Anna Barber
President and Principal Consultant
Barber & Associates
Anna Barber is President and Principal Consultant for Barber & Associates, a boutique fundraising consulting firm focused on helping non-profit organizations achieve their full fundraising potential. The firm specializes in campaign strategy and planning, major gift training, individual giving strategy and grant writing. Barber & Associates clients come from diverse industries, inclusive of higher education, K-12 education, social justice organizations, community services and museums.
Prior to starting Barber & Associates, Barber was a senior major gift officer for the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) where she worked for 8 ½ years. She was part of NMAAHC’s inaugural fundraising team that surpassed its $270M private philanthropic goal by $50M. Personally, Barber secured $42M in leadership ($1M+) and major ($100K) gift support, highlighted by the closure of 22 individual one million-dollar gifts, 90% contributed by first time donors to the Smithsonian. She also built and maintained a portfolio of high profile celebrities, including Pauletta and Denzel Washington, LaTanya and Samuel L. Jackson, Magic and Cookie Johnson, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, among many other national individual philanthropists. Leading into NMAAHC’s Grand Opening in 2016, she led the efforts to host a $1M per plate fundraiser at the home of Denzel Washington and a mid-level fundraising event that generated $5M from $25K donors.
Prior to the Smithsonian, Barber spent 10 years working as a frontline fundraiser in college athletics. She served as the director of major gifts for Michigan State University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics where she was part of the team that successfully completed a $110M capital campaign, which was part of a larger $1.2B university-wide campaign. In addition to fundraising, she oversaw the athletics department’s endowment, planned giving and communication programs; and the led the fundraising team for the renovation of the University’s baseball, softball and soccer complexes.
Prior to working at MSU, Barber served as the assistant director of development at Miami University in Ohio where she participated in launching the athletics department’s $30M capital campaign, part of a university-wide $350M campaign. She started her career at Arizona State University where she was mentored under the legendary athletics director Gene Smith.
Barber earned a Juris Doctorate (Intellectual Property) from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from Howard University.
Barber is an avid traveler and scuba diver.