Background
Alexander Sandy Macnab, FAHP, CFRE, began the consulting company bearing his name in 1994 after 25 years as a development professional. An experienced radio and newspaper reporter, he is a skilled interviewer and interpreter, committed to helping others build their dreams.
Public speaking and teaching are among his most sought-after skills. Mr. Macnab frequently is invited to present seminars and conduct workshops that have helped professional fundraisers and charity board members increase financial and volunteer support for their organizations.
Before starting his own firm, Mr. Macnab served St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, IL, for 12 years as Director of Development and Assistant Vice President. A Certified Fund Raising Executive and also a Fellow of the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, he is a long-time member of the Chicago Council on Planned Giving who helped lead the organization as part of its steering committee. Macnab also led Evanston United Way as its president from 1974-75, after serving as campaign chair and also chair of the Review and Allocations Committee.
He is a current member of the International Association of Fundraising Professionals Curriculum Development Committee and is one of 22 Master Teachers selected from highly-rated instructors throughout North America to inaugurate the AFP International Faculty Academy. He is the former ethics committee chair of the AFP Chicago Chapter.
His first professional fund raising experience was in 1967 while he was teaching in the Evanston public school system. With a vision of how to keep rebellious students in school and a plan to make it happen, he raised enough money to support an exceptional and distinctive program of his design for teenagers with school adjustment problems.
Active in civic affairs, he headed the Planned Gifts and Legacies Committee of the American Cancer Society's North Shore unit, and is a former board member of Chicago's House of the Good Shepherd and of The Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston. Also as a volunteer, Mr. Macnab has helped raise funds for First Night Evanston, the Center for Public Ministry's homeless shelter, the Uptown Learning Center and projects at the schools his children attend.
Mr. Macnab, who is a former member of the American Newspaper Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in educational administration from Antioch College in Ohio. In addition, he has done post-graduate work in psychology and education at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where he lives.
Statement of Qualifications
With more than 30 years of direct fund raising experience, Mr. Macnab is the developer of nationally recognized annual giving, direct mail and planned giving programs. He has presented fund raising training seminars and provided general fund raising counsel, capital campaign, and planned and major gift support to clients throughout the nation.
Recent projects include counsel to establish a medical center foundation in Tennessee, a veteran’s legacy center in Wisconsin and helping plan two $5-million endowment campaigns for a Chicago-based national foundation, assisting several smaller efforts and conducting executive personnel searches. Major retained relationships in the fourth quarter of 2002 include work with The American Thoracic Society, New York, NY; Delnor-Community Health Care Foundation, Geneva, IL; The Edward (Hospital) Foundation, Naperville, IL and The Grains Foundation, Washington, DC.
For more than three decades, Mr. Macnab has provided ongoing, project and capital/endowment/major gift campaign counsel to associations, schools, hospitals and social services agencies and has worked successfully with scores of volunteers, executive leaders, administrators, development professionals and philanthropists, building a solid record of verifiable achievement.
Mr. Macnab is comfortable in a variety of roles including that of teacher, student, coach, mentor, colleague and friend. He takes great personal satisfaction from helping others find ways to build their dreams.
To do so he has had to learn (and is skilled and experienced at helping others learn) the difference between fund raising and philanthropy.