Staff
Our Mission | Our History | Our Staff
Cynthia M. Adams
President and CEO
cadams@grantstation.com
Cynthia Adams has been a fundraiser for over 38 years. Working directly for nonprofits and as a fundraising consultant, Ms. Adams specializes in building bridges between funders and grantseekers. She strongly believes that successful grantseeking requires a thorough understanding of the funders and sound knowledge of the playing field. Her life's work has been to level that playing field, creating an opportunity for all nonprofit organizations to access the wealth of grant opportunities across the U.S. and throughout the world. GrantStation was conceived from this basic philosophy. Ms. Adams' experience includes:
- Advisory Board, Green Nonprofits, 2007 - present
- Honorary Advisory Board, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, 2006 - present
- Board member, e-Philanthropy Foundation, 2003 - 2006
- Board member for the Alaska Wilderness League, 2000 - 2002
- Trustee of the Alaska Conservation Foundation 1986 - 1998
- Founder (1991) and President of the Alaska Funding Exchange
- Board member for the State of Alaska, Department of Commerce and Economic Development, Small Business Revolving Loan Fund, 1989 - present
- Executive Director, Interior Economic Development Council, 1988 - 1991
- Director of Economic Development, Fairbanks North Star Borough, 1986 - 1991
- Founder and CEO of GrantStation 1999 - present
Cindy enjoys hiking, gardening, and "movie night" with friends. Her husband, John Luther Adams is a composer, so she also listens to a lot of 21st Century music
Julie Kaufman
Research Director
jkaufman@grantstation.com
Julie Kaufman has ten years' experience in fundraising consulting, during which she specialized in funding research and funding strategy development for nonprofit organizations. As Research Director, Julie spends countless hours with her team of researchers poring through publications, delving deeply into online philanthropic resources, and talking directly with grantmakers to develop and maintain thousands of national and international funder profiles. Her exhaustive research process, discerning attention to detail, and expansive knowledge of grantmakers affords GrantStation Members with the most timely and comprehensive funder information. Julie holds an M.A. in Community Psychology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Contact Julie if you represent a grantmaker and would like to review your organization's existing profile in our database or would like to discuss our addition of your organization to the database.
Angel
Knapp
Vice President of Sales
aknapp@grantstation.com
Angel has been with GrantStation for the past decade, and serves as Vice President of Sales. Angel oversees customer service, works hand in hand with our 170 Co-Brand partners, and manages our Membership Value Program. Angel brings over thirty years of experience working with the public in a variety of capacities and serves on several nonprofit boards. She and her husband Mark also founded The Cutting Edge in 2000, a local machine shop and blade sharpening service.
Contact Angel if your organization is interested in distributing the GrantStation Insider (our weekly e-newsletter) to your e-list. If your organization is already partnering with GrantStation and you have additional questions or are interested in learning more about our MVP or GS-TAP programs, you can also contact Angel.
Sara Kennedy
Member Services and Online Education Manager
sara@grantstation.com
Sara has been with GrantStation since February of 2007 and brings with her the experience of executive director for a local nonprofit and worked with the Veterans Administration as a researcher for over a decade. Sara now serves as Member Services and Online Education Manager for GrantStation, assisting members as well as providing personalized tours of the GrantStation website.
Contact Sara if you're interested in purchasing a GrantStation Membership, if you have questions regarding your existing Membership, including misplaced usernames and passwords, or if you would like to schedule a personal tour of the website. Members can also address any billing questions to Sara.
Joel Terwilliger
Government Development Specialist
joel@grantstation.com
Joel has been a member of the GrantStation team since May of 2009. As Government Development Specialist, Joel manages the Federal Grants & Loans and State Grants & Loans Member areas of the GrantStation website, which involves research systems development, information analysis, and correspondence with national, regional, and local government offices to obtain and publish comprehensive information regarding competitive and/or open sources of government support. Joel also manages relations with an ever growing number of foundation and corporate grantmakers and conducts in-depth IRS Form 990 data set analysis, point-of-contact identification and verification, and financial health/giving measurement. In addition, Joel manages the Infrastructure Assistance Coordinating Council Searchable Database for the Washington State Department of Commerce. He holds an Associate of Arts from Rich Mountain Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and English from the University of Central Arkansas. When he isn't drilling down into the depths of eligibility requirements and core competencies, Joel enjoys baking and various creative writing endeavors.
Contact Joel with questions regarding government funding programs or if you represent a government funding agency and want to include information regarding a funding announcement in the GrantStation Insider.
Ashlyn Simmons
International Research Specialist
ashlyn@grantstation.com
Ashlyn brings a range of experience and skills to GrantStation, including child development/early intervention, teaching and tutoring, customer service, research, writing, and editing. In addition to her work at GrantStation, she is pursuing a M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Her other interests include travel, reading, hiking, cooking, and eating.
Contact Ashlyn if you represent an international grantmaker and would like to review your profile in our database, or if you are interested in having your grant deadline featured in the GrantStation International Insider.
Kevin Peters
Research Specialist
kevin@grantstation.com
Kevin Peters has been with GrantStation on and off for nearly five years, his comings and goings sandwiching several trips across the oceans. He has a BA in Professional Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and an MFA in English from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, and has taught English is such varied places as Alaska, Spain, Indonesia, and Thailand.
Currently settled back in with GrantStation, Kevin works on updating the U.S. Charitable Giving, International Charitable Giving, and State Grants and Loans databases.
Jeremy Smith
Communications and Technology Director
jeremy@grantstation.com
After ten years in radio and six years as an announcer and Program Director at a local NPR station, Jeremy began a business that specialized in “bringing tech support to you.” He was initiated into the world of GrantStation through that endeavor and joined the team in July of 2008.
Jeremy not only deals with GrantStation’s internal tech issues - along with updating and developing new looks and features for the website - but also spends his time developing media for all who visit GrantStation.com.
Carol Norton
Accounts Manager
carol@grantstation.com
Carol moved to Alaska in 1967 from the East Coast, and has spent all but 10 of the intervening years in Fairbanks. After retiring from ten years with the School District
in Barrow, Alaska, and various other employment, Carol
made the mistake decision to take some accounting classes
to help with her husband's retirement business. Somehow,
she was sucked into working as a bookkeeper for a local
nonprofit for five years.
GrantStation latched on to Carol in 2006. After a period of working simultaneously for two separate organizations as the bookkeeper, she is now our (and nobody else's) accounts manager.
Don Kiely
Technology and Programming Consultant
donkiely@grantstation.com
Don was a Christmas gift to GrantStation in 2005, when he began doing the programming and database management required to support the content on GrantStation.com. He spends most of his time scrambling to figure out how to implement the creative ideas of the brains behind GrantStation to enhance the value to our members.
In his free time, Don writes for technology trade journals, speaks at industry conferences, and travels Alaska by dog sled, skis, whitewater canoe and kayak, and foot. He is president of The Second Chance League, a nonprofit sleddog rescue group in Fairbanks, and is on the board of two other nonprofits, Fairbanks Paddlers and the Alaska Skijor and Pulk Association.
Staff cartoons by R.Mata.