Bentonne Sarah Snay

Bentonne Sarah Snay is an experienced executive and fundraiser with more than 25 years in the nonprofit sector. She holds both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Public Administration from Florida International University, where she specialized in community psychology, the understanding and improvement of human service organizations. Ms. Snay is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Center on Nonprofit Effectiveness and the United Way of Miami-Dade Women’s Leadership Initiative. She is proficient in all areas of fund development and possesses extraordinary skill in grantsmanship.

Ms. Snay has held several key positions. These include: Dean of Students at the Academy for Community Education, an alternative high school designed to provide a preventive approach to students at risk of dropping out; founding Executive Director of Communities in Schools of Miami, Inc., a more comprehensive approach to dropout prevention; and CEO of the Humane Society of Greater Miami. In the latter position she helped develop strategic plans, revitalize a stalled capital campaign and restructure the organization to be more cost-effective and results-oriented.

Ms. Snay is also known for the work she did from 1997-2002 to help start a philanthropic initiative for the Burger King system throughout North America. This effort raised more than $15 million, established a $4.5 million endowment and provided nearly 4,000 scholarship awards throughout North America through the Burger King/McLamore Foundation.

In the summer of 2003, Ms. Snay resumed a grant writing consultancy that she had run from 1991 – 2001, raising more than $9 million for a variety of nonprofit organizations. The Snay Group, Inc. serves the planning, development and grant writing needs of numerous worthy nonprofit organizations and private and public funding groups in South Florida. Since 2003, she has raised nearly $12 million for a variety of nonprofit organizations, including the award of all eight grants she has proposed to The Children’s Trust, for a total of more than $1.7 million.

Ms. Snay has been a presenter at the Corporate Philanthropic Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. She presented both Building Your Consulting Firm and Effective Grant Writing workshops for the Center on Nonprofit Effectiveness; she presented a Finding and Accessing Grants workshop to the Florida Association of Adult Day Care Providers; and most recently provided an Advanced Grant Writing workshop for the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties Nonprofit Resource Institute. She has also served on the Health Foundation of South Florida’s Grants Review Committee.