Fundraising, Events + Training

Yolanda F. Johnson, founder and president of YFJ Consulting LLC, has successfully led fundraising operations for a wide range of nonprofit organizations, launching creative event, sponsorship, and marketing initiatives that produced new streams of both contributed and earned income. Her fundraising expertise includes securing foundation, corporate, and government funding, and cultivating a diverse major gifts portfolio. She also provides philanthropic coaching and counsel to funders, in addition to supporting the nonprofit sector through her own philanthropic endeavor, YFJ Philanthropies.

Johnson is founder of WOC, Women of Color in Fundraising and Philanthropy®, founder of Allies in Action Membership Network, and president of Women in Development, NY (WID), serving as the first African American president in its 40-year history.

Johnson is also a performing artist, composer, producer, and educator. She developed All the World’s A Stage, a special workshop using performance practice for getting what one wants out of fundraising, philanthropy and life, presenting to audiences across the country.

She serves as an International Advisory Board member and the former Representative for the Foundation for Post Conflict Development to the United Nations, a member of the board of directors of the Lehman College Art Gallery, and a member of the board of trustees of the Hudson River Museum and of PowHer New York. She co-established the WID diversity and inclusion task force and is an expert on incorporating DEI initiatives into organizational culture. Johnson is also a member of the Chronicle of Philanthropy Advisory Committee of national leaders in the non-profit sector, and the author of various publications and articles on topics in fundraising and philanthropy.

Johnson holds a B.A. in Voice (performance) from the University of Tulsa and an M.A. in Arts administration with fundraising and special events emphasis from the University of Akron.