JarosStrategy singularly focuses on nonprofits, counseling mission-driven organizations of every size and sector. Our team, comprised of highly-accomplished leaders in fundraising and communications, brings forth a unique approach of integrating strategies for fundraising and communication to drive revenue and secure sustainability.
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Susan Stevens Jaros
Co-Founder and President |
Susan founded JarosStrategy to bring fundraising expertise and counsel to nonprofit organizations. For over 35 years, Susan has provided exceptional guidance to diverse nonprofit organizations. She has designed and executed major comprehensive and capital fundraising campaigns, provided strategic leadership and managed day-to-day development and external affairs functions.
Previously, Susan served as the Deputy Director for Development for the Cleveland Museum of Art. In that role, she was responsible for planning and implementing a strategic campaign to fund the museum’s transformational expansion and renovation, the first significant capital campaign undertaken in the museum’s history and the largest ever launched by a cultural institution in Ohio. During her tenure, the museum raised $217 million against its original $225M goal.
Prior to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Susan was Associate Vice President of Development and Alumni Affairs at Case Western Reserve University. She was instrumental in planning and executing the university’s $350 million campaign, completed in 1994 with an attainment of $417 million.
Susan began her consulting career at the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in 2010 where she was engaged post-recession to reinvigorate and bring discipline to MOCA’S capital campaign in order to secure new market tax credits and break ground on their transformational move to University Circle. In the ensuing decade, Susan has consulted with more than 30 organizations to meet their unique campaign and fundraising needs, almost half of which involved a significant capital fundraising focus.
A Cleveland native, Susan earned a BA from Denison University and a JD from Case Western Reserve School of Law. She practiced law and taught at CWRU Law School. Susan’s civic and professional affiliations include Order of the Coif, former trustee of Cleveland Public Art (now LAND studio) and the Court of Nisi Prius. She was in the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2003 and received the Northern Ohio Live Rainmaker Award in Community Service in 2007.
Previously, Susan served as the Deputy Director for Development for the Cleveland Museum of Art. In that role, she was responsible for planning and implementing a strategic campaign to fund the museum’s transformational expansion and renovation, the first significant capital campaign undertaken in the museum’s history and the largest ever launched by a cultural institution in Ohio. During her tenure, the museum raised $217 million against its original $225M goal.
Prior to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Susan was Associate Vice President of Development and Alumni Affairs at Case Western Reserve University. She was instrumental in planning and executing the university’s $350 million campaign, completed in 1994 with an attainment of $417 million.
Susan began her consulting career at the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in 2010 where she was engaged post-recession to reinvigorate and bring discipline to MOCA’S capital campaign in order to secure new market tax credits and break ground on their transformational move to University Circle. In the ensuing decade, Susan has consulted with more than 30 organizations to meet their unique campaign and fundraising needs, almost half of which involved a significant capital fundraising focus.
A Cleveland native, Susan earned a BA from Denison University and a JD from Case Western Reserve School of Law. She practiced law and taught at CWRU Law School. Susan’s civic and professional affiliations include Order of the Coif, former trustee of Cleveland Public Art (now LAND studio) and the Court of Nisi Prius. She was in the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2003 and received the Northern Ohio Live Rainmaker Award in Community Service in 2007.
A JarosStrategy consultant since 2013, Julie brings more than 20 years of communications strategy and expertise to organizations’ fundraising opportunities and challenges. She is recognized for her ability to differentiate and define organizations’ missions and programs with an eye toward the competitive landscape to align with fundraising goals.
Julie dedicated her early career to public relations agencies, including Cohn & Wolfe in New York and Dan Pinger Public Relations in Cincinnati. In those roles, she crafted and led communications programs to organizations of all sizes; partnered with executives on crisis situations; led management through message development; and, media trained senior-level executives and high-profile individuals, including the 2004 and 2006 U.S. Ryder Cup Captains. Since then, she has immersed herself in Northeast Ohio’s nonprofit community, raising communications considerations and bringing forth short- and long-term communications strategies in support of organizations’ fundraising initiatives and campaigns. Throughout her time at JarosStrategy she has had the privilege of collaborating with executive directors, trustees, development, and marketing/communications directors across more than 20 nonprofit organizations. Julie holds a bachelor’s degree in speech communications from Miami University and is an accredited member (APR) of the Public Relations Society of America. She has led a variety of training seminars on public relations and employee communications and engagement. |
Debra has a keen understanding of the interplay between fundraising and communications culled from two decades of work with nonprofit organizations of all sectors, including a large community foundation.
Prior to joining JarosStrategy, Debra was an independent consultant, producing creative and strategic marketing solutions for some of our area’s most respected institutions, including Montefiore, Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, Bellefaire JCB, Hathaway Brown and Gilmour Academy. Her client work resulted in increased awareness, funding, admissions, and reach for these mission-driven organizations. She spent the first part of her career at the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland where she developed and implemented its strategic marketing plan. Debra graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a bachelor’s degree in history. |
Photographs on this page taken on site at the stunning Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. Learn more about MOCA here.