Capital Campaign Pro

Everything You Need for a Successful Campaign

Paula Peter

By

Paula Peter
Consultant / Advisor

Paula Peter has been working with capital campaigns for 40 years. She started her development career in 1983 at Cornell University where she served in roles across the division, including:

  • Assistant Director of the Cornell Fund, (staffing class reunion campaigns)
  • Director of Public Affairs for the Cornell Botanic Gardens
  • Senior major gift officer

Paula began consulting in 1991 as a senior consultant with Carol O’Brien Associates. For over a decade she provided campaign counsel to a wide array of organizations across the US – including large, decentralized universities, small colleges, national entities, and small community-based organizations. Sectors served ranged from education, research institutions, museums, orchestras, public broadcasting, health care and human services.

In 2002, Paula founded The Solstice Group, Inc. and for the next two decades served clients from Maine to Philadelphia, Michigan to New York. During that time, she co-founded and ran the Ithaca Institute to help train development professionals until the broader field caught up with more robust offerings.

Paula is honored to be one of the first Advisors for Capital Campaign Pro.

Areas of Expertise

Paula has expertise with campaigns, board development and major gifts work, an expertise that can be applied to any type of organization. She has a special interest in supporting women, girls, human rights, and organizations committed to empowering young people. She is also passionate about environmental causes and conservation.

Some of Paula’s Clients

  • Community College of Aurora (Colorado)
  • DoveLewis Animal Hospital (Oregon)
  • Fannie and John Hertz Foundation
  • Gordon School (Rhode Island)
  • Kansas 4-H Foundation
  • One Mind (California)
  • Project Home, (Philadelphia, PA)
  • Safe Children’s Coalition of Florida
  • Saunders Finger Lakes Museum (New York)

Education and Certifications

  • B.A. Cornell University

Additionally, non-traditional training that informs Paula’s work through the:

  • Gestalt Institute
  • Hoffman Institute
  • Temagami Experience
  • Group Leadership Intensive
  • Network for Grateful Living

Location

Ithaca, New York

Paula lives with her husband on top of a hill with long vistas. Between them they are blessed with four children, their amazing spouses, and ten grandchildren, most of whom reside in the area.

She remains in awe of — and dependent on — the nature that surrounds them in the Finger Lake region of New York.