Claudia Miller

Claudia has dedicated nearly 20 years to supporting nonprofits in building stronger communities and advancing their missions through effective fundraising.

As Senior Director of Advancement with Venture Leadership Consulting, she creates development plans that increase revenue, brings together high-performing teams as an interim fundraising executive, and guides leaders in raising awareness through storytelling. Since joining Venture Leadership in February 2020, she has helped raise funds for organizations focused on ending the prison pipeline for Bay Area youth, the national prison abolition movement, helping older foster youth successfully transition to adulthood, Indigenous youth leadership programs, community organizing and safety net services, including revenue to fund permanent solutions to homelessness.
Prior to joining Venture Leadership, Claudia was the Vice President of Advancement at First Place for Youth, a nationally-recognized leader in providing foster youth the housing, education, and employment support they need to become independent, productive adults. During her tenure, she was responsible for increasing annual fundraising from $1M to $8M annually as the organization grew from Bay Area-based to statewide, and then nationally in four states. Her strategic vision for growing private fundraising led to increased engagement with donors at all levels, stronger funder relationships, and targeted communications and branding. She successfully completed the organization’s first-ever Growth Campaign which raised more than $16 million from individual donors.
Prior to her work at First Place, Claudia was a reporter and freelance writer covering topics as wide-ranging as education, early childcare, sports features, home + garden, and real estate for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Hayward Daily Review, and various magazines. Like all good newspaper reporters, she got her start writing obituaries and the weather.
Claudia holds a BA in Latin American Studies and Political Science from Duke University.