Founder & Principal
LOU COVE brings 30 years of business-development skills to his work as the NETWORK's founder and principal. He has helped clients raise tens of millions of dollars and has personally raised more than $70 million.
Lou has served as advisor to CEOs and Boards of Trustees at numerous national non-profits, including the American Institute for Architects, Represent.Us, Double Edge Theatre, The DiaTribe Foundation, Girls Leadership Institute, The Harold Grinspoon Foundation and PJ Library.
Lou is also the author of MAN OF THE YEAR, a memoir about his first, very unusual campaign. PEOPLE magazine called it "Hilarious and poignant" and Booklist raved "It's the kind of book readers fall in love with.”
Network partner
JEFF FREEMAN is a fundraiser with a passion for nonprofits that empower the individual and spur community connectivity.
He previously served as Development Director for Double Edge Theatre, helping to promote the theatre’s status as a leader in national placemaking. During his tenure, the theatre secured six-figure, multi-year grants from national foundations and jumpstarted a major gifts program. Notable accomplishments include: the prestigious ArtPlace America Award given to 2% of 1,000+ applicants nationally; inclusion in the six year Barr-Klarman Arts Initiative; their largest Massachusetts Cultural Council grant; and the theatre’s most successful online fundraising campaign, netting 27k in 24 hours.
Prior to Double Edge Theatre, Freeman served as Grants Manager for Penumbra Theatre, the nation’s preeminent African American stage, and as Coordinator for Penumbra’s Summer Institute, a three-year leadership development program for youth. While at Penumbra Theatre, he secured the highly competitive Joyce Award and MAP Fund grant to support GIRL Shakes Loose, the first musical about coming of age as a young, queer woman of color.
Other organizations Freeman has worked with include: Perseverance Theatre, the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, Windy Films, and ChopChop Family.
Freeman graduated Summa Cum Laude from Emerson College.
Development associate
MELISSA MACDONALD is a physical theatre artist and cultural researcher with a penchant for grassroots tactics.
During her three-year Apprenticeship with Double Edge Theatre, Melissa’s knack for earnest and effective communication ushered her into the wild world of non-profit development. In 2018, she won the “Peer Fundraising Champion” award for Valley Gives, a 24-hour fundraising challenge hosted by the Community Foundation for Western Massachusetts; Melissa received the most individual donors to her personal campaign for Double Edge, competing with over 400 non-profit organizations, and nearly 2,000 unique fundraisers, across the Pioneer Valley region. Under the guidance of CCN colleague Jeff Freeman, she also secured significant local sponsorships for the theatre: combining direct outreach strategies with “low and slow” stewardship of vital community relationships.
A first-generation college student, Melissa graduated magna cum laude from Middlebury College, earning her BA in Theatre (Directing) and Global Health. She is currently working on a Masters in Liberal Arts at Dartmouth College, developing her interdisciplinary research through the lens of Cultural Studies. For more information regarding her artistic and academic work, check out her personal website here.