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The year was 2009 — just one year into the global financial crisis And Elizabeth Zeigler was advising her client to add a zero.

“I was part of a team that was working with a client who wanted to ask an individual for a $5 million gift,” Zeigler said. “And I knew, based on my research and the interactions I had had with that individual, that $50 million was the number which they should ask for.”

It took some convincing and a well-structured plan to show the donor, but, ultimately, Zeigler and her team at Graham-Pelton Consulting, a global fundraising and nonprofit management consulting firm in Summit, were able to instill their client with the confidence to ask.

The client ultimately received $40 million for its capital campaign.

This is what Zeigler does as well as anyone in the state — and one of the main reasons she became the first woman to lead a global fundraising consulting firm in the multibillion-dollar nonprofit services industry when she was named CEO and president in January.

Not bad for someone who joined the firm in 2001 as a part-time campaign director.

“I am proud that I approached my career with a plan,” she said. “I feel that in every step of my career, I performed well and intentionally created credibility by earning the trust of the people to whom I reported.

“I am happy to be where I am because it is a sign that my plan worked.”

Even if it is not where she had once envisioned herself to be.

•••

While studying English and business at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Zeigler accepted a job working for the college as a phone-a-thon caller, reaching out to alumni to ask them to contribute to the annual fund.

“My father asked me why I would want to call people during dinner and ask them for money, but I didn’t think of it that way,” Zeigler said. “I thought of it as a good way to connect with alumni.”

Zeigler became so good at her job, she said, that she received several invitations to interview for jobs from the phone calls that she made. 

Alumni were not the only ones taking notice. 

“The woman who ran the phone-a-thon program, among other responsibilities, told me she would not be returning from maternity leave and encouraged me to apply for her position,” Zeigler said.

Zeigler would work as the assistant director of annual giving for the next two years at Muhlenberg College before she saw an advertisement for a position with Fordham University in New York City.

“Having grown up in Bergen County, I was interested,” she said.

Zeigler began her career with Fordham University as the individual giving officer, working for more than eight years in three different positions while also earning her master’s degree in adult education and human resource development from the university.

“I remember this one time, I reached out to a graduate who had not been engaged with the university for more than 25 years,” Zeigler said. “I was able to meet with and secure from him a gift that endowed a scholarship for a student with acute financial need.”

The first recipient of his scholarship, she said, was a woman who had been a ward of New York state and would never have been able to attend college otherwise.

“Not only did she earn her degree, but, also, she connected with her donor and his wonderful family so much that, when she got married, he walked her down the aisle,” Zeigler said. “Those are the kinds of inspirational stories that encouraged me to do this kind of work.” 

•••

When Zeigler’s daughter was born in 2001, she was no longer in a position where she needed to work five days a week.

However, while still on maternity leave, her experience with a local neighborhood mothers group had her submitting resumes for part-time work that very same day.

“There were mothers who I had just met for the first time already telling me that going back to work was not the right thing to do,” Zeigler said. “That solidified my decision for me.”

Zeigler was able to parlay her past work experience into part-time offers from three different institutions, including Fordham, which offered her the ability to work four days a week.

“Successful women appropriately advocate for ourselves, I think, which is something that in my experience I have seen men do more frequently, boldly and, sometimes, inaccurately,” Zeigler said. “Women tend to want to achieve higher standards before they advocate for themselves, but men are comfortable advocating at any level, even when they have not achieved as much.”

While Zeigler had enjoyed her time at Fordham, she said, she was intrigued by the offer she received from Graham-Pelton Consulting, then a small, single office in Summit, to work three days a week.

“I listened to our founder, Craig Leach, and I believed in his vision,” she said. “I thought, if I come to Graham-Pelton and we achieve what our founder says that we are going to achieve, I want to play an intentional part in that.”

Zeigler left her position with Fordham, a mission-driven nonprofit, to join Graham-Pelton, a mission-driven for-profit, as a campaign director in 2001.

“One of the first questions I asked Leach, though, was, can a woman who works part-time at this company advance?” she said. “I had three professional barriers to overcome: woman; part time; and leadership.”

Zeigler said Leach first responded with, “Yes, of course.”

Then, two days later, he asked her why she had asked.

“I said I believe that, while someone who works part-time should be limited in their compensation, their responsibilities should not be,” Zeigler said. “I wanted to be able to take on increasing responsibilities and grow within my part-time role at the company, working three days a week, then four, then five.

“By some, I was perceived to be this new mother who was dabbling in her career, or doing some work on the side. But that was not me at all.”

When Leach confirmed his answer was still “yes,” Zeigler said, “We’ll see.”

“I believe in ‘managing up,’ or, having a direct line of communication and visibility with the people who you report to,” she said. “That not only establishes credibility but also opportunity.”

•••

Working part time did not slow Zeigler’s career path. In fact, she seemed to receive a promotion every two years.

In 2007, having been named senior vice president and managing director, she was the first person to be appointed to the executive team without having been hired onto the executive team directly.

