Donn Wilkerson – Donn has been a visionary for Breakthrough since graduating in 2018. Since then, he has actively participated in his class’s Self Led group and two Leadership teams as a Small Group Leader. When Breakthrough moved to Zoom in 2020, Donn’s contributions increased dramatically. When Breakthrough’s annual fundraiser could no longer be an in-person event due to Covid, Donn created, produced and directed a 40-minute film about Breakthrough that became the centerpiece of an online Fundraiser. This film raised $8600 over 2 days when it premiered and Donn subsequently repurposed parts of it into future online advertising campaigns.
Since Donn took over Breakthrough’s Marketing efforts, he has expanded our social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and launched a successful Facebook advertising campaign, driving thousands of men from all over the country to the Breakthrough website. As a result, Breakthrough’s workshop attendance and revenue have increased. Donn then joined the Community Life Committee so he could help coordinate Breakthrough’s Events & Activities with our new Marketing program. Following this Donn also was elected onto Breakthrough’s Board of Directors. As a Board member he volunteered to be on the task force in charge of recommending the next Executive Director, Enrollment Manager and Marketing/Communications Director. Donn not only found and will train the person that was eventually hired as the Marketing/Communications Director, but he simultaneously served on the Budget subcommittee to help create the 2022 Budget.
Donn has volunteered an extreme number of hours and his own money and has produced a continual stream of creative and extremely useful ideas as he has helped Breakthrough enter a new phase in its development. Donn’s vision, leadership and commitment have been highly influential in the sustainability and growth of Breakthrough.
Larry Lightman - Larry graduated from the Breakthrough Workshop in 2015 in the last class taught by Fred Jealous before he retired. In 2016, Larry spearheaded Breakthrough’s migration to and implementation of Salsa, an integrated non-profit management system. The project involved many hours of mapping and importing financial and contact data from a variety of disparate solutions that Breakthrough had been using.
In 2021, Larry was called on again to enable newsletter, donation, intro night and event registration through the Breakthrough website, which previously required manual entry of all the contact and payment information into the Salsa system. Now when a registration form is submitted, all this information is recorded and processed automatically. Automating these functions became essential as the advertising campaign (created and managed by Donn Wilkerson) was generating thousands of new website visitors, newsletter registrations and potential workshop participants from all over the country. The new automated registration process also now includes e-mail and text message reminders, which are sent before each intro night and scheduled event. Larry’s volunteer work involved hundreds of hours and has saved Breakthrough a small fortune. While continuing to improve and maintain the important infrastructure he built, Larry also managed to join his first Leadership Team in 2021, where he donates his time/attention to men in need. Larry’s technical skills and commitment to serving Breakthrough’s mission, have been vital to the continuation, development and expansion of our organization.