Ed Spitzberg is a nonprofit executive, fundraiser and strategic advisor with over two decades’ experience in nonprofit leadership. Spitzberg Advisors, a strategic advisory firm serving nonprofit organizations and leaders, brings a team of experts to draw upon for each project, which include leadership advisory and coaching, board development, transition planning, fundraising planning, program development, retreat facilitation, and strategic planning, with a particular expertise in youth development and the arts.
Spitzberg Advisors’ engagements have included creating a business plan for a national arts education program; restructuring the DC Youth Orchestra Program’s fundraising processes to increase its capacity; leading a strategic retreats for organizations including the Voter Participation Center, Kid Power, The Capitol Hearings, and the Yale Alumni Nonprofit Alliance; serving as interim executive director for the DC Youth Orchestra Program, U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation and BEST Kids.; and working with the Minister of Education of Aruba to plan an island-wide afterschool program. Ed provides leadership advisory sessions, called “Soundboarding,” to board members and senior leaders at organizations including Dance Institute of Washington. Spitzberg Advisors’ clients range from new organizations to organizations that have served the community for decades; with budgets from $100,000 to funders with endowments in the billions.
Ed served as Executive Director of nonprofit organizations including the multidisciplinary arts education program Sitar Arts Center, serving young people from low-income families and winning the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities' National Arts and Humanities Youth Program award under his tenure. Ed was also a senior development executive for Arena Stage, a Tony Award-winning regional theater, and the Afterschool Alliance, the national voice for the afterschool field. Ed is on the steering committee of the Interim Executive Network and the advisory board of the Innovation Collaborative.
As a leader, Ed has developed concrete strategies for his organizations that have resulted in increased capacity and awareness and has worked closely with boards. As a fundraiser, Ed has successfully cultivated and solicited individual and institutional six-figure gifts. As a nonprofit expert, Ed has led workshops and moderated panels for a variety of organizations including one of the world’s largest funders; Americans for the Arts; the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities; United Nation’s Development Programme and the Government of Aruba’s Centre of Excellence for Small Island Developing States; National AfterSchool Association; Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County; and American University’s arts management program. He has published a research abstract article on advocacy for the Creative Youth Development National Partnership.
Prior to his nonprofit career, Ed worked in the corporate arena, including senior product management positions at the Walt Disney Company and an internet start-up, Comedy World. Ed has an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA, where he serves on the Alumni Board of Directors; and a BA in Ethics, Politics and Economics from Yale University, where he is on the board of the Yale Alumni Nonprofit Alliance.
