Carla Kindt

After serving as a fundraising leader for over 30 years, Carla Kindt retired in 2020 as Director of Development for Special Programs at Northeastern University. In that role, Carla was responsible for strategic vision and oversight of fundraising at the University Libraries; the College of Arts, Media and Design; the Veterans Center, and the College of Professional Studies.

During her 15 years at Northeastern, Carla developed a reputation as a creative, resourceful, and tenacious professional, raising money for programs that were struggling to find traction and attract needed gifts. A key part of her success was partnering with deans and program directors who needed to learn their role in the fundraising process while helping alums and friends learn to see themselves as generative donors. Before her arrival, the college was raising less than $100,000 per year in private philanthropy.  Working with the dean, Carla crafted a fundraising strategy that resulted in gifts totaling $16 million over six years for Empower, Northeastern’s recently concluded capital campaign. 

Prior to her work at Northeastern, Carla served as Director of Development and Campaigns at the Greater Boston Food Bank, where she planned and launched the campaign to construct a new food warehouse and doubled the money received from annual gifts.

Raised as a Catholic in Oakland, California, Carla joined First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Milton, Massachusetts in 1986. In 1992 Rev. Charles Gaines hired Carla as the Director of Fundraising Consultation at the Unitarian Universalist Association. Responsible for all church capital campaigns in the United States and Canada, Carla trained and supervised a dozen fundraising consultants, while personally working with 14 churches on their campaigns. 

A major tenant of Carla’s work is that money follows meaning. She has grown to appreciate the deeply spiritual aspects of philanthropy; and believes that integrity, moral clarity, and vision are critical tools in a fundraiser’s toolbox. Donors need to believe that they are appreciated and heard, as well as to trust that their gifts will have a real impact. As part of her commitment to the programs that she has grown to love, Carla has served as a mentor to a number of at-risk, first-generation students. This has included maintaining relationships even after college graduation, helping these young people navigate the cultural challenges of the professional workplace.

Carla holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Stanford University and a Master’s in Education from Boston University.