It is said that "there is no better teacher than experience," and with more than forty years in the field, Denny is one of the rare fundraising executives who has had experience in all of the fundraising disciplines.
Denny founded Meyer Partners in 1989 to provide strategic consulting and related services in fundraising and marketing to selected nonprofit organizations.
Denny's fundraising career began while a student at Concordia Teacher's College, Seward, Nebraska. Upon graduation he was named Development Officer, and later Associate Director of Development. Today, Denny’s commitment to his alma mater (now Concordia University, Nebraska) continues through his volunteer service as a Regent of the University and a board member of the Concordia University Foundation. He also served as co-chair of a successful $67 million capital campaign for Concordia and was named Alumnus of the Year in 2001.
Prior to starting Meyer Partners, Denny served as National Director of Not-for-Profit Marketing for Epsilon Data Management, one of the nation’s leading database marketing companies. In that role, he was responsible for new business marketing and served as senior strategist and program director on numerous client programs. He is a recipient of Epsilon's Lifetime Achievement Award. His career also includes service as Director of Development for Lutheran Family Services of Iowa as well as Development Director at Bethesda Lutheran Communities in Wisconsin.
A charter Certified Fund Raising Executive, Denny was a Founder of the Association of Lutheran Development Executives (ALDE) (now Association for Christian Fundraising) and received its Lifetime Achievment Award in 2003. He is a past board member of the Chicago and Miami chapters of AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals), and of the DMA's NonProfit Federation.
Presently, he continues to serve as a Founding Board Member of The NonProfit Alliance and is a frequent speaker at regional and national fundraising and marketing conferences.
An avid reader, Denny stays abreast of current affairs impacting the nonprofit sector and tries to carve out time for the occasional historical novel.