Journey Center’s Carbary is Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Outstanding Fundraiser

Carol Carbary, Journey Center’s chief development and engagement officer, was recognized recently as the Outstanding Fundraising Professional by the Association of Fundraising Professionals of Greater Cleveland. The annual award was conferred as part of AFP’s National Philanthropy Day festivities.

Journey Center’s CEO Melissa Graves told award luncheon attendees that “I describe Carol as the perfect balance of the art & science of fundraising. I think a lot of times people think of the art of fundraising—the relationship-building, the beautiful vision, the language, the passion—but I think we don’t always appreciate how much science goes behind all of that work. And Carol totally understands the art and the science of fundraising, and she excels at both.”

Carol, a native of upstate New York, earned undergraduate degrees in math & physics from Wells College and biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University. She also holds an MBA from Kent State University. She joined Journey Center for Safety and Healing, formerly Domestic Violence & Child Advocacy Center, in 2018, after development roles at Notre Dame College, Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, Hillcrest Hospital and Junior Achievement of Northeast Ohio. Carol is a past president of the AFP Greater Cleveland chapter.

“Like so many in my generation, I did not follow a direct path to fundraising,” she said in her acceptance remarks. “As we like to say, I fell into it. And I suffered plenty of bumps and bruises along the way.” She thanked her mentor, Bill Bartolini, with whom she worked at Kent State early in her career.

“When I started my fundraising career more than 25 years ago, development was not a career destination. I’ve watched the field grow and change, and today many young professionals set their sights on a career in fundraising,” she said.

CEO Melissa Graves noted in her introductory message that the agency had created a new position for her as it was rebranding and building on past fundraising success. “What she didn’t know is that we were about to go through a global pandemic and at the same time, the largest government funder for victims’ services in the country was going to greatly diminish its funding.

“It was really important for the organization that Carol was able to address those two things. Carol had the ability to turn on a dime and immediately get the message out to our funders about how critical and dangerous a time this was for us. We wouldn’t have been able to do this without Carol.”