Maya Gasuk, Managing Partner
Maya brings nearly 30 years of fundraising experience to her work at West Wind Consulting, giving her clients access to hands-on experience and expertise and significantly increasing program results and performance. Maya’s experience includes campaign management, volunteer management, alumni relations, donor relations, and the integration of annual fund programs into major and planned gift fundraising.
Maya’s analytical and problem-solving skills enable her to develop innovative approaches producing extraordinary results both as a practitioner in the past, and as a consultant today. Having served for 13 years as a volunteer rowing coach in her community, she has a passion for teaching and leading teams to greater levels of achievement and satisfaction. She is a requested speaker at CASE, AFP, APRA, and the Ithaca Institute.
As a consultant, Maya’s goal is to support and champion the efforts of her clients by providing strategy, inspiration, and motivation and creating a clear course to help clients achieve goals—whether for campaigns, annual fund programs, or increased engagement.
As a practitioner, during her 19-year career at Cornell University, Maya had a consistent track record of generating increased results. Following her work at one of Cornell’s Colleges, which set new records in giving and tripled the College’s endowment during a campaign period, Maya next served for ten years as director of the Annual Fund for Cornell University, leading a 40-person team and an engaged corps of over 1,500 volunteers to design and implement alumni regional, reunion, parent, and affinity-based personal solicitation programs. Under her leadership, the Cornell Annual Fund grew from raising $10 million to $27 million in unrestricted revenue per year, and even during the economic crisis, when most annual funds suffered dramatic losses, the Cornell Annual Fund set new records in giving.
Maya graduated magna cum laude from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She served a four-year term as member of the Cornell University Council in recognition of her leadership and service to the University. She also currently serves as a member of the Board and as Chair of the Development Committee for Historic Ithaca to keep active as a professional fundraiser and volunteer.