solutions, and change management, Kate works to facilitate spaces where people can bring their whole selves to the work at hand.

Before joining CCS, Kate was the Chief of Staff for Phipps Neighborhoods, where in addition to leading the Executive Team and Data, Learning, and Evaluation Team, she led the Development Department to record-breaking success. At Samaritan Daytop Village, Kate led cross-sector teams during the turbulent 2011 Medicaid redesign process, managing multiple mergers that more than doubled the reach of the organization.

At CCS, Kate is an active leader in culture-building activities. She believes that inclusivity, equity, and humanity are necessary elements of our work together.

Kate is a graduate of Emerson College, where she honed her project management skills in the kinetic world of theater production before transitioning to producing events for various non-profits, the role that brought her to New York City and its dynamic non-profit sector. She has lived in Harlem, NYC for the last 15 years.

select client partners

  • RWJBH Monmouth Medical Center

Alex has devoted his career in fundraising to assisting nonprofits for whom he has a deep affinity. Alex’s work at CCS has been focused in the environmental sector, running a comprehensive campaign for New Jersey Audubon Society. To date, the NJA SOAR Campaign has raised over $12 million of an original $10 million goal.

Prior to his work at CCS, Alex was the Director of Development at The East Harlem School at Exodus House (EHS), an independent middle school dedicated to providing an elite liberal arts education to low-income students in New York City. Prior to EHS, Alex held a major gifts role at Brooklyn Community Services, a social service organization. Alex’s fundraising career began at Saint Ann’s School, a K-12 independent school in Brooklyn where he assisted in guiding a comprehensive campaign to raise $50 million of an original $25 million goal.

Alex is a native Brooklynite where he still lives with his wife, Caroline, a Curator at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, their son, Arthur, and their rescue dog, Trixie. Alex is a graduate of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor).

select client partners

  • New Jersey Audubon Society
  • ARChive of Contemporary Music
  • Futures in Education

Abby has spent her career working to strengthen the bridge between impact-driven organizations and their philanthropic, public, and private partners to sustain and accelerate their growth goals. Since joining CCS, Abby has planned for and managed capital and comprehensive campaigns with goals ranging from $10 million to $1.5 billion. She has worked with senior leadership to develop and implement strategies for seven- and eight-figure gifts, build the case for support, and activate volunteers as philanthropic champions. Abby is a founding member of CCS’s nonprofit fiscal management working group.

Throughout her career, Abby has worked with interdisciplinary teams to identify business solutions to systemic environmental challenges. She began her career at The Trust for Public Land, where she advised government agencies and their nonprofit partners on capacity-building and sustaining public-private partnerships, leading to research that was highlighted in The Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has also built strategies for innovative environmental finance programs at The Nature Conservancy and Social Finance.

Abby holds MBA and Master of Environmental Management degrees from Yale University and a BA from Williams College. In her free time, she enjoys exploring urban parks and historic architecture, often by bicycle.

select client partners

  • ADL (Anti-Defamation League)
  • Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
  • The Frederick Gunn School
  • Museum of Chinese in America
  • NYU Stern School of Business

resources

Bridge Financing: Loans for Land Conservation Acquisitions

Public Spaces / Private Money: Partnerships for Urban Parks

Rita has nearly a decade of fundraising experience in the healthcare, cultural, and higher education sectors. She has significant experience leading major, principal, and endowment gift strategies, developing proposals for individuals and foundations, securing transformative funding from government agencies, coaching and liaising with executive leadership, and planning and executing large scale commemorations and fundraising galas. Rita also serves as co-chair of her team’s DEI Committee at CCS and collaborates with several colleagues to provide programming and resources.

Prior to joining CCS, Rita was the Director of Development for the New York Region at Hadassah, served in multiple roles (including Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Major Gifts) at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust (New York’s Holocaust museum), and provided executive-level support to the Alumni and President’s Offices of Long Island University.

Rita holds an MBA (Strategic Management concentration) from CUNY Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business. She earned her MSEd in Elementary Literacy and BS in Elementary Education from Long Island University (LIU-Post). Rita resides in Westchester, NY with her husband and their very cute pup Nena. When she’s not thinking all-things fundraising, Rita enjoys traveling, cycling, hiking, baking, and learning.

select client partners

  • SEEDS – Access Changes Everything
  • Accademia Vivarium Novum
  • Aurora Humanitarian Initiative
  • The Motley Fool Foundation
  • Remake

Mike has over 20 years of fundraising experience, raising both capital and operating support, developing major gifts programs and donor pipelines, and managing volunteers. His project management skills, deadline-driven work ethic and mission-centric expertise has shaped Mike into an adaptable, results-oriented fundraiser for the organizations he has served.

Prior to joining CCS, Mike served two seven-year terms in the Advancement Office of his alma mater, Gonzaga College High School, in multiple roles. During each of these periods, he raised campaign funds through direct gift solicitation while driving campaign activity from multiple volunteer committees. Each campaign surpassed their $12.5 and $17 million goals respectively. In his role as Director of Annual Giving Strategy, Mike was responsible for raising a minimum of three million dollars by overseeing the portfolio assignment and prospect pipeline process for the Advancement Office while managing a personal portfolio of donors and prospects for personal gift solicitations in addition to segmenting direct mail and social media fundraising appeals.

Mike lives in Annandale, VA with his wife, two children, and two cats. He enjoys all things soccer (especially Liverpool Football Club in the English Premier League), cooking for family and friends, and tackling DIY projects. Mike is also a volunteer coach for his kids’ sports teams and donates his time with his family to the underserved and disadvantaged through his church and local community service opportunities.

select client partners

  • The Hill School (Middleburg, VA)
  • The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina (Raleigh, NC)
  • The Capital Area Food Bank (Washington, DC)
  • Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing (La Plata, MD)
  • Resources for the Future (Washington, DC)
  • National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, DC)
  • St. Anselm’s Abbey School (Washington, DC)
  • The National Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (Alexandria, VA)