Religion & Faith Team
| Staff: | Jeffrey L. Ashley |
| Mark W. Rountree | |
| Colleen Thomas | |
| Associates: | Jeanne Enlow Curtis | Dr. Steve McSwain |
| Mary A. Edwardsen, PhD | |
| Susan Logsdon |
Jeffrey L. Ashley
Founder, President & Senior Consultant
With over 20 years of leadership giving fundraising experience, Jeff has assisted numerous organizations in raising over $500 million throughout his career. Previously he served as Vice President for University Advancement for Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky (The University subsequently became a client of Ashley & Associates). During his tenure, Spalding completed its first comprehensive capital campaign, raising $15.3 million on a $10 million goal. Prior to that Ashley served as Director of Major Gifts for the University of Louisville's "Challenge for Excellence" Campaign. He played a leadership role in directing the silent and public phases of the campaign that raised over $340 million on a $200 million goal. He also served as Executive Director of the Trinity High School Foundation, Inc. setting goals for funds raised in annual fund, major gifts and endowment.
After a career in education, Jeff sought an opportunity to apply the entrepreneurial skills that made him successful at these and other institutions to start his own business. In 2002 Jeff began to offer his consulting services full-time and later that year established Ashley & Associates. Since then Jeff has worked with hundreds of organizations throughout the community and region to improve their management operations and comprehensive fund development programs. Jeff graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and earned a Master of Arts in Business from Webster University.
Mark W. Rountree
Vice President, Partner & Senior Consultant
Mark Rountree has made a career in development and institutional advancement for the past 30 years, serving as both a consultant and development officer for several educational, cultural and health organizations. Prior to joining Ashley & Associates, Mark was Vice President and Senior Consultant at RuffaloCODY and supported nonprofit clients with their annual fund campaigns, including: Indiana University, Ohio University, Bowling Green State University, University of Chicago, Washington University in St. Louis, Butler University and University of Cincinnati, among others. He also assisted campaign planning for the Detroit Institute of Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Clinic, Phi Kappa Tau Foundation, Sigma Chi Foundation, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and Special Olympics Illinois.
Prior to joining RuffaloCODY, Mark served as Director of Development for the University of Louisville’s College of Arts and Sciences where he was responsible for directing the major gifts efforts for 23 departments. Prior to this, Mark served as Senior Fundraising Counsel for Capital Consortium, Inc., where he planned and directed capital campaigns and conducted feasibility studies for organizations such as North Carolina Museum of Art, Lower Cape Fear Hospice, Tanglewood Park, Special Children’s School, Blue Ridge Health Services and the North Carolina Arboretum.
Colleen Thomas
Operations Manager
Colleen has more than 14 years of experience in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors. After working with Jeff Ashley on the successful $15.3 million capital campaign for Spalding University, Colleen joined Ashley & Associates in 2003. Her experience as an administrator and project manager provide the foundation of her success as a grants manager. She works with clients to ensure information flows smoothly, deadlines are met, and reports to funders are accurate and timely.
Previously Colleen worked at Luckett & Farley, an architecture firm in Louisville, organizing project managers and architects and ensuring that clients stayed informed about the relevant details surrounding their work. Tight deadlines and coordinating information from a variety of sources has been part of Colleen’s work for years, and our clients appreciate her ability to get things done. Colleen earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Business from Spalding University.
Jeanne Curtis
Consultant
Graduating with a B.M.Ed. (University of Louisville) and M.M. in Voice from Indiana University (Bloomington), Jeanne began her professional career as the first Voice faculty member at Jefferson Community College and Chair of the Voice Preparatory Department at the University of Louisville Music School. Following her passion for the arts, she began a 10 year fundraising career with the Fund for the Arts, starting as a campaign assistant rising to the Chief Campaign Officer responsible for raising the annual campaign goal of $7.2 million in her final year at the Fund. Moving to Nashville, Tennessee, she became the first Development Director for The Nashville Opera Association leading their first comprehensive fundraising program of $500,000 in contributed income.
Upon her return to Louisville, she joined Actors Theatre of Louisville as Development Director, accomplishing an unprecedented 150% increase in corporate sponsorships ($2.1 million raised in annual campaign). Moving to Louisville Collegiate School as Development Director for the capital campaign "Leap Without Bounds" for the new Upper School, Jeanne raised $10.8 million and saw the completion of the new facility with two gymnasiums, classrooms, administrative offices and surrounding grounds. Moving back to the Fund for the Arts as Vice President of Corporate Giving in the 2006-2007 Campaign, Jeanne assisted in raising over $8 million for 24 member arts groups and programs in the Greater Louisville Community.
In order to broaden her fundraising background, Jeanne graduated with an Executive Masters of Business Administration from Bellarmine University in May 2007. She has been working as a Consultant with Ashley & Associates since June 2007.
