Hi everyone! I’m Susannah Winslow and I’m the Vice President of Development at Austin PBS. I’ve been at the station for almost 13 years and like to say I’ve sat in almost every seat in the development department —beginning as an assistant to the VP when I was hired, then moving into viewer services and database management and finally assuming the roles of Membership Director in 2014 and Vice President of Development in 2018.
While I didn’t immediately begin my career in public media, my love for the PBS mission has remained constant throughout my life. I am the daughter of two devout PBS supporters and viewers, so I grew up on Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. I spent many weekend nights with my mom watching Masterpiece Mystery! and laughing through classic BritComs like Are You Being Served. In college, Antiques Roadshow inspired me to pursue a major in Art History and after graduation, I often turned to PBS programming to find content that fueled my curiosity after a grueling day at the office. And now as a parent, I trust PBS to provide fun, educational programming that my son will benefit from for years to come. In other words, I’m a real #PBSNerd!
Aside from my love for public television, I never thought I would end up devoting my career to it. As I mentioned before, I was an Art History/French major in college and moved to New York City after graduating hoping to land a job at a museum, art gallery or auction house. As fate would have it, I landed a temporary assistant position that turned permanent at a large cosmetics company in their corporate contributions department. The company supported many causes with the two main ones being the arts and the other being breast cancer research. While it wasn’t the position I went to New York to find, I look back now and know that for my twenty-something year old self, there couldn’t have been a better fit. That job did so much to help prepare me for my future career path in nonprofit work and in public television.
After 4 years of working on the corporate side of philanthropy, I knew I wanted to switch gears and work on the nonprofit side. I wanted to work for a cause and have a direct impact in my community. I feel so fortunate that Austin PBS hired me after I left New York -- I often wonder if another nonprofit organization had hired me, would I have found my home in public media? I like to think so! What I find so rewarding about public television is that we have the potential to make a difference in every person's life, in every household in our community every day. One of things I find so special about the work that we do, is that while PBS programming can be seen all across the country, each station is a unique reflection of the local community they serve. And that’s so important to the work we do in fundraising…defining, measuring and sharing our local impact.
As we’ve seen during this pandemic, public television’s impact is great and varied. We’re fortunate to be able to make a difference across genres and across generations. And while I believe wholeheartedly in all the areas we focus our service on, at times it can be challenging to adequately convey all the ways in which we’re making an impact in our local communities to a donor. The breadth and depth of our work, not to mention the myriad of ways one can support the station, can at times be overwhelming. As I’ve grown in my career, one of my greatest challenges has been to not only increase my knowledge of philanthropic giving, but to also better understand all of the work we do at our station in order to improve our fundraising efforts. Let me tell you, that’s no easy feat when our work is changing and evolving at pace that’s much faster than the long runway many funders require!
Personally, I’ve had to learn to lead a team (many of whom were previously my peers), manage workloads (other than my own) and probably most difficult for me, delegate. I’m a doer and it’s taken me years to get comfortable with letting go and leaning in on my team to handle it. I feel so fortunate to work with a team of seasoned fundraising professionals that are experts in their respective areas. By allowing them to do what they do best, I’m allowed to do what I do best…strategize and lead.
Now if I could go back and tell myself one thing when I started on this path it would be to first and foremost,
“believe in yourself”. Because I never set out to lead our station’s fundraising efforts when I first started at Austin PBS. I would have laughed if you would have told me one day I would be the VP that I was currently assisting. My path to leadership was from my point of view, unexpected. But I found it through hard work, commitment, passion, dedication and a lot of help from others who saw the potential in me along the way. In truth, I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up until I found my way to public television and Austin PBS.
As I look to the future, my hope is to continue growing in my leadership for the benefit of public media. I’ve long been passionate about creating a sustainable future for Austin PBS and the entire PBS system. I’ve greatly benefited from learning from other leaders across public media and I can’t stress enough the importance of finding a network of colleagues to reach out to or a mentor to provide guidance. Groups like YoPro and Public Media Women in Leadership are great sources for professional development and connection (and both of which I have greatly benefited from), but also look in your own community for professional groups or mentoring opportunities. I’ve never been one to put labels on things or lay out a direct path -- I’m fantastic at making a fundraising plan, but ask me to plan my life or even a vacation and I’m hopeless -- I prefer to be open to the possibilities where my skills, knowledge and leadership can best be used.
Which brings me to my final piece of advice: “be open”. Open to new opportunities... open to learning new things... open to saying “yes” when you’re asked to join or lead... open to saying “no” when something doesn’t feel right... open to pushing yourself to do things you never thought you could… open to taking that seat at the table and letting your voice be heard… open to the possibility that you can make a difference in this world. Just by being you (as Mr. Rogers would say).
Are you in Development and searching for resources to use? Susannah shared a few of resources & pieces of advice for finding resources:
- Sign up for industry related newsletters (PBS, Greater Public, NETA, Current, other stations etc.) and external non-profit organizations, if you aren't already, start searching for media and non-profit related newsletters and sign up today. There's a lot we can learn from each other!
- Look to other non-profit and development organizations, here are a few of the ones I look to:
Looking to connect with Susannah and learn more about her experience or to obtain additional career advice? Email her today at: swinslow@klru.org.
