Mel B. Shaw offers more than 40 years experience in fund development and marketing. Formerly the Vice President of Marketing for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), he created and produced the Lou Rawls Telethon, raising $4 million annually in corporate sponsorships and over $500 million in annual gifts to date. Mel also served as the Executive Director of the Texas Association of Developing Colleges, facilitating joint programs and fundraising. He is nationally recognized for his work in creating and designing programs that combine marketing and fundraising and increase revenue and alumni/volunteer engagement. Mel’s strategies create involvement and opportunities for corporate partnerships. He has developed cause marketing programs for Anheuser-Busch, General Motors, American Airlines, Chrysler Black Dealers Association, McDonald’s, Essence Magazine, Disney World, Inc, and 7-Eleven Stores.

Prior to forming Saad & Shaw Comprehensive Fund Development Services he headed his own firm Shaw & Company, which specialized in capital campaigns, annual giving, development assessments, feasibility studies, board development, campaign designs and planning, and major donors. Mel holds a Bachelor of Science from Lane College in Tennessee; a Masters in Business Education from the University of Memphis; and was a fellow at Harvard University ’s Institute of Educational Management.  In 1991 Mr. Shaw received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Lane College in recognition of his unique donor engagement and cause marketing programs and their impact on the fields of philanthropy and higher education.

Pearl D. Shaw, CFRE  (formerly Pearl Saad) is a fund development strategist and technical writer with management experience in the private and non-profit sectors. She has served as Development Director of the Women’s Funding Network, an association of 100+ women and girls’ foundations; and as a major gifts officer for Mills College. Her private sector experience includes business development and marketing. Prior to forming Saad & Shaw Comprehensive Fund Development Services, she headed her own firm, Phrased Write, providing nonprofit organizations with proposal writing, executive coaching, and strategic fund development services including major gifts work. Proposals she wrote secured a combined $6million+ for clients that included the Omega Boys Club; Regional Technical Training Center; Centro de Servicios; Bay Area Black United Fund; and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, San Francisco.

As the principal writer for Saad & Shaw Pearl writes the weekly column FUNdraising Good Times, the blog FUNdraising Good Times, and is the writer and co-author of the book How to Solicit a Gift: Turning Prospects into Donors and the forthcoming Prerequisites for Fundraising Success.

Pearl served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Development Executives Roundtable  from 2002 to 2008, and is a member of the Association of the Fundraising Professionals (AFP). She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley, a Masters in Public Administration from California State University East Bay, and is a Certified Fundraising Executive.