Dr. Steve McSwain
Consultant, Religion & Faith Division
Dr. Steve McSwain directs the Faith and Religion division of Ashley & Associates. Although a relatively new division in the family of services that Ashley & Associates provide the nonprofit world, this is hardly a new endeavor for Dr. McSwain. For more than 20 years, he served as a senior minister in churches in Kentucky and Georgia. He understands the church well, its challenges and its opportunities. For 14 years, he was the senior vice president of Cargill Associates, Inc., a church consulting firm in Texas. During his tenure there, he provided direct consultation and guidance to church and parish leaders. He conducted dozens of seminars on church growth, leadership development, and vision and mission casting. Most importantly, he provided fundraising counsel to nearly two hundred churches/parishes representing every communion within the Christian church. These churches ranged in all sizes, between 200 and 20,000. Collectively, those churches raised nearly a half billion dollars for worthy religious causes.
Steve is also an author, an inspirational speaker, and an interfaith activist. His book, The Giving Myths, endorsed by Evangelical, Protestant, and Catholic leaders alike, is inspiring people everywhere to live a more generous life. His most recent book, The Enoch Factor, chronicles those life experiences that led to his inner transformation. It is inspiring a diverse audience of readers to follow a spiritual path to a life that truly matters. Each year, Dr. McSwain is invited to speak and motivate members within churches and parishes of every denomination. He offers seminars on generosity, vision casting, interfaith dialogue, and the spiritual life. Company and corporate events are natural settings for Dr. McSwain, too, as he inspires people to promote and participate in interfaith dialogue and to pursue a more conscious, compassionate, and charitable life.
Steve holds a doctorate in theology and he and his wife, Pamela, make their home in Louisville, Kentucky. They are proud parents of four grown children.
Mary Edwardsen, M.Div., PhD
Consultant
Mary Edwardsen is recognized as one of the nation’s leading development officers in corporate and foundation relations. Edwardsen was born and raised in Louisville. She attended undergraduate school at Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana. She spent the majority of her academic career in New York City, earning three Masters degrees and a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary, affiliated with Columbia University. She worked as an editor for Macmillan and McGraw-Hill while earning her doctorate. She has served on the Commission for Christian-Jewish Relations at the World Council of Churches. Edwardsen has continually lectured in Philosophy in New York, Los Angeles and now Louisville.
Edwardsen has worked in the field of corporate and foundation relations for over 15 years for academic institutions, including Caltech and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She returned to Louisville five years ago to serve the Jewish Hospital Foundation and the University of Louisville. Through her private consulting firm Rhetoric LLC, she has worked as a successful consultant for a portfolio of nonprofit organizations, often filling the role of a director of development.
Over her career, Mary Edwardsen has raised tens of millions of dollars from hundreds of foundations. She has written thousands of letters of inquiry, proposals, and related materials for projects, spanning from music therapy to cardiovascular disease, Arabian horse libraries to MRIs, and robotics to climate change. During this recent recession, in which private and state funding grew increasingly scarce, she has concentrated on federal grants, acquiring a keen understanding of value of leveraging private and public funding.
Most importantly, Dr. Edwardsen is recognized as an expert in transforming a client’s creative ideas into fundable projects.
Susan Logsdon
Consultant
Susan Logsdon has more than twenty years of experience in professional fundraising and institutional advancement across the region. Following a successful career as a National AT&T marketing executive, she established development programs for several Indianapolis nonprofit organizations. Susan has experience with issues critical to our communities: education, child welfare, domestic violence, chemical dependency, HIV/AIDS, developmental disabilities and sustaining arts & culture.
During nine years with Indiana University, she served as IU Foundation Director of Corporate & Foundation Relations and later completed the first campaign for the IU Kelley School of Business Indianapolis. She was part of the team which raised $1 billion, $39 million in the first comprehensive campaign for IU's Indianapolis campus - IUPUI. She has served as Vice President of Advancement for the Indiana State Museum, Volunteers of America of Kentucky, and the Frazier History Museum. In 2007 she launched her solo consulting practice Logsdon Nonprofit Advisory.
Susan earned the Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) credential in 2001, holds an Industry Consultant Certification from AT&T, and is a graduate of the Certified Training and Consultant Institute at Ball State University. She studied at The Fund Raising School at the IU Center On Philanthropy and holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Central Florida.
Ms. Logsdon served on the national advisory committee for The Kresge Foundation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative and a variety of nonprofit boards. She is active in the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Fundraising Executives of Metro Louisville (FREML) and a frequent presenter, consultant and trainer for a variety of organizations. Susan grew up in Louisville, enjoys jazz, U of L sports and an occasional round of golf.
