Meet the Team

Tim Gunsolley CEO

Tim Gunsolley is President of Elevation Growth Partners and Founder of Gift Mapping Strategies, a comprehensive planning and coaching service for non-profit organizations seeking to fulfill their visions through abundant resource development. Tim’s experience spans 20 twenty years in fields as diverse as global literature distribution, the arts, and community services. His work has taken him to Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, France, India, Israel, Nepal, The Philippines, and Vietnam.

Elevation Growth Partners has served over 400 clients helping them raise hundreds of millions of dollars. A list of recent clients may be found at www.elevationgrowth.com. Elevation’s team of high-level consultants offers services in major gifts, foundations and grants, campaigns, major donor events, strategy, brand, and strategic communications. Thousands of personal interactions with high-net-worth individuals serve as the background of Tim’s dedication to helping the faith-based nonprofit leader learn how to build deep relationships while securing major and mega gifts for the expansion of Kingdom causes and the client’s vision. His approach to simplifying complex fundraising strategies and organizational growth issues has helped achieve the company’s goal of empowering leaders to change the world.

Tim earned a master’s degree in arts administration from Columbia College in Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in music education from Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL. He serves as a trustee of Tenfold BPO and as a deacon with his local church. He enjoys music, hiking, fly fishing, and the arts. He resides in Colorado Springs, Colorado with his wife, Beth. They have two adult children and two grandchildren. Tim is always open to discussing organizational issues over a round of golf! “Let’s Go Change the World!”

Pamela McCann
Partner

Pamela has been working with non-profit organizations and ministries for more than 15 years. Her practice has focused on helping organizations increase their effectiveness and profitability no matter where they are in the development cycle: inception, launch, growth, leadership transition, reinvention, or turn-around. She credits her roots in direct-response advertising for teaching her the discipline and importance of being results-focused. She has successfully applied this results-based strategy beyond revenue to include process and management objectives creating highly effective teams (often very diverse) who consistently achieve goals on time and on budget. Pamela has held senior leadership positions with major consulting firms, founded a multi-million dollar ministry (Women of Faith), and advised such clients as World Vision, Prison Fellowship, Focus on the Family, Love Worth Finding (Adrian Rogers), Hope for the Heart (June Hunt), Living on the Edge (Chip Ingram), Gospelcom.net and Mission Aviation Fellowship.

In her most recent position as Senior Director of Stewardship and Communications at University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, she was responsible for working with leadership to develop a holistic, integrated philosophy of stewardship that comprehends what it means to approach stewardship as a life endeavor, not simply a financial one.

Mike Chiapperino
Communications and Grant-writing,
Foundation Services

Mike Chiapperino has more than three decades of experience and success working with Christian nonprofits in donor development and marketing/communications. His strong communication skills and a graduate degree in Christian School Administration from Grace Seminary prepared him well to lead and grow private elementary schools for 15 years. In these roles, he learned profitable lessons in marketing and donor development—including expanding student enrollment and generating revenue through annual funds, capital campaigns, and foundation support. He carried these skills to key leadership roles in donor development with four international ministries, where he specialized in expanding revenue from foundations and major donors.

Mike has served numerous ministries in developing and implementing donor development plans for mid-level and major donors as well as foundations.

Mike serves clients in foundation research and solicitation, strategic growth campaigns, direct response, and donor communications.

Suzanne Gradin
Office Manager

Suzanne brings to Elevation Growth Partners a love of details, people, and seeing God work through non-profits. Her Communications and Biblical Studies degrees have proven useful in helping Christian companies effectively communicate their vision. Suzanne had the privilege of working with non-profits in donor development, operations, and education for over ten years before leaving to pursue and complete a Masters of Divinity from Fuller Seminary.

Suzanne enjoys public speaking, creating, reading, and being outdoors in beautiful Colorado with her family. Suzanne and her husband, Mark, enjoy parenting two small active children.

Shanna Raper
Project Manager

Shanna is a dedicated business and data analyst with cum laude degrees in Technical Writing and English. She has spent the majority of her 20-year career analyzing business processes, database structures, and CRM tools with the goal to improve end-user experience and provide excellent customer care and engagement.

Shanna offers a wealth of experience in these areas: Non-Profit: Over a decade of non-profit experience at FamilyLife. Operational Management: she managed an operations team that supported 24 major donor gift officers. Digital Marketing: she helped implement and maintain a marketing automation platform. CRM Implementation: she helped with all areas including, the creation of value proposition, marketing materials, database integration, and user onboarding. Business Analysis: she has created numerous reports and dashboards, she has been the liaison between IT, Marketing, Donor, and Sales. Digital Data Analysis: she has been responsible for list segmentation and working with a third-party vendor to acquire data overlays. Writing and Proofreading: she has been responsible for all levels of donor communications digital and print. Systems Administrator: She has been a System Admin for numerous major donor databases.

Shanna serves EGP as a Project Manager and Database and marketing platforms consultant.

Peter Schmidt
Graphic Arts

Peter Schmidt brings more than 28 years of design expertise and experience into all his projects and relationships. Schmidt has a passion for great design and helping clients creatively communicate their message and brand in and through all types of various media. He has both a BA in Music (piano major) and a BA in Visual Communications. The latter is from Kendal College of Art & Design in Grand Rapids, MI. A student winner of the IFDA 1991 international design competition, he spent the next three years on Maui as the creative director of an ad agency and publishing firm. Peter drove his moving truck into Colorado Springs in the summer of 1995. He worked as a designer at Current, Inc., David C. Cook, and Sparrow & Jacobs. He has designed thousands of ads, brochures, webpages, and content for Elevation Growth Partners clients.

Peter is inspired by the rugged mountain beauty of living in Colorado. He is married to Lisa, his wife of more than 35 years and they have six artsy and musical children, one adopted. His kids think his hobby is remodeling and designing his home.

Steve Slaight
Certified Project Manager

Steve has over 30 years of project experience and has taught for nearly 10 years at the university level. Steve is a Certified Project Management Professional (P.M.P.) and holds both a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Colorado Christian University (CCU). Steve’s work experience includes several years at the Hewlett-Packard company, plus work with various non-profits and for-profits. Steve works to help clients find unique and creative ways to move projects forward.

Taylor Floyd
Certified Project Manager

Bio Coming Soon

Shyanne has years of experience helping expand the bandwidth of fellow team members with her “get it done” attitude and attention to detail. She is excited to be a part of the work that Elevation Growth Partners does to change lives working alongside clients and tending to all the details it takes to make a non-profit organization grow. Her heart is eager to serve clients and help set them up for success. Outside of work, Shyanne enjoys spending time with her family, photography, and the outdoors.