Kristen Brooke Schleifer is a Chicago-based freelance development consultant with nearly 20 years' experience in the nonprofit sector. As former Assistant Director of Development for Government and Foundations at Lyric Opera of Chicago, she managed major foundation donors and local, state, and national government funding totaling $1.9 million in annual giving, and was cited for model grantwriting by the National Endowment for the Arts. Since 1999, she has partnered with leading nonprofit institutions encompassing arts and culture, social services, and K-12 education. Her expertise includes:
  • developing and writing proposals for local and national foundation, corporate, and public funders;
  • corporate, foundation, and government prospect research;
  • organizational development, including staff training and donor management;
  • project and strategic organizational planning;
  • writing, editing, and/or designing direct mail solicitations, newsletters, and other donor communications.

A specialist in government grants, Ms. Schleifer has secured more than $10 million to date in federal funding for supportive housing programs serving the homeless and chronically homeless, persons with HIV/AIDS, and reentry populations in the Chicago metropolitan area. In 2009, she also secured more than $1 million in federal stimulus funding for various clients.

Ms. Schleifer holds a B.A. in English from Yale University and an M.S.J. in Magazine Publishing from Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. In addition to her nonprofit work, she has extensive experience in magazine publishing, as former Associate Editor of The Print Collector’s Newsletter (New York), former Editor with Stagebill (Chicago), and former Managing Editor of Interludes, the in-flight magazine of Midway Airlines. She is also a visual artist, graphic designer, and independent curator, and has covered contemporary visual arts as a contributing writer and critic for national and regional arts publications, including Art on Paper, ArtNews, The Print Collector’s Newsletter, New Art Examiner, and Dialogue.