Achieve Hartford!’s new development director, Christine Homa, is a strategic planner, marketing and communications specialist, and experienced fundraiser.  Oh, and she also has a law degree and more than a decade of experience leading small and large nonprofit organizations on development.

“In welcoming Christine, Achieve Hartford! is again augmenting its small staff with an extraordinarily versatile professional,” Executive Director Paul Holzer said today.

Coming out of Sacred Heart University with a concentration in political science and minors in business management and philosophy, Ms. Homa earned a J.D. from the Quinnipiac University School of Law and then attained the relatively rare Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) mantle.  The CFRE test took about an hour – but the 10-15 page application was even more daunting, she recalled.

Ms. Homa has served as director of development for the neurological pain disorder organization RSDSA as well as for the Girl Scouts of CT, the Channel 3 Kids Camp, the Immaculate Conception Shelter in Hartford, and the American Red Cross in Westport.

“I was drawn to Achieve Hartford! by its mission,” Ms. Homa said, expressing her interest in promoting the independent research and community engagement work of the organization, so key to closing the educational achievement gap in Hartford.

And yet, she emphasized, “Without fundraising, it all falls apart.”

In her 13 years of development work, Ms. Homa has grown revenue, established community, government, and individual partnerships, directed fundraising events, and run successful direct mail campaigns.

“We are delighted that Christine is on board,” Executive Director Holzer said.  “She will be an important strategic planner for our work supporting community engagement in North Hartford, backing the training of parents as advocates for their children’s education, and mobilizing the All In! Coalition to get Hartford students not just into, but through, college.”