“As I received increasing responsibilities and moved up the ladder, I outpaced certain individuals — some of whom had been here longer than I, and some of a different gender, which was not always a comfortable situation,” Zeigler said. “But I had to overcome my discomfort in order to expand my role here at the company.”

Zeigler was named president in 2010, just nine years after joining the firm. She went back to school in 2012 to complete the Leading Professional Service Firms Executive Education program at Harvard Business School, and, in 2013, she spearheaded the launch of a top-ranking European operating unit for the company.

By most standards, she earned every bit of her nomination as CEO and president of Graham-Pelton Consulting in January. Zeigler succeeded Leach, who will continue to focus on leading Collegium Holdings Inc., Graham-Pelton’s parent company, as its chairman and CEO.

Graham-Pelton will continue to work with companies all over the globe, including New Jersey-based organizations such as the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, Count Basie Theatre, the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, Montclair State University, Princeton Healthcare System Foundation, The Hun School of Princeton and the United States Equestrian Team.

“We are best known for our ability to think boldly and to inspire our clients to both plan for and confidently implement ambitious fundraising campaigns that will transform their missions,” Zeigler said.

The multimillion-dollar firm has experienced double-digit growth in recent years, with a footprint on four continents and 75 employees, 15 of which are located in New Jersey. The company charges a flat fee for its services, based on the research and analysis it provides.

Zeigler expects the upward trajectory in philanthropic giving to continue.

“In 2015, in the last year that we have data for, $375 billion were given away in the United States — 90 percent of which, when you account for family foundations, was contributed by individuals,” Zeigler said. “We see the greatest potential for growth in major gifts, where we work with clients to create strategies to secure large gifts of $1 million or more.”

Zeigler said because others often find it so difficult to ask for money, she is often asked, “How she does what she does,” on a daily basis.

“In my opinion, our profession has not yet earned the respect it deserves,” she said. “How do I do what I do? Very easily, and with a lot of confidence, passion, optimism and belief.

“We as fundraising consultants are on the front line, asking for gifts or guiding our clients on how to structure and ask for gifts that will make an impact. When you can find the intersection of someone’s generosity with the critical needs of a nonprofit, it’s transformational. The donor values and loves that experience and the nonprofit can change somebody’s life.”

Women and wealth

Despite the fact that women dominate the fundraising and development profession, statistics show that men are still more likely to rise to leadership positions.

“It’s the same thing for our clients,” Elizabeth Zeigler, CEO and president of Graham-Pelton Consulting in Summit, said. “Women tend to volunteer their time more often, while men tend to be on the boards.”

Zeigler hopes that will soon change.

“Women are playing increasing roles in the financial wellness of their households, with the percentage of breadwinners and the numbers of women in which wealth is transferred to increasing,” she said.

According to Graham-Pelton, women, currently totaling $14 trillion, control 51 percent of total personal wealth in the U.S.

And with women currently constituting 45 percent of millionaires in the U.S., Zeigler hopes it remains true that women are nearly twice as likely as men to say that giving to charity is the most satisfying aspect of having such wealth.

“Especially in this political climate, women are becoming even more inspired to make a statement and an impact via philanthropy,” she said.

High net worth women, according to Graham-Pelton, tend to rely more heavily on planning and budgets for their giving than men, with 4 percent more women than men hiring philanthropic advisers to provide such guidance.

“Yet, we advise our clients to ask women for principle gifts the same way that their husbands are asked by their alma maters,” Zeigler said. “Be bold, direct and aspirational. Avoid being demure or over-cultivating, meaning, entertaining and engaging for an extended period of time when it isn’t necessary.

“We want our clients to approach women with the same professionalism, sensitivity and thoughtfulness that they do men when asking them to make gifts.”

Recruitment

Elizabeth Zeigler, CEO and president of Graham-Pelton Consulting in Summit, said the company is currently recruiting likeminded individuals.

It’s now much easier than it used to be.

“Twenty years ago, the question was, ‘How did you fall into this profession?’” she said. “That is the way we would even ask each other — it was never, ‘How did you decide to pursue this?’ ”

As fundraising and development becomes a more recognized profession, Zeigler said, that is now not often the case.

“There are universities, such as Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, for example, developing curriculums in which to study this,” she said. “But we are highly selective about who we hire because all hires need to align with our culture.”

Graham-Pelton’s core values — bold; empathetic; authentic; optimistic; focused — are unique to its collaborative fabric.

“There are other fundraising consulting firms, for example, where if I were to be hired, I would be told to build and focus on my own book of business,” Zeigler said. “I would not interact with my colleagues very often, other than to share a logo and a business card design.

“At Graham-Pelton, however, we assign teams to every program, and we demand through our model that our people work and grow together.”

Zeigler said hires are typically made through networking opportunities.

“We come into contact with many different people, so we often use our professional networking opportunities to not only raise our visibility as a firm and gain clients, but also to get to know industry leaders in which we may want to recruit,” she said.