By Mark Ambrogi
Katie Harvey grew up not far from Conner Prairie, in Noblesville, and graduated from Hamilton Southeastern High School in 2005. On Oct. 12, she began her new job as Conner Prairie’s director of individual giving.
“My main goal is to help grow the individual giving program and help bring new donors and individual supporters,” said Harvey, who recently moved to Broad Ripple. “We’re looking to expand more as we bring more people and donors out to Conner Prairie. There’s been a lot of changes over the years under Ellen’s (Rosenthal) leadership. It’s just an opportunity to grow it more.”
Rosenthal, president and CEO, is retiring at the end of the year. Karrie Zuccarello has been named as chief development officer.
Harvey most recently worked as the associate director of development at the Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. While there, she developed and executed an annual giving and stewardship operational plan.
Prior to that, she served as assistant direct of major gifts at the IU College of Arts and Sciences. She began her fundraising career as the United Way campaign coordinator and community relations specialist for the IU office of the vice president for public affairs and government relations. Harvey is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
“We’re focusing on building annual giving strategy and donor relations and building a stewardship program here,” Harvey said. “It ties in well with my last position, where I was tasked with building an annual giving and stewardship strategy and bringing in new donors. That is something I’ll be replicating. It is different working in a museum where you don’t have alumni, so it’s an exciting new position.”
Harvey earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish, a certificate from the liberal arts and management program and a master’s degree in nonprofit management from Indiana University.
“I started volunteering, learned about fundraising and have loved this field ever since,” she said.
