The DSG Fundraising & Advancement Practice partnered with the Innocence Project in its 2022-2023 search for Chief Development Officer, resulting in the appointment of Jessica Rawlins Smith. As Chief Development Officer, Rawlins Smith is responsible for setting and executing the vision for a long-term fundraising plan that ensures the strategic identification, cultivation, engagement, solicitation, and stewardship of individual, corporate, and foundation donors and managing a corresponding team of fundraising experts. In response to unprecedented philanthropic support the organization received in the years preceding her appointment, she is tasked with charting a more strategic course during its continued expansion in order to formalize and sustain a modern, data-driven, and major-gifts-focused development program. She will ensure that the Innocence Project’s fundraising operations meet its ambitious agenda, actively marketing the organization to external stakeholders and increasing its capacity to raise money, expanding its funding base, reaching new constituencies, and identifying and developing volunteer leadership.
The Innocence Project works to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone. Founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, the organization’s work is guided by science and grounded in anti-racism.
Rawlins Smith brings over a decade of experience in fund development, using public and private philanthropy to bring high-impact resources to organizations eliminating the inequitable outcomes of systemic oppression. As a fundraising specialist, she has supported some of New York’s most transformative education, arts, and justice-oriented initiatives. Prior to joining the Innocence Project, she served as Chief Development Officer at Partnership with Children, leading the critical growth of private fundraising in support of school-based mental health supports. In addition, she previously served as Senior Director of Development at All Our Kin, overseeing a broad portfolio of philanthropic, public, and corporate funding in support of high-quality family childcare programming. Rawlins Smith also served as Director of Institutional Giving at the Harlem Children’s Zone, one of New York City’s most dynamic community-based initiatives, supporting a broad range of early education, K-12, post-secondary, and family-based programs.