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Mark Rovner, PCC (Coaching) (he/him/his)

Founding Principal
Sea Change Strategies

Mark is a fundraising consultant, an audience researcher, a certified executive coach, and a former communications director for an international conservation group. In that way, he has a foot in every aspect of the Bridge community.

In his best=selling book Tribes, Seth Godin called Mark a fundraising heretic and a pioneer in the field of non-profit communications. As the founding Principal of Sea Change Strategies, Mark and his business partner Alia McKee have been major drivers of the evolution of mid-level fundraising, through their "Missing Middle" series of whitepapers, workshops and hands-on work with a wide array of organizations.

As an executive coach, Mark has worked alongside Executive Directors, Boards, Chief Development Officers, and other non-profit leaders to evolve the quality and effectiveness of organizations. He has long argued that in the long run only a healthy organization can succeed at fundraising and philanthropy.

Mark is often quoted as calling himself "a fundraiser who doesn't care about the money." What he means is not that the money doesn't matter but that the well-being of the fundraisers and the quality of relationships with donors matter just as much. That philosophy runs through every aspect of his work.

As an author, Mark has written or co-written widely-cited studies of mid-level fundraising, diversity in fundraising, generational giving, behavioral economics, building a culture of philanthropy and storytelling.

Mark has a B.A. in history from Emery University and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. He is proud of the fact that he has never practiced law. When not working he can be found behind the camera shooting wildlife both on land and under the sea.

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