Strategic Fundraising For Non-Profit Organizations
Constellation Advancement is a boutique consultancy specializing in fundraising campaigns and institutional development.
As fundraising campaign and development consultants for non-profit organizations we provide a sense of value and improvement to your fundraising work. The members of our firm are former institutional advancement vice presidents. Because of this background we approach our work from the client’s point of view. We focus on what kind of hands-on help brings real value and improvement to your functioning and your numbers.
Our core services include capital campaigns, gift planning services, grateful patient programs, outsourced development office functions, and other areas. We enjoy a range of experience from working with many different clients in the non-profit space. We put this experience to work for you.
Please call us for a conversation if you can imagine a better approach to building a major gifts pipeline, or driving daily fundraising action, or taking the mission that you serve and turning it into a formal campaign that raises more money and projects your brand for the better. At Constellation we like to say that your mission is our mission. Please call today.

Fundraising Campaign Planning and Execution
An organized fundraising campaign can change the fortunes of a non-profit for the best.
Gift Planning Services: We turn locked-up assets into gifts on your balance sheet


Board Development and Engagement Studies
Using targeted research and personal outreach campaigns, we have helped dozens of non-profits find board members to improve their giving cultures and governance sophistication.
Development Office Assessments to Improve Revenue Outcomes
Non-profit boards and executive directors are often troubled by a sense that their development office generates a lot of activity, but not enough tangible outcomes.


Major and Planned Giving Training
To succeed in today’s competitive fundraising environment, fundraisers must develop new habits to replace old, ineffectual ones.
Campaign Case Design
A campaign should improve a non-profit for the better, in how it serves its mission and how it raises funds.

Focus on Fundraising

Is Higher Education Ready for the Social Media Pile On?
Every responsible institution of higher learning in America has an emergency playbook containing clearheaded guidance to deal with potential violence or upheaval on campus. Colleges have a plan for a blizzard, or a shooter on campus, or a water main rupture.

What does the Excelsior Scholarship Mean for SUNY and CUNY Fundraisers?
The details and impact of the Excelsior Scholarship are unfolding. Many are waiting to see. But SUNY and CUNY fundraisers would be wise to plan for the consequences.
An exceptional team offering unrivalled expertise

Jay Angeletti
✓ Re-imagining development functions and outcomes
✓ Building fundraising capacity
A development executive with more than 30 years of experience, Jay serves clients engaged in independent and higher education, healthcare and academic medicine, and community building initiatives. Before doing so, Jay served Choate Rosemary Hall, Yale University School of Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Drew University, and New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Through an affiliated company, The Angeletti Group, Jay brings extensive resources geared toward every aspect of development services. Jay received his B.A. from Lake Forest College and studied public administration and nonprofit management at the University of Connecticut. ...Read More

Chris Cloud
✓ Interim development office leadership
✓ Specialty campaign structures with branding and communications considerations
Chris Cloud is one of a handful of fund raising professionals with senior level experience in both higher education and healthcare. He was a director of fundraising programs at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College and a Vice President of Institutional Advancement at Baruch College. Chris’ specialty is campaign planning and serving as interim leader of development offices. He’s served in this way at The Cooper Union, the New-York Historical Society and with a number of schools within the City University of New York system. He holds a BA degree from The Florida State University, an MBA degree from Rollins College, and a JD degree from Tulane University Law School. ...Read More

Dave Gallagher
✓ Campaign design and feasibility
✓ Driving campaigns to goal
Dave Gallagher comes to Constellation from Harvest Fund Raising Counsel, Inc., the fundraising services firm he founded in 2006. Known and respected widely in the northeastern United States as one of the top talents in campaign execution and management, Dave serves a wide range of clients including: The State University of New York, The City University of New York, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, St. Louis University, Baruch College, Le Moyne College, and Long Island University. A former Vice President of Institutional Advancement at Baruch College/CUNY and a Vice President at Community Counselling Service Company (CCS Fundraising), Dave earned both his BA and MA in History at St. John’s University. ...Read More

Brian Sagrestano
✓ Enhancing sophisticated gift planning programs
✓ Gift planning start up and training
Brian Sagrestano is Constellation Advancement’s gift planning specialist. In 2007 he formed Gift Planning Development, a full-service gift planning consulting firm. Prior to that time, Brian ran the gift planning programs for the University of Pennsylvania, Meridian Health Affiliated Foundations and Middlebury College. He also served Hamilton College and Clarkson University in major and planned giving roles. A leader in the gift planning field for two decades, Brian has co-authored three books on gift planning with Robert E. Wahlers, including the award-winning Philanthropic Planning Companion (Wiley 2012) and Getting Started in Charitable Gift Planning and the accompanying Resource Book (Charity Channel Press 2016). Brian holds an A.B., cum laude from Cornell University and a J.D., cum laude from the University of Notre Dame Law School. ...Read More

Sean Collins
✓ Campaign feasibility, design and execution
✓ Optimizing development office functioning
Sean has extensive experience as both a non-profit leader, trustee, and staff member giving him particular insight in advancing the work and mission of his clients. He has worked with non-profits for more than twenty years with a special concentration in education, particularly independent and parochial secondary and elementary schools and higher education, as well as in the social service sector. He has extensive experience in capital campaigns, donor engagement, annual giving, development office management, budgeting, program evaluation, grant writing, special events, and constituent publications. Sean also spent twenty years in the financial services industry. He is a graduate of New York University’s Stern School of Business with an M.B.A. and holds a B.S. from Virginia Tech. ...Read More

Mike Stein
✓ Assessment of development office productivity
✓ Planning studies and campaigns
Michael Stein brings more than 30 years of development experience to Constellation Advancement. Prior to joining the firm in 2014, he held a series of executive positions at the Bassett Healthcare Network in Cooperstown, N.Y., where he directed three successful capital campaigns and also had administrative responsibility for corporate communications, marketing and government affairs. Mike has worked with Gundersen Medical Foundation, Crouse Healthcare Foundation, Princeton Health Care System, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Newseum, Dutchess County Community College and Union Graduate College. He has served on the University Council at UAlbany. Mike received a Bachelor’s Degree from the University at Albany and a Masters in Counseling in Higher Education from the University of Michigan. ...Read More

Joe Tumolo
✓ Major Gifts and Planned Giving training and coaching for more productive gift officers
✓ Gift planning program development
Over the last 11 years Joe developed a client base of over 300 charities including universities, independent schools, national charities and healthcare and social service charities. Joe speaks to coaches fundraisers and board members all over the country. He blends his relational sales training and planned giving approaches to develop well rounded fundraisers who move away from transactional fundraising to developing a connection with donors that leads to valued relationships. Joe has an Associate’s degree from Montgomery County Community College and a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and has just completed his studies at the American College in Bryn Mawr, PA earning his Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP) certification. ...Read More

Joe Mahon
✓ Fundraising campaign concept architect
✓ Assessing and improving development offices
Joe’s career in philanthropy began at the international fundraising firm Community Counselling Service and has progressed to lead development staffs in religious, healthcare, educational, disabilities and arts organizations. The scope of activities has included major capital campaigns, institutional assessments, strategic planning, feasibility studies, board development and recruitment, federal and state grants, special events, expanded marketing programs, development office assessments, and cultivation programs. Joe graduated from the State University of New York at Oneonta with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Economics. ...Read More