Our Staff
Financial Development Agency has specialized in capital campaigns, grant writing, and public relations for clients in the non-profit sector since 1981. The firm has a strong track record in managing successful capital campaign and grants programs in Massachusetts, and is frequently invited back to work with clients on an ongoing basis.
For a direct email link, click on the staff member's name.
, Principal
Matt began his development career in 1988 as a development associate, and then director of development at a think tank in San Francisco. After completing graduate studies, Matt worked for Forbes Magazine and then founded Bola Associates, a consulting firm in New York to service clients in non-profit housing development, inner-city education, and arts-in-education. In 1995, Matt moved his firm to Massachusetts, and in 2000 merged Bola Associates with FDA. During his career, Matt has raised more than $50 million for clients in education, libraries, museums, housing and homeless sheltering, land conservation and environmental advocacy, arts-in-education and the arts. Recent career highlights have included completing a $9 million library project in Chicopee, developing new mentoring and tutoring initiatives for the Springfield School Volunteers, and assisting the New England Forestry Foundation in developing and implementing a $28 million campaign to secure 700,000+ acres of Maine forest land.
Matt graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in history and government, and received a Masters Degree from the University of California, San Diego in 1990.
, Program Officer
Andrew brings a unique combination of business acumen and personal passion for social justice to FDA. He started, managed and sold his own small trading firm and has been very active in several non-profits as both a volunteer and as a trustee. Andrew's business career started at an industrial manufacturing firm where he worked in several departments: sales, accounting, and customer service. His next move was to Wall Street. Andrew raised $500,000 to fund his business. In ten years he grew a small trading firm to have a budget in excess of $5MM which was ultimately acquired by Goldman Sachs. Andrew and his family moved to Massachusetts to raise their children. Andrew then started his own business consulting firm, Stakeholders, Inc., which specializes in issues of corporate responsibility such as community engagement. Clients include CSRwire, the corporate social responsibility news wire owned by the Board President of the Social Venture Network.
Andrew has a BA/BS from University of Virginia and a Masters Degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
, Grants Manager
Claudia has worked in development for more than a dozen years, specializing in grants research, proposal development, and client database development and management. Prior to working in development, Claudia held several librarian positions at the U.S. Court of Appeals. She was a Reference Librarian, a Government Documents Librarian, and the Director of Computer Assisted Legal Research.
Claudia graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in English and received a Masters Degree in Library Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1988.
, Program Officer
Nina has worked in research, development, and arts funding for over a decade. She has written successful proposals to the National Endowment for the Arts, Tisch School of the Arts, NYSCA and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, among others, and has been the principal New York Metropolitan Region legal and public records researcher for Keane Associates and for Reginald Montgomery Associates since the 1990s. She has conducted numerous feasibility studies for FDA and other organizations, and is currently the Campaign Director for The Roeliff Jansen Community Library's capital campaign. Nina is a trained mediator, certified through the New York Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. Nina has worked with FDA since 2004.
Nina has a B.A. from Oberlin College and a Masters Degree in Performance Studies/Critical Theory from NYU.