Sylvia Brown

Background

About Sylvia Brown

Individuals at all wealth levels are asking for simple tools to make effective charitable decisions. My donor education products provide advisors, corporations and nonprofits with a powerful means to deepen client relationships. Leveraging my family’s 300-year philanthropic legacy and my own 25 years' experience in international development, my mission is to design simple, affordable tools for individuals to better select high performing charities and learn to donate with maximum impact. After earning my BS and MA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, I pursued a career in international development from Wall Street to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, from investment promotion campaigns in emerging markets to micro-finance initiatives on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. For the past decade, I have helped donors with their giving strategies and non-profits with their sustainability, while becoming a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP®), a BoardSource Certified Governance Trainer, and training with 21/64 (family dynamics) and For Impact/The Suddes Group (fundraising). In 2015, I launched Uplifting Journeys, “boot camps for smarter donors” in locations around the world, and in 2020 a virtual, self-directed course "Smart Donors. Make a Difference." I conduct ongoing research and write about the giving habits of small and midlevel donors (who give between and annually), a demographic that provides half of the $300 billion charitable dollars given by individuals. I also regularly runs workshops for wealth managers, trust & estate lawyers, and other advisors who realize that supporting their clients' philanthropy is a powerful customer relations tool. In 2017, I published “Grappling With Legacy – Rhode Island’s Brown Family and the American Philanthropic Impulse” (Archway Press) and was an Encore Public Voices Fellow at the OpEd Project in its inaugural 2018/2019 cohort.