Julie Seewald Bornhoeft, MA, CFRE has been raising funds for nonprofit organizations for more than 13 years. Ms. Bornhoeft has extensive experience in funder identification, proposal development, grants management, and outcome evaluation. Her proposal development and grants management experience is balanced with experience designing and implementing comprehensive fund development plans for organizations with annual budgets ranging from $150,000 to $22 million.
Ms. Bornhoeft’s career has emphasized working with social service organizations with an emphasis on social change missions. She has successfully raised funds to address domestic violence, sexual assault, homelessness, hunger, youth services, youth development, and aging services.
Ms. Bornhoeft obtained the Certified Fund Raising Executive credential in 2001 and as Master of Arts in Philanthropy and Development from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota in 2004. As a firm believer in the importance of continued professional development, Ms. Bornhoeft maintains a personal commitment to education through regular reading of materials regarding sector and societal trends, attending conferences, and writing in regards to fundraising techniques, trends, and opportunities.
Ms. Bornhoeft is currently employed as the Chief Development & Marketing Officer for WEAVE, Inc., Sacramento County, California’s sole provider of comprehensive services to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. In addition to her professional work, she is the current Past President of the California Capital Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and a member of the Sacramento Public Relations Association.
Browse Articles by Julie Bornhoeft
Evaluating Your Proposal Program
One of the great mysteries within the sector -- and fund development programs -- is how we measure success. Funders will often dictate how they want the programs they fund evaluated or monitored. How we as administrators, proposal writers, and development officers measure success can be a bit less clear. Furthermore, what we evaluate is…
Goals, Outcomes and Objectives -- Keeping Them Straight
Funders do not use the same "dictionary" when defining the terms within RFA's. The definitions for Goals, Outcomes, Objectives, and Activities can vary dramatically by funder. What one funder considers an outcome another may deem an objective. In some cases your goal may actually be an outcome. The terms represent a set of indicators you…
Consulting or Contracting: Knowing What You Need
I have spent the past year telling people I am a nonprofit consultant. In reality, I worked a lot more as a contracted proposal writer. I use the word consultant because people tend to know what it means (or think they do). In the nonprofit world, agencies may find themselves working with both consultants and…
The Program Description -- Giving Your Ideas Life
Every proposal will require a Program Description. You may have a couple of paragraphs in a short proposal or pages in a larger application. You may have the benefit of also including an Implementation Plan or similar supporting information. Regardless of the space available, you have to make your program come to life. You may…
The Needs Statement
The Needs Statement must convince a reviewer of need and invoke them to respond. The proposal must convey a sense of urgency and substantiate it with facts. The Needs Statement sets this tone. As a proposal writer, you must "give life" to the issue at hand. You must balance the math with the human condition.…
Dysfunctional Organizations -- A Twelve-Step Program for Proposal Writers
Only one job I ever had listed "sense of humor" as a qualification. It was only one that was truthful. My sense of humor has been critical to my career. Without the ability to laugh, I would have ended up quarantined to a cubicle or in therapy. I have decided that we are all dysfunctional…
