Speakers

Ann Fitzgerald

President of A.C. Fitzgerald & Associates

Fitzgerald has a master's degree in philanthropic studies from Indiana University. She has more than twenty years experience in sales, management, fundraising publishing and marketing. She has directly supervised large, multi-function teams as well as small groups specializing in these areas.   

Fitzgerald was a key catalyst in launching the original Townhall.com site for The Heritage Foundation in the mid-‘90s and subsequently went on to lead the marketing efforts for the entire organization. Later, she also led the foundation’s publishing and production units. As Director of Development for The Heritage Foundation, she helped increase contributions income by twenty percent by establishing integrated programs for direct marketing, major gifts, and planned giving. Fitzgerald regularly writes and speaks on fundraising, systems management, proposal writing, donor relations, and prospect research. In 2008, she launched "Finding the Funding," a fundraising training series for nonprofit executives. In 2009, she published the manual, 100 Tips, Techniques and Templates for Persuasive Proposal Writing, and more recently released the follow-up manual, 125 Ways to Identify and Cultivate Supporters for Your Cause.   

Fitzgerald is a graduate of The Catholic University of America and has lived and worked in Paris, France. She started her career at BNA Software, a division of the publishing company the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. Later she joined the parent company and worked in both sales and marketing roles. She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Michelle Taylor

Vice President of A.C. Fitzgerald & Associates

Taylor has more than eight years of experience in fundraising, marketing, and management. She worked for Young America’s Foundation at the Reagan Ranch and served on the management team responsible for the construction of the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, CA. As part of the development team, Taylor focused on raising funds and awareness for the Foundation’s student programs as well as the preservation of the Reagan Ranch. In 2006, she moved to Washington, D.C. and worked at Citizens United as the Director of Development. She oversaw all fundraising and development staff at the organization. Taylor also worked on the marketing and distribution of three of Citizens United’s films and productions.

Taylor joined A.C. Fitzgerald & Associates four years ago where she focuses on developing individualized fundraising and development strategies for a variety of nonprofits around the country as well as utilizing new media outreach and marketing to help enhance an organization’s visibility and effectiveness.

Maria Shumaker

Senior Researcher and Editor of A.C. Fitzgerald & Associates

Shumaker identifies fundraising prospects and edits donor communications. She is also editor of the Nonprofit Partner.

Shumaker has a master's degree in secondary education from the Catholic University of America and has taught literature and writing at both the elementary and high school levels. Shumaker is helping to found a classical charter school in Frederick, Maryland and has worked for almost two years on fundraising events for the school and now is working to secure grants for it. She has several years experience in the newspaper industry and has worked as a trainer for Thomson Financial and Chevy Chase Bank.

Victoria Hughes

Executive Vice President, A.C. Fitzgerald & Associates

Hughes is the founder and former president of the Bill of Rights Institute, which she launched in 1999 to educate the next generation about America’s Founding principles. Under Hughes' leadership, the Bill of Rights Institute grew from a business plan to a major national educational organization that has provided more than 40,000 teachers with instructional material on the Founding documents.

Prior to establishing the Bill of Rights Institute, Hughes served in senior executive roles at the Charles Koch Foundation, Citizens for a Sound Economy, The Heritage Foundation, the Reagan-Bush ’84 Campaign and Presidential Inaugural Committee, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, and the U.S. Information Agency. Hughes also lived for three years in Barbados, where – as the wife of the United States Ambassador – she actively participated in many charitable activities benefiting the islands of the Eastern Caribbean. Hughes began her career as a classroom teacher and has taught in suburban Cincinnati, Boston, and inner-city Washington, D.C. She earned her degree in education from the University of Dayton.

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