Erinn Finley
Staff Writer
efinley1@murraystate.edu
The new nonprofit leadership studies director at Murray State brings skills developed through a diverse education, fundraising for a large organization and launching a fine arts institution.
Elise Kieffer, the new director of nonprofit leadership studies, chose to come to Murray State partially because of its proximity to her family and the community itself.
“When I visited, I just loved the closeness of the community and the University, not in geographic proximity, but that the University is part of the community,” Kieffer said.
Kieffer said one of the things she brings to this program is a diverse background. She attended a community college, a liberal arts college, an HBCU and an R1 school over the course of her education. Kieffer said the subject matter she studied has been diverse as well.
“I think that gives me a unique perspective in my position here as the director of nonprofit leadership studies,” Kieffer said. “The way that I see the nonprofit sector I think is different than a lot of others in my position in other universities.”
Kieffer worked in the arts and culture sector and in humanitarian aid. She did fundraising for a branch of an international company called Catholic Near East Welfare Association, and she founded a fine arts academy in a rural community. She has good relationship-building skills, which are important for her job, Kieffer said.
“I like meeting new people and making connections and one of the best things that I can do is ‘oh, you should meet this person, you guys have a lot in common,’” Kieffer said. “‘You could work together on something.’”
Making connections and relationship building also are important as a director and adviser, since the job involves connecting students to appropriate departments and internships.
Good relationship building helps her connect students to internships and helps connect beneficial programs for students, Kieffer said.
People in academia tend to be very siloed, Kieffer said. They are all part of the university, but they also have a college, department and sometimes even a program. She said it can be beneficial to look outside one’s own department and get a reminder of good things happening in other programs.
“I would rather connect a student to another program with an accent from a major in this field and a minor in NLS than just say ‘oh no, I need all the students to be mine,’” Kieffer said.
A primary goal for her is to increase the program’s visibility amongst students, Kieffer said.
“I think my predecessors really emphasized outreach to the community, which is wonderful, but I feel that that’s been established,” Kieffer said. “So now, I think that I want students to know we’re here and what we’re about.”
Kieffer teaches students about collaborations and partnerships, which are both parts of relationship building.
“I think a lot of times, at least in the nonprofit sector, probably universally, but we approach things with ‘how can I fix this,’ but it’s important to look at, ‘is someone else already trying to fix it and I can get on board and help,’” Kieffer said. “Or someone else is fixing the right side of the problem and I’m trying to fix the left side of the problem, maybe we should work together and fix the whole problem.”
Kieffer emphasizes the importance of trying to counter the siloing that can happen in programs, she said. She tells students to look outside themselves and see if someone else is fixing the problem. She said sometimes no one is currently fixing an issue and someone has to start from the ground up, but it’s still important to build partnerships with others in the community.
During Kieffer’s fundraising for the New York City branch of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, she worked with large donors and with planned donations from estates.
“There’s an expression in fundraising that ‘people give to people,’ and the idea being that I am much more likely to give of my time, talent and treasure to someone who I know, who I’ve developed trust with than I am to just write a check and put it in the mail to some random entity out there,” Kieffer said. “So my job was to build that relationship with donors where for good or bad or whatever, they would trust me with their money.”
This role meant that Kieffer was the point of contact for many donors. She said she was the one who received both the criticism and the compliments.
When her first child was born, Kieffer decided to move from New York City to Burkesville, Kentucky. She moved to Kentucky for personal and familial reasons, but while she was there, she founded and directed the Burkesville Academy of Fine Arts.
This academy is a year-round interdisciplinary after-school program. These disciplines included music, theatre, dance and visual arts classes as well as camps and performances.
“I definitely saw that there was a need,” Kieffer said. “There was a void in the art opportunities for young people there, as there are in many small communities really. In addition to that, selfishly as a mother knowing that my own children were getting to be near school age and I wanted them to have that access also.”
Kieffer started the academy before her own children were old enough to participate. She said she started it for the community but gained tremendous benefit for her own children as they were able to spend their young years with extensive opportunities to learn fine arts.
Besides her tasks as the nonprofit leadership studies director, Kieffer is also teaching classes at Murray State. This semester, she is teaching Giving, Philanthropy and Grantmaking and The Nonprofit Sector and Civil Society.
Kieffer said she is happy to be in the Murray community and part of the University.
“I’m really glad to be in Murray,” Kieffer said. “I feel like it’s a really good fit. So I’m really happy to be part of the University here and I’ve felt very welcomed.”
For more information, visit the NLS page.