Larissa Reece has twenty years of experience as a leader in the fundraising industry. During her tenure she has raised over $200 million dollars including many transformational gifts. Her extensive experience includes senior leadership roles in higher education and human service organizations. Her career has been built on leading highly productive fundraising teams that work to support the organizations core mission while ensuring increases in philanthropic support. She has built and transformed teams by implementing data driven fundraising management and reporting and building relationships with key internal and external partners. Most recently she served as the Senior Vice President for External Affairs at Family and Children’s Place where she implemented a focused annual fund program, planned a comprehensive campaign and ensured that public relations and government strategy supported the agencies overall mission. Prior to returning to her hometown of Louisville Kentucky, Larissa served as the Vice President for Development and Alumni Affairs at New York Medical College located in Westchester New York where she was responsible for engaging over 12,000 alumni. There she helped reignite the development team after a significant merger and increased the fundraising productivity by more than 250%. Prior to her role in New York she served as the Executive Director of Development at the University of Louisville leading the fundraising team for the school of medicine that raised over $150 million during her tenure.

Larissa holds a Masters in Higher Education Administration and a Bachelor’s Degree in English both from the University of Louisville. Larissa has been an active and contributing member of the AAMC Group on Institutional Development, the Women in Development of New York City, Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. Additionally, she was a member of the inaugural class Johns Hopkins Philanthropy Institute a leadership in the academic medicine development profession focused on best practices in management and leading a development program. She was also a member of the Leadership Kentucky Class of 2016.

Learn more about Larissa in her “At Bat for Ashley|Rountree” profile!

Read articles featuring Larissa’s comments about donor influence at universities and the potential impact on annual giving:

New York Times, October 21, 2023

Daily Pennsylvanian, November 3, 2023

Daily Pennsylvanian, April 10, 2024