At a glance
- Rachel served as Interim Chief Development Officer, acting as the primary fundraising partner to the new President and Artistic Director during a pivotal leadership transition
- Partnered on key relationships across the board of directors, major donors, and foundations, serving as a trusted voice for the organization with funders at every level
- Wrote a $1 million Mellon Foundation grant supporting the organization’s next phase of growth
- Individual giving more than doubled, including two of the largest individual gifts in the organization’s 30+ year history, among them a three-year commitment and a pledge from a new donor
- Built major donor and foundation pipelines, corporate prospect strategy, and a case for support from the ground up
- Successfully transitioned the development function to a new Director of Development with full continuity of systems and donor relationships
The Work Behind the Work
Gateways Music Festival is a nationally recognized organization that celebrates the contributions of Black classical musicians through an annual festival, community programming, and artist development. Founded in 1993, Gateways has held a distinctive and essential place in the American orchestral landscape for over three decades. Learn more at gatewaysmusicfestival.org.
When Alex Laing became President and Artistic Director, the organization was facing a critical revenue challenge: the majority of contributed revenue came from two institutional funders. At the same time, a transition in development leadership left the organization without a senior fundraiser at the moment diversification was most urgent.
A Partnership in Phases
The work began as a thought partnership. Alex was new to the executive role and navigating expanded responsibilities at a time when funding for equity-focused arts work was under pressure. The initial engagement was practical: a landscape analysis of fundraising practices, an honest assessment of where the President and Artistic Director’s time would yield the greatest return, and hands-on systems work to bring tools like Monday.com and the donor CRM into effective daily use.
As needs sharpened, Rachel Pryzgoda Bravo stepped into the role of Interim Chief Development Officer. For six months, she served as Alex’s primary partner in building the foundation for his tenure: partnering on relationships with the board of directors, cultivating and stewarding major donors, managing foundation partnerships, and acting as a trusted voice for the organization across every funder relationship. She met individually with each board member to build a culture of philanthropic engagement, ran the day-to-day operations of fundraising, and wrote a $1 million Mellon Foundation grant that secured three years of support for Gateways’ next phase of artistic and organizational growth.
Building for the Long Term
Results matter, but only if the systems behind them hold. We built structured donor and foundation pipelines so the team could manage cultivation across an entire year. We developed a case for support that gave the organization clear language for every funder conversation. We opened corporate fundraising as a new revenue channel through targeted research and strategy. And we worked directly with the board to shift their relationship to fundraising from passive to participatory.
When Gateways hired a new Director of Development, we supported the transition directly, ensuring continuity in donor relationships, systems, and institutional knowledge. That transition held. The structures, pipelines, and fundraising culture built during our engagement continue to operate under new leadership.
Why This Work Matters
Gateways is a Black-led organization doing essential cultural work at a time when funding for equity in the arts is under real pressure. It wanted a partner willing to be deeply embedded, from grant writing to board meetings to budget planning, building with sustainability as the primary design criteria. We measure our success by what continues to work after we step back.