Milissa Else's experience in development and campaign management encompasses annual giving, major gifts, foundation and corporate research, grant writing, stewardship/donor recognition, special events, database management and strategic planning.

Milissa has been a member of Ruotolo Associates since 1997 and has worked with a number of clients conducting planning studies, consulting on capital campaigns and directing strategic planning efforts. In addition, Milissa has designed and installed campaign database software programs for many of Ruotolo Associates’ clients.  Milissa was presented with the firm’s “Tim Manning Culture of Excellence Award” in 2004.

As a campaign manager at Dwight-Englewood School, Englewood, New Jersey, Milissa established a prospect tracking system, identified major gift prospects, coordinated donor cultivation events, initiated and managed a stewardship program, wrote proposals for foundation funding, and designed and implemented individualized cultivation strategies.

Milissa also was employed as a development associate at Hospital for Special Care, New Britain, Connecticut, working on prospect identification, foundation and corporation research for its annual program, writing grant proposals and other development materials, and coordinating the implementation of the capital campaign operational plan for the hospital's first major fund raising endeavor, while promoting the development of a strong volunteer structure.

Milissa has presented workshops on principles of moves management and managing major gift prospects at CASE/NAIS Independent Schools Conference. She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, National Association of Independent Schools, and Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

She has a BA in Spanish from Mount Holyoke College, from which she graduated Magna Cum Laude, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society.  Milissa is a volunteer for her alma mater and is newsletter editor and membership coordinator of Mount Holyoke Club of Bergen-Passaic.

Milissa and her husband, Bert, along with their two children, live in Rutherford, New Jersey.