Craig Shelley is a chief executive, board director, growth strategist, and professional-services leader whose career has been defined by a consistent focus on helping organizations become stronger, more ambitious, and more effective. With more than 25 years of executive, advisory, fundraising, and organizational leadership experience, Craig has worked at the intersection of enterprise growth, strategy, human capital, philanthropy, and governance. His leadership philosophy is rooted in the belief that meaningful and sustainable growth happens when organizations align a clear strategy with exceptional people, a strong culture, and disciplined execution.
Today, Craig serves as Chief Executive Officer of Schultz & Williams and President of Fundraising & Strategy Services at Carey & Co., where he plays a central role in shaping the growth of an integrated professional-services platform serving the nonprofit sector. His responsibilities span fundraising, direct response, strategic planning, outsourced development, and organizational consulting, bringing together complementary capabilities across multiple firms. In these roles, Craig works closely with executive leaders, boards, and senior teams to strengthen performance, expand services, develop talent, and position organizations for long-term success. His leadership has also included guiding the integration of acquired firms and helping build a differentiated platform designed to support mission-driven organizations across multiple stages of growth.
Craig also serves on the Board of Directors of NP Solutions Holdings, the private equity-backed holding company associated with the Carey & Co. platform. In that capacity, he contributes to discussions involving enterprise strategy, sustainable growth, organizational development, acquisition opportunities, and post-acquisition integration. His board perspective is informed by hands-on operating experience, enabling him to evaluate strategic decisions not only from a governance standpoint but also through the practical lens of leadership, culture, talent, clients, and execution. This combination makes him particularly effective in environments where organizations are scaling, integrating, or undergoing meaningful transformation.
Prior to joining Schultz & Williams and Carey & Co., Craig spent more than a decade with Orr Group, progressing through increasingly senior roles before becoming Partner and Chief Growth Officer. During that period, he helped the firm expand significantly in both revenue and headcount while advising nonprofit organizations on fundraising, leadership, organizational strategy, talent, and board effectiveness. His client work exposed him to a wide range of sectors, including education, healthcare, philanthropy, advocacy, international development, youth development, conservation, and the arts. He advised respected organizations such as The Obama Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Co-Impact, Center for American Progress, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Grameen America, Mercy Corps, Third Way, and the Women’s Sports Foundation.
Earlier in his career, Craig built a deep foundation in institutional advancement, fundraising leadership, and organizational management through a series of senior roles with the Boy Scouts of America and related councils. As National Director of Development and Corporate Alliances, he oversaw national fundraising, corporate partnerships, and alumni relations while supporting hundreds of local affiliates that collectively generated more than $250 million annually. Before that, as Chief Executive Officer of the Jersey Shore Council, he led an organization serving thousands of young people, volunteers, employees, and seasonal staff while overseeing operating budgets, camp assets, fundraising, programs, and organizational strategy. These experiences sharpened his ability to lead through complex stakeholder environments and balance mission, financial stewardship, talent, and operational performance.
Craig’s career has also been shaped by a longstanding commitment to governance and volunteer leadership. He has served on the board of the Association of Fundraising Professionals–New York City Chapter for more than a decade, including terms as Treasurer and President, and now serves as Immediate Past President. His board service has required sustained involvement in governance, financial oversight, organizational strategy, and leadership continuity. He also serves on the Board of The Giving Institute and its Strategic Planning Committee, contributing to the direction of a professional association representing firms that support the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. His governance experience gives him a practical understanding of the relationship between boards and management teams, and he has written and spoken extensively about the importance of productive CEO-board partnerships.
A Certified Fund Raising Executive, Craig is also a frequent speaker, author, and thought leader on leadership, fundraising, philanthropy, and nonprofit management. Over the course of his career, he has contributed articles on topics including CEO effectiveness, board partnership, transformational fundraising campaigns, donor behavior, leadership, and organizational growth. He is known for translating complex organizational challenges into practical ideas that leaders can act on, and he regularly participates in speaking engagements throughout the year. His public-facing work reflects a broader commitment to strengthening the leadership capabilities of executives, fundraisers, boards, and professional-service organizations.
Among Craig’s most distinctive strengths is his ability to connect growth strategy with people and culture. He has repeatedly led teams through periods of expansion, integration, and organizational change while maintaining a focus on accountability, curiosity, collaboration, innovation, and excellence. He views talent not simply as a functional requirement, but as one of the primary engines of sustainable organizational performance. Whether developing senior leaders, integrating teams following acquisitions, advising a board, or helping a professional-services firm evolve, he consistently emphasizes the importance of building environments where people understand expectations, are empowered to contribute, and remain aligned around a shared purpose.
Craig brings particular value to organizations in the nonprofit, private equity, financial, and professional-services sectors, especially those navigating growth, acquisition integration, leadership development, or strategic change. His combination of executive operating experience, board governance, business development, fundraising, stakeholder engagement, and human-capital leadership allows him to contribute across multiple dimensions of organizational performance. He is especially well suited to board and advisory environments where growth requires more than financial ambition alone and where strategy must be translated into organizational capability, leadership alignment, and sustained execution.
At the center of Craig’s work is a personal mission to help ambitious organizations achieve more by pairing bold strategy with exceptional people and disciplined execution. He believes the strongest organizations are those that cultivate curiosity, accountability, innovation, and excellence while staying focused on measurable impact. As a CEO, advisor, and board member, he brings a growth-oriented perspective grounded in decades of experience leading organizations, shaping teams, strengthening boards, integrating acquisitions, and helping leaders navigate change. His career reflects a consistent commitment to turning possibility into performance and helping organizations build the capacity to achieve more than they initially believed possible.
Character:
Craig leads with accountability, curiosity, and a strong commitment to creating organizations where people and performance can thrive together. His career reflects a willingness to take responsibility for difficult decisions while maintaining a collaborative, mission-conscious, and people-centered approach to leadership.
Knowledge:
He brings deep experience across enterprise growth, fundraising, governance, professional services, human capital, M&A integration, organizational strategy, and nonprofit markets. His perspective has been shaped by decades of executive leadership, board service, client advisory work, and direct responsibility for complex organizations and stakeholder environments.
Strategic:
Craig excels at connecting long-term organizational ambition with practical execution, helping leadership teams identify priorities, strengthen capabilities, and navigate transformation. His experience integrating acquisitions, expanding professional-services platforms, developing growth strategies, and advising boards enables him to approach strategic challenges from both an enterprise and operational perspective.
Communication:
An experienced speaker, author, advisor, and executive communicator who is skilled at translating complex ideas into clear and actionable direction. His ability to build consensus with boards, senior leaders, employees, clients, donors, and other stakeholders allows him to create alignment and advance important organizational priorities.
