Lauren Grosz is a trailblazer in the non-profit sector, setting an example for those striving to make a difference in society and communities. As the Founder and CEO of LG. Philanthropy, she combines her passion with strategic acumen to empower small and mid-sized non-profit organizations. For her, success is defined by the impact she makes on the lives of others, personally and professionally. “I am successful because I love what I do, I follow my passion, and I surround myself with people that believe in me,” Lauren says. As she advanced in her career and in life, success started to mean something different; it became more holistic. It was about how she could help others, how she could build a team and help them achieve their goals, and how she could show up and be there for her friends and family.
Lauren has always had the goal and personal drive to make a difference in the world. “I want to know that when I leave this world, I made a positive impact in the community I live in and for the people I love,” she says.
The Professional Journey
Lauren graduated college in 2001. Although she initially aspired to be a Fashion PR agent, she quickly realized during an internship with a design house during fashion week, that this wasn’t the career she wanted for herself. It was during a walk with her mom, that she realized she wanted to create an impact and be remembered for giving back, just as her mom had in her career as the executive director for the adolescent AIDS unit in the Bronx. A few weeks later, Lauren stumbled upon a job description for the Director of Fundraising at Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, and it was a revelation. She discovered that there was a career path that combined her passion for making a positive impact, bringing people together, raising awareness, fundraising, and planning events. Thus began her journey into the nonprofit sector.
In 2005, Lauren stepped into the nonprofit sector for the first time when she joined the National MS Society. “From the first day, it felt like everything had fallen into place,” Lauren recalls. “It was exactly what I was meant to do. It was a wonderful feeling to be able to do something that I was passionate about—something that gave back to other people.”
In 2014, Lauren went to work for the American Heart Association, allowing her to connect the personal with the professional. She was able to work for an organization near and dear to her heart. Lauren’s father passed away from heart disease at the age of 42, and her mom suffered a massive stroke at age 50. Lauren had wanted to work for the AHA because she wanted to help families like hers. Today, because of advances in medicine and support from organizations like the Heart Association, her parents’ outcomes would be very different.
Lauren said, “The Heart Association is like the Harvard of fundraising. The resources and training I was offered at AHA taught me how to be the fundraiser I am today. I kept setting goals for myself, pushing myself to think bigger, and having the confidence and support to achieve those goals, like becoming the Vice President of Development for NYC.” In 2016, the Heart Association tapped NYC and L.A. to be pilot markets focused on mission and a new model of leadership and team structure. For two and a half years, Lauren led the NYC market and transitioned to mission-focused fundraising, the strategy that transformed her career. During her time at the Heart Association, Lauren secured six and seven-figure gifts. Under her leadership, the NYC market held the highest grossing Go Red for Women Campaign in 2017, raising over $2,000,000. Lauren says, looking back, that this was the turning point in her career and a time she is very proud of.
In 2018, a former AHA colleague, recruited Lauren to join the American Diabetes Association, for her outside-the-box thinking and determination to move things forward without taking “no” for an answer. When she joined the Diabetes Association, Lauren was the only Executive Director who had experience selling six- to seven-figure gifts. “There was so much opportunity and need, I started to push the envelope and immediately started to rethink the fundraising model and began to strengthen relationships and build transformational partnerships to support the mission,” Lauren says. She was also given the opportunity to work with other Executive Directors across the country to do the same. Lauren worked to help her colleagues think bigger, while also setting another audacious goal for herself, to secure an 8-figure gift. During the pandemic, in 2021, over Zoom, Lauren secured a $10 million sponsorship from CVS, to support an initiative to reduce the impact of diabetes and associated co-morbidities across the country. Not only was this the largest gift the ADA secured since 1998, it was a national program helping underserved, at-risk communities.
Post-COVID, like many people, Lauren started to feel burned out. In the summer of 2021, Lauren went to work at Girl Scouts of the USA as the Senior Vice President and Interim Chief Development Officer. On paper, she was thriving, but Lauren was no longer feeling challenged or inspired personally or professionally. She knew she needed a change. On May 19th, 2023, Lauren took a huge leap of faith and decided to leave her executive level job without another one lined up. This was a huge and risky decision, Lauren recalls thinking, “What single woman living in NYC quits a good job without anything else lined up?” But Lauren is someone who always trusts her gut and takes risks. Five days after her last day of employment, Lauren woke up on her 44th birthday, decided to give herself the gift of betting on herself, and launched LG. Philanthropy. Lauren says, “After 20 years of working in the nonprofit industry, I was excited and motivated again, it felt like my first day at the MS Society, where everything just fell into place and I was doing what I was meant to do. I’m so glad I trusted my instincts, because this has been one of the best years of my career and life.”
