In celebration of National Entrepreneurship Month, Apra DC-MD, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Chapters (MARC), and Maryland Nonprofits co-present a dynamic panel discussion in November 2026 exploring the transformative power of entrepreneurial thinking in the non-profit sector.
Whether your nonprofit role is centered in prospect development or operations, frontline fundraising or communications, executive leadership or another functional area, the ability to innovate, adapt, and drive impact is more vital than ever. Great change begins with a powerful idea – but true impact lies in execution from ideation to action.
Through the lens of founder origin stories, ideation processes, and strategic risk-taking, this session connects the lessons learned through entrepreneurial grit to takeaways that will strengthen mission-driven work across roles and functions. Panelists will explore how curiosity, experimentation, resilience, and the willingness to challenge conventional approaches can help organizations solve problems, seize opportunities, and turn bold ideas into meaningful impact.
Our distinguished panelists – The Black Mill’s Chelsea Brown, WIZE’s Louis Diez, Donor Atlas’ Will Schrepferman, and Maryland Nonprofits’ Wendy Wolff – will draw upon their diverse perspectives in articulating how startup principles can elevate your daily work and advance your institution’s mission:
Founder Origin Stories & Ideation: How innovative concepts move from napkin sketches to scalable, real-world solutions.
Navigating Challenge & Capitalizing on Opportunity: Practical approaches to pivoting when strategies shift and evaluating (and seizing) unexpected growth moments.
Strategic Thinking in Action: Bridging high-level visionary ideas with the disciplined execution required across fundraising, operations, programs, data, communications, leadership, and other areas of nonprofit work.
The Non-Profit Throughline: Actionable takeaways on cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset, regardless of your role or organizational size.
Chelsea, Will, Wendy, and Louis will share their personal journeys, practical frameworks, and lessons learned on harnessing the power of ideas to create lasting change across the sector.
Key Takeaways for Attendees:
Adopt an Entrepreneurial Lens: Learn how to identify untapped opportunities and test new approaches within your team, department, or entire organization.
Master the Art of Execution: Move beyond big-picture strategy into agile, structured execution that yields measurable fundraising results.
Build Problem-Solving Resilience: Discover how entrepreneurs reframe obstacles into strategic advantages and apply those tactics to complex challenges in the nonprofit setting.
PANELISTS
Chelsea Brown
Founder and Principal Strategist, The Black Mill
Chelsea Brown is a philanthropist, renowned social impact advocate, and visionary entrepreneur. With a robust background in nonprofit management, Chelsea boasts over ten years of expertise in catalyzing philanthropic endeavors, fundraising initiatives, and fostering strategic partnerships. As the esteemed founder of The Black Mill, Chelsea spearheads a groundbreaking consulting firm committed to orchestrating cross-functional collaborations that propel engagement, drive transformative programs, and forge impactful partnerships on both national and international scales.
Chelsea’s dedication to amplifying diversity and inclusion within philanthropy has garnered prestigious recognition, including the Diverse Communities Scholarship from the Association of Fundraising Professionals International Conference and the Charles R. Stephens Scholarship for the AADO/CASE Conference on Diverse Philanthropy and Leadership. In 2019, Chelsea was honored as a Forbes Under 30 Scholar, the University of Maryland’s Do Good Institute Philanthropy Fellow, and a William Randolph Hearst Fellow with the Aspen Institute’s Philanthropy and Social Innovation Program. Her contributions were further highlighted in 2020 when she was featured as a “Black Woman to Watch in Philanthropy” in BlackHer’s seminal study, “The Black Woman’s Guide to Philanthropy.” The Black Mill has been awarded numerous grants and awards, such as the BGE Small Business Energizing Grant and the BEYGood Black Parade Route Small Business Grant. Her multifaceted background and unwavering commitment to driving positive change solidify Chelsea’s standing as a trailblazer in philanthropy and social impact.
