Vice President of Resource Development

Jeff Wright is vice president of resource development, based in the Portland office. He has more than 26 years of experience in fundraising and marketing for civic services and causes, including public broadcasting, higher education, and environmental conservation and sustainability. He has deep expertise in directing and managing major gift, endowment and capital campaigns, and serving as coach and counsel to campaign leadership and development staff.

Prior to joining MG, Jeff was director of the Program Development Fund at Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), leading its major gift and program development team in securing support for OPB’s Campaign for the Future, an $18 million initiative to double the organization’s endowment and secure seed funding for national and local productions. He also managed OPB’s $23 million World of Learning Campaign, the nation’s first effort to secure funds for public television’s transition to digital broadcasting, and engineered the successful completion of OPB’s $15 million Future Worth Building Campaign to build a new broadcast center. 

Earlier in his career, Jeff served as development director for public radio stations in upstate New York and northern Michigan, and worked in alumni development and major gifts  for Rensselaer polytechnic Institute. More recently, he was development director for Ecotrust, where he was in charge of efforts to secure financing for the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center in Portland, and grant funding for programs in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

Jeff has been a featured speaker and teacher at national, regional and local conferences and seminars on successful strategies for capital campaigns, sustainable finance models, corporate support programs, major gift programs and volunteer leadership.

He has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications and journalism from Northern Michigan University and has done master’s level coursework in public administration at the Rockefeller School of Public Affairs and Policy at State University of New York at Albany.

Jeff is an active community leader and volunteer, serving on the PBS Development Advisory Committee and as a board member of Oregon Health & Science University's Neuropsychiatric Institute and the Hollywood Farmer’s Market in Portland. His previous board experience was with Pacific Northwest College of Art and the National Society of Fund Raising Executives—Oregon Chapter.

 
Dance as though no one is watching you,
Love as though you have never been hurt before,
Sing as though no one can hear you,
Live as though heaven is on earth. -Alfred Souza