David Mersky
DAVID A. MERSKY is Managing Director of Mersky, Jaffe & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm that solves problems in marketing, communication and resource development for non-profit organizations and private businesses. Founded in 1992, Mersky, Jaffe & Associates has served cultural organizations, educational institutions, medical and health related enterprises, advocacy and social service organizations, and Jewish communal enterprises on a local, regional, national and international basis.
Dr. Mersky was the vice president-development for the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston—Boston’s Jewish Federation—where he was responsible for planning and implementing all the fundraising and marketing of the nation’s sixth largest Jewish community. Prior to serving in Boston, he was the President of Ampal-American, an investment-banking firm that raised capital in Europe as well as North and South America for private enterprise in Israel.
Mersky, who is an ordained Reform rabbi, served on the national staff of the Union for Reform Judaism as the Reform movement’s chief development officer. He was responsible for all resource development and is credited with creating the Conference of Presidents of Major Congregations. While on staff of the Union, Mersky traveled the length and breadth of the land counseling congregations on issues of planning, governance, financial management and fundraising.
A graduate of Harvard University with advanced degrees from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Mersky currently is a member of the graduate faculty of Brandeis University where he directs the fundraising management specialization in The Hornstein Program. Formerly, an adjunct professor in the Simmons College Graduate Program in Communications Management, he taught strategic marketing planning. He is a member of the faculty of the Institute for Charitable Giving. Mersky also is a contributing writer of a number of publications, notably the New England Nonprofit Quarterly where he writes a regular column on major gifts as “The Artful Solicitor.”
During his thirty-year career, he has trained thousands of professionals and volunteers who have raised hundreds of millions of dollars. In private business, he has counseled management on issues ranging from strategic marketing planning to sales force training and development. He advises families on the creative use of philanthropy for business and estate planning as well as transmitting enduring values from one generation to the next.
mersky@brandeis.edu