Koya Leadership Partners Lands Development Head for Campaign for Black Male Achievement
November 29, 2017 – Executive Recruitment firm Koya Leadership Partners has recently placed Felecia Webb as the new vice president of development for the New York City-based Campaign for Black Male Achievement (CBMA). The search was led by vice president of executive search Liz Lombard and consultant Turner Delano.
“Honestly, I knew from my first call with Felecia that she was the perfect match and would be a great partner to CBMA’s CEO Shawn Dove,” said Ms. Lombard. “They know many of the same people, she has extensive knowledge in development and can leverage her expertise to support philanthropic growth at CBMA.”
Ms. Webb is charged with developing and implementing strategies for growing CBMA’s annual budget, which includes leading the organization’s fundraising and communications efforts, said the non-profit group.
“Felecia has extensive experience in the space and many of the same connections as CBMA,” said Ms. Lombard. “She also has an excellent fundraising background working with top NGO’s in New York City area.”
A Community Advocate
Ms. Webb came to CBMA from GMHC, an HIV/AIDS advocacy group, where she served as vice president of development. In that role, she helped launch programs to address social determinates of health impacting men, women and youth, said CBMA. Previously, Ms. Webb was the vice president of development for the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. She has also worked as senior director of development for Ralph Lauren.
A life-long community advocate, Ms. Webb is a Coro New York Leadership alumna, and has served on the board directors for Girls Inc. Westchester, and Materials for the Arts, a division of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. She earned a bachelor’s of fine arts degree from Parsons the New School for Design, and a master’s of public policy and administration from New York University.
Koya Leadership Partners reached out to 400 prospects in the course of the 90-day search, said Ms. Lombard. The firm interviewed 24 candidates, five of which were presented to CBMA.
“We partnered with our research team to develop a fresh list of potential candidates who aligned with the organization’s mission and possessed the right backgrounds and levels of experience,” said Ms. Lombard. “For CBMA, we worked hard to develop a diverse pipeline with a focus on candidates who had previous experience working with organizations with similar missions to improve the life outcomes of America’s black men and boys.”
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A Dual Challenge
The recruiters were faced with more than simply finding someone who could raise charitable dollars. “The challenge with this search was that this is a young organization and this was a first-time fundraising hire for the organization,” said Ms. Lombard. “We needed candidates who had significant experience working with top-level donors but who also had the ability to build out the program.”
The Campaign for Black Male Achievement is a national membership network that seeks to ensure the growth, sustainability and impact of leaders and organizations committed to improving the life outcomes of black men and boys. Its membership includes more than 2,700 groups and upwards of 5,200 individuals.
Koya’s Ms. Lombard specializes in conducting non-profit leadership and development searches for the firm’s clients nationwide. She has been directing and supporting the recruitment of fundraising executives for more than 20 years.
Ms. Lombard has led searches for the Trust for Public Land, International Women’s Health Coalition, Innovations for Poverty Action, Environmental Defense Fund, Tampa Museum of Art, Natural Resources Defense Council, charity: water, and Conservation Law Foundation, in addition to other non-profit organizations nationwide.
Experienced Recruiters
Before joining Koya, Ms. Lombard served as vice president of executive search for a large philanthropic consulting firm serving nonprofit organizations throughout the Northeast. Her professional experience also includes five years in healthcare, supporting global sales efforts as well as human resources for the medical division of Siemens USA Corporation.
Ms. Delano, for her part, specializes in recruiting executives to non-profits nationwide. She is focused on all aspects of the search process, from project management to client support. Ms. Delano specializes in candidate development while supporting Koya leadership.
Prior to her role at Koya, Ms. Delano served as managing producer of a weekly news show on Bloomberg TV Africa and Al Jazeera English where she worked to produce, research and pitch one-on-one profiles globally.
A Top 50 Search Firm
In addition to her role with Koya, Ms. Delano works with the American Heroes Saltwater Challenge, a non-profit group focused on wounded veterans, and Earth Conservation Corps, a not-for-profit youth development and environmental service organization based in Washington, DC.
Koya Leadership Partners, which is based in Newburyport, MA, is a national executive search and human capital consulting firm that works exclusively with non-profits and social enterprises. This year, the firm was recognized again as one of the top 50 search firms in the Americas by Hunt Scanlon Media. Koya was recently selected to be included in Hunt Scanlon’s first ranking of the recruiting industry’s top 50 non-profit search specialist leaders. The ranking is a compendium of best-in-class search firms deemed the “most prominent trailblazers” in the field.
Koya recently completed a number of fundraising searches in the New York City area, including vice president of development at Harlem Village Academies and chief development officer at Physicians for Human Rights. Currently, the firm is conducting New York City-based senior-level development searches for Echoing Green and charity: water.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Will Schatz, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
