Christopher M. Cannon

Christopher M. Cannon, CFRE, is the president of management consulting for Zuri Group, a world-wide leader in fundraising strategy, technology and operations. Since the 1990's, Chris has provided counsel and innovative solutions to organizations around the globe. His focus is increasing operational and technological capacity for clients so they can raise more money and build better relationships.

His expertise includes fundraising and advancement innovation, strategy, and trends, systems and technology, operations, change management, advancement tech ecosystem projects, data and gift management, reporting and business intelligence, prospect development, and industry innovation. In 20111, he wrote industry-standard An Executive's Guide to Fundraising Operations to help professionals understand how to leverage operations to raise more money and build better relationships. In 2023, his co-authored Focused Fundraising builds on two decades of experiences with the world's leading nonprofit organizations, with an emphasis on getting the most out of ourselves and our teams despite the increasing distractions we all face.

His unique strengths include facilitating productive relationships between board members, front-line fundraisers, advancement operations staff, organizational program leaders, and IT and finance professionals. Mr. Cannon frequently guides clients through complex business process improvement that increases productivity, as well as enterprise-wise CRM and tech implementations.

Mr. Cannon’s client work has included a diverse group of international and best-practice setting universities, colleges, healthcare organizations, and membership organizations. His systems experience and expertise includes Salesforce and many ISV's on the AppExchange, Blackbaud's CRM, the Raiser’s Edge system and other Blackbaud products, Ellucian Advance and Banner, and other systems used in fundraising.

Mr. Cannon holds a Master of Arts from The University of Kansas and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Truman State University. He is a featured speaker and writer for CASE, AASP, APRA, AFP, AHP and others.

Specialties: Organization and business transformation, fundraising strategy, advancement services, development services, development operations, fundraising operations, prospect research, prospect management, relationship management, database management, business process improvement, staff development, and coaching