ABOUT HEATHER

Heather's 35-year career is threaded with mostly nonprofit experiences that include communications, marketing, writing, event planning and fundraising/development strategy. Today, she combines her unique slate of skills to offer three professional services related to those areas of expertise.  Here's a glimpse into the background experiences that have brought her to this...

DEVELOPMENT and FUNDRAISING STRATEGY: a holistic approach to helping nonprofit clients thrive 

Heather segued from appraising and selling antiques to writing for Colorado Homes & Lifestyles magazine, to directing communications at Historic Denver, Inc., to working with and for hundreds of nonprofits in executive fundraising and event-planning as both an auctioneer and a development strategist. With over a decade of consultancy under her belt, she has built a balanced and comprehensive understanding of nonprofit strategic planning, budgeting, campaign/event, board, staff and donor engagement tools needed to meet challenges. As your development and fundraising consultant, she brings goal-driven, level-headed passion to each project, motivated by the desire to see you and your team streamline and set course for the sustainability and growth needed to continue your good work.  

VISIONARY EVENT PLANNING with PINCHPENNY & EATWELL: her newest endeavor rooted in her oldest passion

At age 11, Heather planned her first dinner party. It was a salute to the cuisine and culture of Spain, with an enormous pot of paella and a foray into classical flamenco music (thanks to a record borrowed from the library) - all planned and prepared for as many neighbors as she could fit around her mother's table. It was a revelation moment for her, and she was hooked.  Fast-forward to the college years; the impromptu supper parties on cardboard boxes in the kitchen on her student budget, complete with flowers pilfered from a local park and a signature mocktail before that was even a thing!  As a young bride, she relished gathering as many friends as she could fit in her tiny, empty city apartment, each asked to bring not a bottle of wine, but a folding chair. Later, she began throwing more ambitious dinner parties with regularity - including her annual "Autumn Supper" (now in its 25th year), her "Feast of Seven Fishes" (an Italian-American Christmas Eve tradition) and quirky dinner party themes such as "Monet's Table" (an homage to romantic French dining, with a blooming table-scape that looked like it jumped right out of the artist's waterlilies canvas) as well as a series of wine-tasting dinners honoring esoteric regions and varietals. 

Today, she is pleased to parlay her knowledge of creating magical gatherings to offer a budget-friendly toolkit, custom-crafted for you, with ease of hosting and penny-pinching in mind. With Pinchpenny & Eatwell, she ties into a lifelong passion honed at home and at the many nonprofit events she dreamed up and brought to life over the years. Creating a moment and a space where conversation and laughter flow is an important and dying art, she feels. It is a gift to create a joyous way for friends to find unplugged connection that always happens organically around the table, and she looks forward to sharing her secrets with you.

BENEFIT AUCTIONEER: the power of using her voice for good

Leaving college with a degree in Art History and not much else, Heather's auctioneering experience began at age 23 at the iconic San Francisco auction house Butterfield and Butterfield (now Bonhams), then as the first woman and youngest person to work the auction block at Clar's Estate Gallery in Oakland California, where she spent three years working with and learning from some of the most talented auctioneers in the business.

Since moving to Colorado in 1997, when she was mentored by beloved veteran auctioneer, Gary Corbett, and has developed an expertise on the block that has benefitted hundreds of nonprofits of every size and stripe. Learning about your mission and positively articulating your message to inspire and invite a room of supporters to give is the reason she loves and excels at her craft.