TEAM
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.
NETWORK PARTNER
REGAN SOLMO is a high functioning, passionate, and accomplished editorial advisor and philanthropic strategist. Regan has 25 years of experience in the corporate magazine publishing sector, with 15 years at Conde Nast (Executive Managing Editor of W Magazine for 10), specializing in organizational and operational efficiencies to further the organization's mission and vision.
She is a committed ally, keenly focused on eradicating inequity (gender, racial, income) with more than 10 years' experience serving on and leading boards of gender-facing nonprofits (most recently as the first-ever New York Board Chair of Girls Leadership). As a two-term board member of The New York Women's Foundation, Regan sat on the grants allocation committee for 4 years, helping the foundation rigorously determine which organizations would collectively receive more than $8 million annually in grants.
As Director of Individual Giving for Student Leadership Network, Regan was a strong, clear communicator and strategic builder of major donor relationships, and secured six-figure, multi-year gifts during her time at SL Network. She worked closely with board members to energize their engagement through events and campaigns, and ideated, created, and executed successful Giving Tuesday and Year-End campaigns, as well as 2020's innovative rapid response Crossing the Finish Line: Student Success in the Face of COVID-19.
Her development expertise includes major donor cultivation and stewardship, campaign ideation, effective outreach and communications, staff organization and management, media and PR outreach, board management and motivation, and budget oversight.
Regan lives in Brooklyn with her husband and son.
DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE
KIMBERLY VILLAFAÑE (she/her) is a newcomer to the fundraising world and has a passion for change and a love for the arts.
A first generation college student, Kimberly graduated from New Jersey City University where she received her BA in English Literature and her BA in History. Her experience as a Research Assistant with Guttman Community College has brought to life her desire to work with a team that makes an impact. She brings with her organizational and research skills as she’s distributed, managed and collected survey data from professors and hundreds of students across campus. As well as building cross campus connections and a stable support system for STEM transfer students; with a focus on STEM students in marginalized groups.
Kimberly works with grant preparation and ideation for government, corporate, and private family foundations. On the research side of her work, she applies a liberal arts lens - combining financial analysis with program language alignment to ensure funder fit. She also handles wealth research, qualifying individual donor reports based on past giving, real estate, stock holdings, and other indicators of capacity and propensity. She brings her drive and unique skills to our creative team.
Kimberly is a New Jersey native and lives in Bayonne surrounded by her ever growing collection of books.