Executive Leadership
 |
Cynthia J. Halverson
President, ELCA Foundation
Executive Director, ELCA Development Services
800/638-3522, ext.2970
e-mail |
Cynthia J. Halverson is the president of the ELCA Foundation and executive director of ELCA Development Services. She assumed the concurrent roles September 2007.
Ms. Halverson has spent most of her professional career fundraising for church-related ministries.
In 1999, she joined the ELCA Foundation as the first director of the ELCA Fund for Leaders in Mission, a churchwide endowed seminary scholarship program. In seven years, Ms. Halverson raised $28 million in gifts and deferred gift commitments with the scholarship endowment balance reaching $13.2 million. During her tenure, over $2 million was distributed through scholarships to ELCA seminary students.
In 1982, Ms. Halverson began her career in fundraising as associate director of development and was later appointed director of development with Lutheran Child and Family Services of Illinois. She joined Lutheran Social Services of Illinois in 1989 and served 9 years as director and vice president for development. In 1997, Ms. Halverson accepted the position of vice president with the Alford Group, a national nonprofit consulting firm.
A former executive secretary for the Association of Lutheran Development Executives, Ms. Halverson currently serves on the development committee of The Lutheran Deaconess Association.
Ms. Halverson earned a B.A. degree in English and journalism from Valparaiso University and is currently pursuing an M.B.A. degree at Dominican University, River Forest, Ill. She is married to the Rev. Brian Halverson and has two daughters, Madeleine and Eliza Grace.