Throughout her career, Chelsea has held pivotal roles such as President of the Baltimore City Chamber of Commerce, Corporate Partnerships Manager for the Maryland Food Bank, and Community Engagement Specialist for The SEED School of Maryland. She also lent her expertise as the Corporate Purpose Specialist at the Nasdaq Foundation and the Exelon Foundation, where she played a pivotal role in guiding corporate social responsibility strategy and administering foundation-related grants. Chelsea has served on numerous boards, including the Winthrop University Foundation Board of Directors and the Emerging Practitioners of Philanthropy-DC Chapter. Chelsea received the Millard E. Tydings Regents Fellowship Fund during her graduate studies at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy.
Chelsea earned her Master of Public Management from the University of Maryland in 2021, complementing her Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication from Winthrop University in 2014. Additionally, she augmented her expertise by completing the Executive Program in Social Impact from the University of Pennsylvania in 2023.
Chelsea is a proud native of Columbia, South Carolina, a military brat, and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Louis Diez
Founder & CEO, WIZE
Founder, The Donor Participation Project
Louis Diez advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies.
He is the founder of the Donor Participation Project and WIZE.
Previously, he taught at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, was Executive Director of Annual Giving at Muhlenberg College, and Director of the Annual Fund and Development Business Operations at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In these roles, he led teams that created growth in number of donors and dollars raised.
Of varied interests, Louis holds an MBA from CUNEF, a PhD in Business Administration from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (both in Spain), and an MM in Music Performance from the University of TN. His thesis applied neural networks to predict economic performance indicators. He has also published articles on the investment value of musical instruments, edited peer-reviewed papers exploring applications for economic theories of legitimacy, and been featured in the music business section of the College Music Society’s journal.
Will Schrepferman
Co-Founder & CEO, DonorAtlas
Will Schrepferman is the co-founder and CEO of DonorAtlas, the first donor research tool built from the ground up with AI.
His fundraising journey began at 13 when he raised his first dollar for his hometown children's hospital (he was a patient). After studying data science at Harvard and working part-time in fundraising throughout his studies, he co-founded DonorAtlas.
Since launching in 2025, their team has partnered with hundreds of fundraising and prospect research teams to help them work smarter, save time, and raise more!
Wendy Wolff
Director of Strategic Engagement, Maryland Nonprofits
Activating and coordinating community responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic was how Wendy Wolff began her career in the nonprofit sector. Her early career helped her to build a strong understanding about the value and role of the community in program planning and policy development.
Wendy brings nearly 25 years of diverse consulting experiences to her role as Director of Strategic Engagement for Maryland Nonprofits. She has collaborated with government agencies; universities, nonprofit organizations; and faith-based organizations to enhance the quality of life within many communities throughout the United States. She uses her strategic thinking skills to help clients synthesize information from wide-ranging sources, reframe problems while uncovering root causes to find refreshing, creative and effective solutions.
Over the past two decades, Wendy has helped thousands of organizations and their people to create brighter futures for the communities in which they serve. Her excitement in working with the members of Maryland Nonprofit’s is infectious. She values the genius that each and every person brings to their role in the sector and works diligently to elevate any person that she engages with.
Wendy holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health from New York University. She has resided as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Denver and as an Associate Faculty Member at Indian River State College. Wendy is a licensed consultant with the Standards for Excellence® Institute. Ms. Wolff’s first book, The Letter Writing Project (Blooming Twig Books), was published in August 2014.
MODERATOR
Tim Wilson
Host, People in Fundraising podcast
Since 2021, Tim Wilson has been the inaugural Prospect Management & Research Manager at Weber State University. He earlier managed a team of analysts at Intermountain Health Foundation, which recruited Tim from his native Boston in 2018. Prior to moving, he spent 18 years in prospect research at Harvard Business School, where his career began.
Tim served from 2016 to 2018 on NEDRA’s Board of Directors, and has subsequently been President of Apra Utah, served on the Apra Foundation, and co-chaired Apra’s 2024 Executive Leadership Cohort.
Tim is currently on the Apra International Board of Directors and hosts the “People in Fundraising” podcast, which launched in 2022. He is a proud public u. alum (UMass-Amherst) and earned a Master’s degree from Harvard University’s Extension School.
Tim and his wife have 4 kids, including 3 teens, who humor his family road-trip goals with varying degrees of (forced) buy-in and good-natured complaining (lots of it!).
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