Senior Director of Member & Foundation Relations
April N. Harley is the Senior Director of Member and Foundation Relations at the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP). She joins following three years as the Executive Director of LEAD NC and LEAD NC Institute, organizations that seek out, recruit and train community and civic leaders to run for state or municipal office, or serve in non-elected or appointed leadership positions, respectively. She joined LEAD NC following three years as the North Carolina Executive Director of Nurse Family Partnership (NFP), a national maternal and child health organization that pairs vulnerable Moms with a nurse who provides regular in-home support from early in the pregnancy to child’s age 2. In this role, she was responsible for expanding NFP in North Carolina to serve more Moms, babies and families. She also oversaw the creation of NFP’s first community college-based site in the country, better serving clients in a five-county region in Eastern North Carolina.
Prior to this role, from 2007-2012, April was a development professional who raised upwards of $15 million for President Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, Inaugurations and nominating conventions. A year into her work as the Illinois Finance Director on Obama 2012, then-Mayor Anthony Foxx asked her to return home to help with the execution of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), so she came to Charlotte to serve as his Senior Advisor for Convention activities. From 2012 – 2017, she founded and ran The Harley Firm, a fundraising and development consulting firm that provided consulting services to local and statewide non-profit organizations, candidates, and committees.
April is a proud Howard University alumna, where she served as the HUSA (Howard University Student Association) Vice-President in her senior year. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors of NC Parents as Teachers. She is an active member of both the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Global and Charlotte Chapter, where she has previously served as the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access) Chair and the VP of Strategic Initiatives. In April 2024, she will be a speaker on inclusionary fundraising practices at the AFP ICON Global
Conference in Toronto, CA.
