Dan Zanella

Over the course of his development career (which began in 1985), Daniel Zanella has distinguished himself as an adept fundraising professional with significant experience supervising a wide variety of advancement activities. Before founding Zanella Consulting, he spent several years within the Easter Seal organization, then as Director of Development at the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra before becoming the Chief Development Officer at the prestigious American Ballet Theatre. He has managed programs raising a total of more than $80 million for these organizations.

His Easter Seal assignments included progressively senior development positions in New York, Atlanta and Chicago, where he had direct responsibility for numerous fundraising campaigns, including serving as Executive Producer for Chicago’s nationally broadcast Telethon. During Mr. Zanella’s eight-year tenure at the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, annual contributed income doubled while the organization’s endowment saw a six fold increase. He was also instrumental in successfully transitioning the Orchestra into its new home at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. At American Ballet Theatre, Mr. Zanella was a member of the senior management team for the $32 million a year organization and was directly responsible for an annual development goal of more than $13 million as well as significant Board development responsibilities.

Zanella Consulting provides fundraising counsel to non-profit institutions in many diverse fields. The firm works with charitable institutions to maximize their contributed income by providing both project support and ongoing development counsel as well as technology solutions. Zanella Consulting has also formed a strategic alliance with Arts Consulting Group, a firm specializing in interim management, project consulting, executive search, and human empowerment solutions for arts and cultural institutions.

Mr. Zanella graduated magna cum laude from the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music with a double major in Music Performance and Management.