-: For me I think what's most important
is that you take and you understand a person's story
and their cause and you really try to make that fit
for other people.
You get other people to see
the greatness in what they care most about
and how that really affects them as well.
And so I've raised money and I've really learned
the art of development at the Clinton Foundation,
and then I continued that in political fundraising,
in campaign-issue based fundraising.
I continued that at an academic level
for the University of New Haven,
and what I enjoy most about it is trying to make things
come alive through philanthropic endeavors.
Whether it be scholarships and funding for students
who may not have the resources to attend school,
whether it be for candidates or political issues
that are hot button issues at the time
and really important to the conscious of society,
or whether it be just for a nonprofit organization.
Fundraising, I mean the world turns because of money.
There's no question about that.
But essentially in fundraising,
and essentially right now,
what's most important is that we continue to find ways
to bring awareness to these issues
and bring awareness to building relationships
that can last a lifetime for these organizations.
Right now because it depends,
if we're in an economic downturn
then we're not gonna see those numbers very high
for people who are giving to any organization.
And that's understandable.
And certainly because of where we are right now
with budgets on the federal level and on the state level
we're seeing a lot less support
for organizations like mine and for our institutions,
simply because there's just not a lot of funding available
for those entities.
So for me, trying to find, make up the loss of the money
so that we don't have to cut services
and make that up with individual donors
is a little bit more difficult.
But we do find ways to be strategic in our giving
and strategic in our solicitations.
And we'll have to continue to do that,
but I think that's probably the
hardest thing we have facing us.