About
Founded in 2010, Bissell Philanthropy Services is based in the Washington, DC metro area with non-profit, charity, foundation and professional networks in New York and the United Kingdom.
Suzanne Bissell, a 30 - year resident of the Washington DC area, is a native of Lancaster, PA. She began raising funds at age 10, shadowing her mother, a community leader and hospital women’s auxiliary president. Gathering friends to join The Merry Workers Club, her first crafts sale raised $16.32, which was donated to help purchase an iron lung for the hospital’s children’s wing. At this impressionable age, she learned that giving simply made people happy. Now, with over 20 years of professional experience, Suzanne believes that giving and nurturing is a human need; it brings joy to those who give and meaning to the human experience.
Through her career paths in education, architecture, non-profit management along with her volunteer work, Suzanne has gained deep experience and a knowledgebase that translates into valuable fund-raising and management skill sets. Creative problem solving, drafting and managing time-lines, strategic planning, and excellent interpersonal skills, and mentoring,
Her Non-Profit career began in 1998 when she took the helm as Executive Director of the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce, a growing membership-based organization in McLean, Virginia. During her tenure she developed new revenue streams, led a re-branding effort and developed a marketing campaign, Shop McLean First, with signage still in stores in 2014. Suzanne was named to the Board of Directors of the Association of Virginia Chamber of Commerce Executives and was recipient of the McLean Chamber of Commerce’s Award for Outstanding Service and Commitment to Excellence.
As Director of Individual Giving at three distinguished organizations in the Washington area, the Potomac School, The National Building Museum, and The Phillips Collection, she built communities of annual supporters raising millions of dollars through membership, annual giving, major gifts and planned giving programs.
She is a Certified Fundraising Executive with CFRE International with extensive fundraising training through Council for Advancement and Support of Education and is a current member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Partnership for Philanthropic Planning, Institute of Fundraising, and Philanthropy Impact, UK. She is an experienced speaker and has made presentations in the US and the UK. Recent talks include, “Annual Giving in the Cultural Arts” to Columbia University’s Masters in Fundraising students and “Philanthropy, An American Tradition” given to the Anglo-American Charity Foundation, expatriate philanthropists and UK charity leaders at the Oxford Cambridge Club in London. Following the presentation, Katherine Hedges of Tanager Wealth Management interviewed her.
http://www.tanagerwealth.com/blog/philanthropy-an-american-tradition/?shared=email&msg=fail
Since 2010, Suzanne has been working with small to medium size non-profits helping them transform into sustainable organizations by establishing internal and external systems, setting goals, analyzing results, building communities of supporters, training staff and boards and forging partnerships with community groups, non-profits and businesses.
Suzanne Bissell, a 30 - year resident of the Washington DC area, is a native of Lancaster, PA. She began raising funds at age 10, shadowing her mother, a community leader and hospital women’s auxiliary president. Gathering friends to join The Merry Workers Club, her first crafts sale raised $16.32, which was donated to help purchase an iron lung for the hospital’s children’s wing. At this impressionable age, she learned that giving simply made people happy. Now, with over 20 years of professional experience, Suzanne believes that giving and nurturing is a human need; it brings joy to those who give and meaning to the human experience.
Through her career paths in education, architecture, non-profit management along with her volunteer work, Suzanne has gained deep experience and a knowledgebase that translates into valuable fund-raising and management skill sets. Creative problem solving, drafting and managing time-lines, strategic planning, and excellent interpersonal skills, and mentoring,
Her Non-Profit career began in 1998 when she took the helm as Executive Director of the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce, a growing membership-based organization in McLean, Virginia. During her tenure she developed new revenue streams, led a re-branding effort and developed a marketing campaign, Shop McLean First, with signage still in stores in 2014. Suzanne was named to the Board of Directors of the Association of Virginia Chamber of Commerce Executives and was recipient of the McLean Chamber of Commerce’s Award for Outstanding Service and Commitment to Excellence.
As Director of Individual Giving at three distinguished organizations in the Washington area, the Potomac School, The National Building Museum, and The Phillips Collection, she built communities of annual supporters raising millions of dollars through membership, annual giving, major gifts and planned giving programs.
She is a Certified Fundraising Executive with CFRE International with extensive fundraising training through Council for Advancement and Support of Education and is a current member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Partnership for Philanthropic Planning, Institute of Fundraising, and Philanthropy Impact, UK. She is an experienced speaker and has made presentations in the US and the UK. Recent talks include, “Annual Giving in the Cultural Arts” to Columbia University’s Masters in Fundraising students and “Philanthropy, An American Tradition” given to the Anglo-American Charity Foundation, expatriate philanthropists and UK charity leaders at the Oxford Cambridge Club in London. Following the presentation, Katherine Hedges of Tanager Wealth Management interviewed her.
http://www.tanagerwealth.com/blog/philanthropy-an-american-tradition/?shared=email&msg=fail
Since 2010, Suzanne has been working with small to medium size non-profits helping them transform into sustainable organizations by establishing internal and external systems, setting goals, analyzing results, building communities of supporters, training staff and boards and forging partnerships with community groups, non-profits and businesses.