Robert A. Burdenski

Bob Burdenski is an internationally-recognized annual giving program consultant for schools, colleges and universities. He is a prolific writer and published author, often appearing in Currents, the member magazine of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). He is the author of 2 CASE books: Innovations in Annual Giving, which presents ten U.S. case histories of advanced annual giving strategies, and a new CASE book, More Innovations in Annual Giving, Ten Global Departures That Worked, which features case histories from institutions around the world.

He has served as an annual giving program consultant since 1996, and has served more than 100 clients world-wide over that time. Bob Burdenski is not a fund-raising consulting “generalist” – he has concentrated solely on annual giving programs for fourteen years. In addition, he does not consult in his spare time or as an additional source of income. His full-time annual giving consulting career endures solely on the quality of his work and the satisfaction of his clients. He devotes whatever time is ultimately necessary to accomplish his clients’ goals.

A recipient of the prestigious CASE “Crystal Apple” award for teaching excellence as ranked by his audiences, he has educated and entertained at presentations throughout the United States, Europe Asia, and Australia including the 2007 CASE Europe Independent Schools Conferences in Dublin, Ireland and the 2008 CASE Asia Pacific Conference in Hong Kong. In 2009, he co-presented CASE’s first-ever advancement training programs in India. He is also a contributor to CASE’s Online Speaker Series on the subject of annual giving.

Since 2002, he has served as the moderator of FundList, the largest fundraising e-mail discussion listserv in the world, with more than 2,000 development professional subscribers.

Mr. Burdenski has spent 20 years in fund raising serving a variety of educational institutions, religious and human services organizations. He has served as director of annual giving and then director of university development at Cleveland State University, vice president for development at Catholic Charities Corporation in Cleveland, and chief development officer at Notre Dame College of Ohio.

Mr. Burdenski is a graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with degrees in finance and accountancy. He resides in Chicago, IL.