Erica Busillo Adams has spent much of her career in fundraising, drumming up donor dollars for a variety of causes. But the common link, she says, is her connection to each of them.
“I don’t like to fundraise for something I don’t feel like I have a personal stake in,” said Adams, development manager for The Autism Project, a Johnston-based nonprofit celebrating its 20th anniversary that provides training, programming and support for people with autism spectrum disorder and their families.
Adams is the stepmother of a child on the spectrum, and her husband has Asperger’s syndrome, one form of autism spectrum disorder. It seems everyone knows someone on the spectrum today, Adams said, noting that more than 10,000 Rhode Islanders have some form of autism.
She’s also aware of the challenges of fundraising for the cause. Donors without personal experience with autism sometimes view it as less urgent than other causes, such as curing cancer, Adams said. There’s also some stigma around autism, though Adams believes that’s waning.
“I do feel like we are making a lot of inroads in awareness, and autism not being a dirty word anymore,” Adams said.
TAP Executive Director Joanne G. Quinn said Adams is the organization’s “largest revenue driver,” creating the organization’s first annual fund, expanding TAP’s major gifts program, and overseeing the most successful fundraising walks to date.
Fundraising in a small state has been refreshing, according to Adams. When she moved to Rhode Island in 2013, she took a job with Save The Bay, where she managed fundraising and increased individual giving by 33 percent. Prior to that, she managed volunteer relations and special events for The Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and previously held similar jobs in New York City.
“I love how accessible people are here,” Adams said. “I really find that having those coffee meetings and going out to lunch and meeting one-on-one is really the most effective way to do business here.”
