The DSG Fundraising & Advancement Practice partnered with the Center for Reproductive Rights in its 2022-2023 search for Chief Development Officer, culminating in the appointment of Gabriella Morris. She is guiding the vision and strategy for the Center’s new era of global fundraising growth as profound challenges act against gender equality and human rights in the U.S., even as momentous progress is being made in many parts of the world. As Chief Development Officer, Morris manages a development team of 30 people and will capitalize on this critical moment and the Center’s compelling mission to raise revenue from individual, foundation, and government donors, with a particular focus on securing seven-figure gifts from high-net-worth individuals. A core charge is to increase the operational capacity and strategic integration of the development department to maximize donor interest and ensure that the Center’s development program is poised to sustain and fully leverage the influx of unprecedented, broad-based philanthropic support to the organization in recent years.

The Center is the global leader in using the power of law to advance reproductive rights as fundamental human rights. Since its founding in 1992, the Center’s game-changing litigation and advocacy, combined with its unparalleled expertise in constitutional, comparative, and international human rights law, have transformed how reproductive rights are understood by courts, governments, and human rights bodies worldwide on issues including maternal health, contraception, abortion, and assisted reproduction. It has won groundbreaking cases before national courts, U.N. Committees, and regional human rights bodies, led the development of historic, proactive legislation advancing robust protections for reproductive rights, and has built the legal capacity of women’s rights advocates in more than 60 countries and counting. In the U.S., the Center has argued all major abortion rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court since Roe v. Wade and is now leading work to restore protections for abortion rights in the wake of the Court’s 2022 ruling to overturn Roe and revoke the right to abortion under the U.S. Constitution.

Gabriella is a veteran philanthropic leader who has successfully operated from a variety of vantage points, gathering deep foundation and fundraising experience in large-scale, global organizations. She previously served as Chief Philanthropy Officer with the World Food Program USA and led unprecedented fundraising growth, including harnessing the outpouring of support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s 2022 invasion. Before that, she served UNICEF USA between 2014 and 2020, ascending to roles as Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Interim Chief Development Officer. Gabriella’s introduction to working with foundations and to the field of development came during her successful 25-year tenure with Prudential Financial, during which she served as President of the Prudential Foundation and Vice President of Community Resources.