LG. Philanthropy’s Greatest Achievement
Lauren recently celebrated LG. Philanthropy’s first anniversary. She launched it with the mission to unleash the full potential of organizations by amplifying their impact and creating lasting positive change in communities. And she built it from scratch by taking risks and being comfortable with failure.
Lauren built her consulting agency to empower small and midsize nonprofit organizations to thrive. “I’ve had the privilege of working for large-scale National Organizations and have learned from the best. Unfortunately, most nonprofits don’t have the budget or scale to invest in the incredible resources and tools I was given in my former jobs. LG. Philanthropy is my way of taking my passion and skillset to support more nonprofits succeed.”
The goals Lauren sets for her company are focused on working with nonprofits that she personally connects with, helping them move their mission forward and grow. It was finding balance in her life to do what she loves every day and to do it her way. LG. Philanthropy was built on intuition, taking risks, and being okay with failure. What has transpired over the past year has been incredible. Lauren says, “While I don’t get every client I pitch, I don’t let that feel like failure, I think of it as a learning opportunity.”
For Lauren, right now, LG. Philanthropy is her greatest achievement. She believes that all of the experiences and successes she had prior to going off on her own set her up for this moment. Her business has grown through personal connections. So far, all the clients she works with are through personal relationships. “To be able to be a solo entrepreneur but have a network of colleagues and experts to help start a business within five days of quitting a job without having a plan and then turning it into a profitable, recognized business is the highlight for me right now,” Lauren says.
While working for other organizations, one of the challenges Lauren faced in more senior roles was having a vision for how things should be done that didn’t always align with others. Lauren says she hates the word ‘no’, but just like Einstein said, “I am grateful for those who said no, it’s because of them that I did it myself.” “When I get an idea in my mind or I set out to do something, I won’t stop until I make it happen, and while the road to get to the goal may change, the goal never does. I like to think of roadblocks as opportunities.”
Now, she gets to do what she loves and how she loves to do it. “It has been successful so far,” she says.
Responsibilities of a CEO
Lauren had a vision: to build a consulting agency that would grow over time and eventually become the go-to nonprofit consulting agency. She spends most of her days working with clients on strategic development, revenue generation, campaign management, staffing, and high-impact partnerships. In the evenings, she focuses on building her business and brand, prospecting, marketing, and cultivating potential clients.
Even though Lauren is a solopreneur, she knew from day one, she had to let go of the idea that she could do it all and that if she was going to succeed, she would need to contract experts to work on the things she didn’t know, like accounting and bookkeeping.
Over Lauren’s career, she has built an incredible network and leaned on her relationships to help with certain aspects of the business. Her former boss, Jenny Powers, recently joined as a senior consultant, and her dog Ru is the front desk security guard.
Lauren knows she doesn’t know it all, so, she constantly asks questions and tries to learn from everyone she meets. Little by little, she is growing the business, making it a multi-faceted organization and in time the largest, go-to non-profit consultancy agency in the country.
Guiding Principles of a Leader
Lauren describes herself as a leader who strives to empower others to be their best selves. She admits she has very high standards for herself, and that can be intimidating, but she will never ask a colleague to do something she wouldn’t do or hasn’t done.
According to her, one of the hardest lessons for a leader to learn is the importance of delegation. She believes in giving people the confidence and the runway to do things on their own. She also ensures that her team and clients know that they can always fall back on her and confer with her. “As a leader, helping others to succeed is very important to me,” Lauren says.
She leads by example and has no intention of giving up working in the field. She understands that she can grow only when she allows other people to grow and thrive throughout the organization. As a leader, one of her guiding principles is the “flawless execution of the fundamentals.” She ensures that anything she can control or do well is done right. For example, she emphasizes sending emails without typos and proposals that are grammatically correct and make sense.
