Christy Passmore has enjoyed a long, successful career in fundraising, campaign management and volunteer leadership.  Her addition to Vision Philanthropy Group (VPG) as Senior Advisor in July, 2022, taps into each area in VPG’s Bold Asking® program. Her favorite role is the one-on-one conversations that occur with prospective donors when she has connected their passion to their philanthropic intent for creating change.

 Her earliest exposure to fundraising and development was in political campaigns. Her exposure to fundraising and messaging through mass communications were foundational to her career path leading to almost 40 years of non-profit development-related jobs from entry to senior leadership levels.

Campaigning comes naturally to Christy.  Her career was forged in several of them during her tenure at Vanderbilt University, 1990-2011. Starting at the School of Nursing followed by time in the School of Medicine, she took the lead with the late Monroe Carell, Jr. to undertake a 14-month community campaign to secure $50 million in gifts and pledges for a free-standing Children’s Hospital to move forward. Following that success, she became Associate Vice Chancellor and Executive Director of Vanderbilt University’s multi-year $1.75 billion “Shape the Future” Campaign serving that role from 2001 to 2008.  Subsequently, Christy was responsible for planning and implementing all athletics development at the only private Division I-A school in the Southeastern Conference, one of only two women in the SEC in that role at the time.

That purpose brought her to Chi Omega Foundation in 2011 where Christy spent almost 11 years as Senior Director of Development. A member since 1975, Christy is a tireless enthusiast for her collegiate sorority’s mission and vision.  She helped orchestrate two campaigns during her tenure, one comprehensive and one endowment. The Foundation expanded its volunteer base significantly during her tenure adding campaign, planned giving and advisory-type volunteers.

 Christy spent her early fundraising years with the American Heart Association at the local and national level where she focused on mass communications and national volunteer management. She fondly recalls her first job with the AHA in Nashville as director of communications,  and her first task was to manage a fundraising event to secure her annual salary!

In her 40-year journey, Christy shares many lessons that have been learned, some through missteps, mistakes, or missed opportunities. She considers it an honor and privilege to share openly and honestly any of those lessons with others who seek to be better, serve their organization or world more effectively, and generally just improve their development IQ to ensure we all try to be more effective than we started.

Christy is a proud, active graduate of The University of Tennessee at Martin. She graduated with a degree in Early Childhood Education and was a public school teacher for 3 years.  She is a member of the University of Tennessee-Martin Alumni Council and the Planned Giving Council of Middle Tennessee Board.  Christy resides in Nashville with her pup, Daisy.