Lori Yersh, Consulting Vice President, has more than 25 years of experience in senior executive leadership roles in development and alumni relations. She joined GG+A in 1997 as a Consulting Vice President for Annual Giving. In this role, she has provided counsel to more than 120 university and nonprofit development programs in North America, Europe, and South Africa. Along with comprehensive experience in developing annual giving strategies and infrastructure, Lori has special expertise in working with development programs to enhance revenue streams and to better position annual giving as a cultivator and educator of major gift and planned gift prospects. Her work has encompassed all aspects of development and alumni relations programming, including extensive experience with data and report analysis, annual giving segmentation, professional and volunteer training, telemarketing and direct mail applications, and annual fund initiatives in the capital campaign environment.
In 2014, Lori was appointed Senior Advisor to the Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Relations at Concordia University. She works closely with the VP and senior members of the advancement team to build Concordia's development infrastructure and internal fundraising capacity. Prior to her current position at Concordia, she served as Executive Director, Strategy and Donor Engagement, at McGill University for 13 years. At McGill, she oversaw strategic planning for the Development and Alumni Relations program, including leading senior staff retreats and drafting multiyear comprehensive strategic fundraising plans. Lori spent 24 years working at McGill in all facets of advancement and in senior leadership roles.
In addition to having a strong record of professional and community leadership, Lori has been a regular presenter at conferences for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), where she has also served as a three-time faculty member of the CASE Program Committee and chaired a number of Advanced Annual Giving Conferences. She has delivered addresses and conducted seminars on annual giving, stewardship, professional development, advancement management, technology, alumni relations, and volunteer management at more than 50 conferences across the United States and Canada as well as internationally. She has received CASE’s prestigious Steuben Apple Award for outstanding teaching.
Lori is also a trained psychotherapist and career counselor. In her role as an educational psychologist, she has provided counsel to investment firms on developing marketing materials concerning people’s psychological relationship with money.
Lori holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s in educational psychology, and a master’s in counseling psychology, all from McGill. She is the recipient of the 1996 Gold Medal/Prix d’Excellence for Best Special Event, granted by the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education, and the 1995 recipient of McGill University’s Outstanding Leadership Award.