“Permission to fail and trying strategic innovation” is another guiding principle of hers. She explains that it is okay to think out of the box. Lauren shares that she’s a big thinker and does not believe in doing things traditionally. However, when she fails and realizes that something isn’t going to work, she needs to pause and assess. She quickly tries to find a new path forward or says, “It was worth the try. I learned from it, and now it is time to move on.”
The third guiding principle of hers is “putting fun in fundraising.” She says, “It is important to celebrate wins, big and small. Work hard and play hard. It is the biggest cliché in the working world, but it is true. Don’t let work become your life; find balance, have fun, and celebrate everything that matters to you.”
Another principle that guides Lauren is: “progress over perfection.” According to her, perfection can paralyze you from moving forward. It is important to do good work, to be confident in the work you produce, but if you are looking for perfection, it might never get done. “Over time, projects evolve and get better,” she says.
Plans for the Future
The future of LG. Philanthropy is filled with promise and vision. Lauren is committed to leading the charge in philanthropic innovation, consistently pushing the boundaries in fundraising, strategic planning, and nonprofit management. Grounded in creativity and adaptability, she pledges to deliver pioneering solutions that leave a lasting impact on the partners and the communities she serves.
In year two, Lauren is seeking more speaking engagements and opportunities where she can position her organization as a leading entity that is led by a woman and run by women. “In five years, I hope that we will be the go-to organization for non-profits,” she says.
Changing Landscape of Non-Profit
Lauren has been a part of the non-profit landscape for nearly two decades. She has witnessed its evolution from focusing on events to adopting a more professional, business-like approach to fundraising. Lauren points out that the landscape of non-profits has seen an immense shift over the past few years.
When she began working at the National MS Society in 2005, the focus was on event fundraising. She recalls that at the time, she and her team were managing eight social events. “The majority of the money we raised was through social events, we organized galas, golf outings, walks, and luncheons,” Lauren says.
Over time, and specifically while Lauren worked at the American Heart Association, there was a shift in order to grow and increase revenue to fund research, education, and provide resources for the communities served. This led to organizations becoming more businesslike, according to Lauren. “It was a difficult transition for a lot of non-profits because people didn’t think of non-profit organizations as businesses but saw them as charitable or volunteer opportunities,” she adds.
Shifting to a mission-focused model, it became about addressing and affecting change around social determinants of health, ensuring health equity across all populations,” explains Lauren. This shift in the non-profit space became the driving force behind her transition from selling $5,000 to $10,000 tables at events to securing six- and seven-figure partnerships. In addition to fundraising becoming more professional, Lauren is also seeing the growing importance of good storytellers, showing outcomes, building trusted relationships, and measuring the impact one has on society and the community.
Now, as someone running her own consulting business, Lauren tries to highlight and focus on teaching her clients to build a mission-focused mindset into their strategy. She emphasizes thinking about the impact they can have on changing the lives of families where a child has been ill, hurt, or had a stroke, helping them live their best lives and get the services they need to thrive again.
Message to Aspiring Leaders
In her message to aspiring leaders, Lauren emphasizes the need to vocalize one’s needs and ambitions. She says, “Ask for what you want from yourself and from others. Put it out there and make it happen.”
She also advises aspiring leaders to not overthink or overcomplicate things. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, don’t wait for things to be perfect; just start, she says, adding that she learned more from her mistakes than her successes.
Lauren also encourages them to connect with others. “A simple ‘Hello’ can lead to a million things,” she says.
“Talk to everyone, don’t be afraid of letting people know what you want for yourself and your business,” she adds. “Ask for and offer help where you can. “Being a good connector is mutually beneficial.”
There is Always More!
Lauren may have established a successful non-profit consultancy, but she continues to look forward to setting big goals and reaching new milestones. “There is always more,” she says. “I don’t want to stop and believe that I’ve achieved everything that I had dreamed of, because I don’t want to stop dreaming… that’s when you get bored.”
When she raised $10 million for diabetes, she for a brief moment thought, “I did it, I achieved the biggest goal I set for myself.” But, then, she soon set new goals and new milestones to achieve for herself. “I’m not someone who lets life happen to me. I’m someone who makes my life happen,” says Lauren, the “bold” leader who is inspiring others to carve out their own path and make a difference in the lives of others.
