About Seaside Consulting
Lynne Donahue,
Founder and President of Seaside Consulting
Lynne is the founder and president of Seaside Consulting. With more than 20 years of experience, Lynne has a demonstrated history of success in fund raising, grant writing, program development, strategic planning and training. Throughout her career, Lynne has worked with corporate and nonprofit organizations to advance their missions and achieve their development goals. Specific areas of experience include health care, education, human services, child/youth development, arts and culture, environmental preservation, and community development. She is a lifelong learner and has a passion for helping organizations to improve their operations, attract resources and grow in service to the community. Throughout her decade as an independent consultant she has worked with more than 100 organizations to help them meet their program development and fund raising goals, complete successful fund raising campaigns and launch new projects. In 2010, Lynne helped Seaside’s clients raise over $6 million and is poised to surpass that this year.
Lynne has previously worked as the Director of Marketing and Development for Gateway Health Care, and as Vice President of the Hospital Association of RI. She earned an MBA from Bryant University and a BA from Providence College.
James Comer,
Director of Development and Grant Officer
James is a public servant. He has worked for over 15 years in public housing management and affordable housing finance and his experience doing good work with scarce resources informs his desire to help Seaside’s clients continue their mission.
He’s also a writer. In addition to years of composing public communications, press releases, organizational policy and position papers, he writes a monthly column for a Rhode Island marketing magazine read by dozens of insomniacs and coffee shop frequenters. He is a proficient grant writer and speaks fluent bureaucratic.
He was taught at an early age that a person’s life is measured through his service to others, and has been searching for a way to exercise this imperative through his writing. Seaside Consulting has given him that opportunity. Along the way, he earned a BA in History and Sociology from Boston College, and an MS in Public Affairs from the McCormack Institute for Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
Donna Cote,
Communications & Fund Raising Office Coordinator
Donna Cote has been with Seaside Consulting, Inc. since the fall of 2011. For many years, Donna has served the Jamestown Community in varied volunteer positions. Currently, as a student at the Community College of Rhode Island she is looking forward to graduation and will be attending the University of Rhode Island to acquire her Bachelor’s Degree in English.
Working with Seaside Consulting Inc., Donna hopes to learn all she can about grant writing while being of assistance to this established team of professionals. What does she do when she does not have her nose in a textbook? Donna enjoys freestyle quilting and other fabric arts, gardening and floral design (she is a certified florist) and creative writing – a passion she hopes to continue in the future. Donna and her family live in Jamestown.
Aaron Abrahamson Cote,
Marketing & Social Media Specialist
Aaron Abrahamson Cote helps the Seaside team to create innovative social media campaigns for our clients. He also creates videos and other communications.
Beyond his work at Seaside, Aaron works full time as a music performer & educator at virtually every age level – from toddlers through the elderly. His work experience includes nonprofit organizations & has often catered to underprivileged communities. Most of his public workshops focus on diversity and cultural discovery through the performing arts.
A resident of Jamestown for over two decades, Cote’s recent musical adventures took him on an international tour throughout the Mediterranean & Caribbean regions. While performing abroad, Aaron filmed and produced two documentaries about his experiences. As a videographer, Cote’s uses his artistic collaborations to promote arts & culture.
Mr. Cote obtained his Bachelors Degree in Music Performance from Butler University in Indianapolis, and his Masters of Music Performance from the University of Illinois.
Judith Warburton,
Philanthropy Officer
Judith joins the Seaside Consulting Team with a diverse and comprehensive development background and a strong interest in using her experience to help Rhode Island’s remarkable not-for-profit community continue to create positive change. For more than 16 years’ Judith has worked with not-for-profit organizations and profit-driven companies to successfully reach programmatic and financial goals. She has found that for many, finding success can be as simple as being clear about desired outcomes and making stronger connections with people and resources who share similar goals. Judith has a demonstrated history helping organizations increase opportunities for growth through improved proposals, better positioning in the market and by forging stronger relationships with peers, the community and potential donors.
Though a native Rhode Islander, Judith began her Development career at The Art Institute of Chicago in Government and Foundation Relations helping raise the significant funding necessary to produce the world-class art exhibitions for which the Art Institute is known. When she joined the Art Institute’s softball team, she met her husband, Andrew, who had been coaching the team for several years and appreciated her support. After moving back to New England, they settled in Providence where Judith managed Corporate, Government and Foundation Relations for Save The Bay and was part of the Capital Campaign Team who raised $7-million for the property and facilities now home to the Save The Bay Exploration Center in Providence.
Judith’s successful not-for-profit experience includes development roles at The Art Institute of Chicago, Save The Bay – Narragansett and AS220 in Providence. Her business development work in for-profit sectors includes more than ten years managing U.S. and international proposal projects for GTECH and Applied Science
Sam Hearn,
Winter 2012 Intern
Sam Hearn is a 22-year-old student enrolled in the Writing & Rhetoric department at the University of Rhode Island. By day he moonlights as a full time student/ coffee shop employee but his true passion lies in community service. Ever since a 2007 mission trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica he realized the importance of social work and the positive impact it had on himself as well as others. Only recently he realized he could take his love for writing a fuse it with his passion for helping others in the form of Grant Writing and Fundraising. When he isn’t occupied by the aforementioned activities, he enjoys hiking, socializing with friends and sporadic road trips.
Associates
Seaside Consulting works with a wide range of professionals with expertise in graphic design, website development, marketing, and capital campaign management. If your project requires a team of professionals, Seaside Consulting will recruit the best professionals to fit your needs.