May 21, 2009 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Age at death: 93
Major fund-raising job: Referred to as “the dean of American fund raising,” George Brakeley began his career shortly before World War II, working at the fund-raising firm John Price Jones, which his father helped to found in 1919. He started his own consulting company, then eventually bought his father’s firm, which today is known as Brakeley Briscoe. Mr. Brakeley’s clients included some of the nation’s most prominent colleges and arts institutions.
How he made his mark: A longtime colleague, the fund-raising consultant Henry Bessire, says Mr. Brakeley was a leader in transferring American approaches to fund raising to other parts of the world. “He was a pioneer in envisioning that privatesector fund raising would become global,” he said. Other fund raisers said he helped professionalize the work of soliciting money and encouraged women to join the profession.
Key accomplishments: In addition to his consulting work, Mr. Brakeley was a founder of the American Association of Fundraising Counsel, which is now known as the Giving Institute. His family says he invented concepts such as “the uninvited millions” (money that has not been solicited) and the “stretch campaign.” Bob Hope once said of him, “Brakeley must have a divining rod… he seems to know where the hidden pools of wealth are.” In 1979, he helped Emory University secure a $105-million gift, at the time the largest donation ever to an institution of higher education.
All in the family: Not only did Mr. Brakeley’s father work as a fund raiser, but his son, George III, was also a fund raiser, becoming president of Brakeley, John Price Jones, and now serves as chair of Brakeley Briscoe.
How he will be remembered: Mr. Brakeley’s son writes, “I had learned as an officer in the Marine Corps that you never ask the troops to do anything you yourself won’t do; my father was not a Marine, but he clearly understood and lived up to that principle.”
