Brent’s Bio

Brent Pieper, Ed.D., CFRE has 24+ years professional fundraising experience on campaigns totaling over 4 billion dollars. He has managed 130+ professional philanthropy positions, partnered with 82 deans, and worked along-side of 5 university presidents. Brent has extensive expertise directing various philanthropy and alumni operation functions including administration, alumni engagement, prospect research, annual giving, donor relations and stewardship, budget, writing campaign plans, executive volunteer management, campaign training, and major/transformational gifts. His teams are known for setting and surpassing ambitious goals.

Brent served at the University of Kentucky for seven years (2016-2023) as Associate Vice President for Campaign & Major Gifts for the university’s $2.1 billion campaign. He then served as Vice President for Philanthropy at the University of Louisville before moving on to where he currently leads the One Quest Health Foundation in Northern Kentucky as Chief of Philanthropy and External Relations. Brent held the position Assistant Vice President for Development at Cleveland State University where during his tenure the university received Overall National Improved Major Gifts Program recognition by CASE honoring superior fundraising. Brent has also led major gifts and campaign leadership positions for Indiana University and Ohio University with multiple gold and silver level campaign awards by CASE. Prior to that, he was on the executive team at United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta for four annual campaigns. During his tenure at United Way he oversaw the loaned executive program comprised of fifty-five professionals and worked closely with executive volunteer cabinet leaders and trained top Fortune company professionals on fundraising including:

· United Parcel Service

· Delta Airlines

· IBM

· The Coca-Cola Company

· Truist

· Equifax

· Accenture

His first major responsibility in volunteer management was with the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia where he served under 15-time Emmy award winning producer Don Mischer and Peter Minshall, Trinadadian artistic director and designer. At the Olympics, Brent directed a seventy-member cast and volunteer team for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

He has also worked with several professional athletes in football, baseball and auto racing directly on fundraising initiatives and sports philanthropy research including:

· Atlanta Falcons

· Carolina Panthers

· Atlanta Braves

· NASCAR

Brent earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from Indiana University, Bloomington (’97); a master of public administration (M.P.A.) from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University (’01); and a doctorate in educational leadership (Ed.D.) from Indiana University, Bloomington (’14). His research includes women and philanthropy programs in higher education. He was a Lilly School on Philanthropy Women’s Philanthropy Institute Doctoral Fellow, 2012 where he was counseled my Dr. Deborah Mesch, Eileen Lamb O’Gara Chair in Women’s Philanthropy and Dr. Eugene Tempel, Founding Dean Emeritus of the Lilly School on Philanthropy served on his dissertation committee. His dissertation, Women in Philanthropy Programs at American Colleges and Universities: Giving Motivations from the Female Participants’ View, has been recognized as a significant contribution to the field of research on the positive impact of these programs.

Brent is a regular presenter at nonprofit fundraising conferences and consults as available on organization strategic planning, campaign planning and counsel, budgeting, annual giving, principal gifts, event planning, and integrated marketing. Brent specializes in leading fundraising organizational assessments and new tailored development plans.

As an instructor in nonprofit financial management for the Martin School of Public Policy at the University of Kentucky, he has helped many graduate students who are also nonprofit professionals sharpen their skills in fiscal management and budgeting.