Welcome Faith & Fundraising Leaders!

Carla Maxwell Ray, CFRE
SENIOR STRATEGIST, CHURCH & ADVANCEMENT
Dr. Carla Maxwell Ray’s goal in life is to glorify God by using her gifts for seeing possibilities and empowering others to achieve, advance, and fund their vision for their lives, churches, and organizations.
She is a visionary leader and her expertise includes generosity and financial coaching, fundraising, strategic planning, external relations, Board development, and non-profit management. She recently authored Five Pillars of a First Class Life, a guide to financial freedom and mission-driven living. Currently, Carla is a Sr. Generosity Strategist with Generis. She helped to successfully conclude campaigns raising over $1,000,000,000.
As an institutional advancement administrator at Spelman and Morehouse Colleges and later the University of Maryland College Park, she helped their campaigns significantly exceed goals. In addition, she served as a vice-president at the National Office of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Carla now works with our country’s largest churches, powerful medium and small churches, and nonprofits coaching them through generosity initiatives.
Carla regularly hosts webinars and speaks at various engagements, having previously partnered with Nona Jones, Dr. Howard-John Wesley, Higher Education Institutions, Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) and InTrust. She contributes to multiple publications, including best seller #ministrythatimpacts, a collection of strategies by thought leaders to assist you with creating or enhancing your ministry so that it impacts your congregation and community.
Carla has an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Hood Theological Seminary, holds an MBA from the University of Delaware, and graduated Valedictorian from Lincoln University with a BA in Public Affairs. She is married to her college sweetheart, Pastor Robert A. Ray, and they have two adult children that are flourishing. In addition, Carla enjoys swimming, gardening and mentoring others to establish financially-secure and healthy lifestyles.
About this Partner
Faith & Fundraising is the premier conference for nonprofit fundraising, marketing, and leadership professionals who are guided by faith. It not only features the best in philanthropic thought leadership, but also invaluable opportunities to forge lifelong connections. Faith & Fundraising is presented by the Association for Christian Fundraising.

First Time Givers
Church leaders have a keen sense of important spiritual steps in a persons journey in faith. We celebrate monumental and small moments of a person digging deeper into their spiritual lives. But there is a moment that is often missed in pastoral care: the first-time financial gift to your church.

15 Fundraising Fallacies Holding You Back
Fundraising isn't getting any easier. In fact, it's getting more complex.
If you believe you have the potential to fund more, do more, and accomplish more, then keep reading. We won't promise you easy answers, but we will promise you the opportunity to turn what's holding you back into what propels you forward.
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Gratitude
How well does your staff say “thank you” to the givers in your church?
Establishing a gratitude culture in your church goes hand-in-hand with creating a generosity culture. In fact, we would say that you can’t have a thriving generosity culture without gratitude. The truth is, saying “thank you” makes a difference to your givers, to your staff, and to your volunteers.