Judy Levine, Executive Director
Judy Levine, Cause Effective's Executive Director since 2006, has almost two decades of experience as a non-profit management advisor. As a Cause Effective staff member since 1993, and through her work as an independent consultant, Ms. Levine has trained, consulted and authored materials for over 1,000 nonprofit organizations. Her expertise is in cultivating support from individual donors, fundraising planning, and Board and organizational development. Ms. Levine has experience working in a multitude of organizational cultures and is particularly skilled in understanding how to tailor her assistance to the relevant audience in order to meet their needs. Ms. Levine participated in the development of many of the methodologies that Cause Effective uses today, specifically in the areas of resource and organizational development.

Ms. Levine also brings her own experience as a Board member to the work she does for clients of Cause Effective. She provides fundraising and financial oversight in her roles as Chair of the Church Street School for Music and Art, and President of Taste of Tribeca. In addition, she is the former Board Chair of Pepatian (a Bronx-based CBO that promotes new Latino performance), and served as Fundraising Chair of Transportation Alternatives. Prior to joining Cause Effective, Ms. Levine worked as an independent consultant and trainer in the area of strategic fundraising for a diverse set of clients, and was also Director of Programs for the Cultural Council Foundation where she focused on fundraising consulting and strategic planning. Ms. Levine holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from New York University and has also published several articles on topics in the arts and non-profit administration.

Gregory Cohen, Senior Associate
Gregory Cohen has extensive experience in nonprofit consultation as well as program development in the areas of education, healthcare and housing. Before joining Cause Effective, Greg was managing a collaboration of global health organizations who were seeking a shared performance management system for global programs. He was also an advisor to a trade association of nonprofit financial managers as well as several youth development organizations. Greg founded and ran Comprehensive Development, Inc. a nonprofit associated with Manhattan Comprehensive Night & Day High School , for 11 years. Prior to leading CDI, Greg was responsible for the housing development program at the New York Urban Coalition where he created over 270 units of permanent housing in six projects with over $27 million in financing.

Greg is a certified trainer in nonprofit ethics with the Institute for Global Ethics and has served as a facilitator for IBM's International Data Migration and Global Finance Divisions. For the past five years he has been a guest instructor on "Fundraising For New Nonprofit Ventures" at NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Greg has also been a consultant on community development to Seedco and the Community Service Society. He is a Vice Chair of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of NY. He was a participant in Coro 's Leadership NY II and holds a BA from Union College.

Susan Gabriel, Senior Associate
Susan Gabriel brings more than 15 years of nonprofit experience to Cause Effective, most recently as Director of Development at the Correctional Association of New York. During her 6 ½ year tenure at the Correctional Association, Ms. Gabriel created the group's first stand-alone development office and the agency tripled the size of its budget and staff. Ms. Gabriel worked closely with the Board and executive director to increase the Board's participation in giving and fundraising efforts, and launched the organization's first major gifts campaign, which surpassed budget goals each year. Ms. Gabriel was responsible for numerous events at the Correctional Association, including seven increasingly successful annual gala dinners, donor cultivation events, and public information events, including large public forums.

Formerly, Susan served as the Assistant to the President of the Citizens Committee for NYC, where she supported a wide range of special events, such as a $1.1 million annual fundraising dinner, an annual city-wide 70,000-volunteer event, and numerous other awards ceremonies and program events. In addition, she created administrative systems for fundraising management. Before turning to nonprofit work, she was a professional actor, with experience on- and off-Broadway, in numerous regional theatres and on television. Susan has an MFA from New York University 's Graduate Acting Program and her BA from the University of Utah.

Lauren Goldstein, Senior Advisor
Lauren Goldstein joined the staff of Cause Effective in 1991 and served as its Executive Director from 1995 to 2005. As Executive Director, she was responsible for tripling the organization's budget and significantly expanding the reach and scope of its program. Ms. Goldstein has provided resource development and special events training and consulting to more than 800 nonprofit organizations. In her consulting work, Ms. Goldstein has helped nonprofits expand and train their Boards of Directors, assess their fundraising capacities and create development strategies, formulate and implement promotion and marketing campaigns, and handle a variety of related organizational development issues. Ms. Goldstein, who wrote the highly acclaimed book, The Special Events Toolbox , has served as executive producer of dozens of major special events, including galas, concerts, convocations, film premieres, and auctions.

Ms. Goldstein has spoken nationally and internationally at Columbia University , NYU, AFP Philanthropy and Fundraising Days, and numerous local and national conferences. Ms. Goldstein is a member of the Resource Council of Derek Jeter's Turn 2 Foundation and a Board Member of Governance Matters. She was a former Board member of the Nonprofit Management Association (now the Alliance for Nonprofit Management) and a founding member and former Vice Chair and Secretary of the New York Technical Assistance Providers Network.

Deborah Vega, Program Associate
Deborah Vega comes to Cause Effective with over ten years of management and marketing expertise. Ms. Vega has worked with nonprofits on strategic planning, fundraising and project management, and provided technical assistance as an associate executive director transition management consultant for the Support Center of New York. Her background also includes large-scale special events planning and fundraising. Ms. Vega has a masters in Nonprofit Management from the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy at the New School University.

Michelle Bishop, Associate Consultant
Michelle Bishop is a fundraising professional with over sixteen years experience in the areas of corporate and individual giving, special events and resource development, with a strong background in IT and marketing strategy.  Through twelve years at the special events firm Event Associates, Inc., Ms. Bishop developed corporate and individual fundraising and marketing campaigns to serve the needs of clients including Jazz at Lincoln Center, Entertainment Industry Foundation, Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, New York Knicks 50th Birthday Bash, Black Enterprise 25th Anniversary and Entrepreneurs Conference, and Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration.  Ms. Bishop has produced special events including concerts, dinners, and advertising journals where proceeds raised exceeded $4 million for an individual event.  Prior to Events Associates, Inc., Ms. Bishop served as Marketing and Business Systems Manager for Associated Black Charities, where she organized special events and fundraising campaigns, designed and disseminated communications and promotional information, developed relationships with media to enhance the agency's marketing capabilities, and aided member agencies in the areas of fundraising, marketing, media relations, information technology, real estate and board development.

Walt Wells, Administrative Associate
An integral part of the Cause Effective team, Walt Wells provides administrative support and manages the operations.  He works with Cause Effective clients to improve and manage their records and data, provides logistical support for client activities, and provides hands-on event management.  Walt is an active volunteer with arts education and social service/hunger organizations, and received his BA with Honors in Ethnomusicology and Folklore from Indiana University . During off-hours, he can be seen performing in and around New York City with The Jones Street Boys.

Board of Directors

Heidi Aronin
(Treasurer)
NYU School of Medicine

Lili Brown (Chair)
New Visions for Public Schools

Jacqueline M. Ebanks
Citigroup

Nelson Fernandez
APCO Worldwide

Patricia Jenny
The New York Community Trust

Nina Kontos (Secretary)
Unilever

Anita Nager
Beldon Fund

Lata Reddy, Esq.
The Prudential Foundation

Claire Scanlon
Bank of New York

Jeffrey S. Trachtman, Esq.
Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel LLP