Experience
Twenty-five years, mostly repeat invitations.
Committees rarely bring someone back for a second gala unless the first one worked.
Experience
Committees rarely bring someone back for a second gala unless the first one worked.
Helped mobilize millions of dollars for disaster relief, healthcare, and humanitarian causes.
I advise companies and their founders professionally on how to scale, through my consulting practice. The same instinct applies to a banquet: a fundraising night is a system with inputs, a sequence, and a return, and most organizations leave a meaningful amount of it on the table.
Campaign events
September 29, 2026. Emcee and lead fundraiser for an Orange County event supporting Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for United States Senate in Michigan.
Over four hundred guests, Muslims and non-Muslims, with elected officials and representatives of the Democratic party in the room. A crowd like that does not arrive aligned. Some people came for the candidate, some came for one issue, some came because a friend bought the table.
The job is the same as any other night and harder in one specific way. You have to make one room out of several before you can ask it for anything. That is crowd work, humor, and reading what the room will tolerate in the moment. The evening was very successful.
Olive Community Services
Olive supports seniors and their families across Orange County. I have emceed the Vision Luncheon, raised money for them, and sat on a caregiving panel, and they keep asking me back, which is the only review of this work that really counts.
This one is from one of those afternoons, with founder Rubina Chaudhary. She started the organization on modest seed contributions and built it into something a lot of families now lean on.
Emcee, host, fundraiser
When a nonprofit asks me to host or help them raise money, I do not say no. I see it as a calling, and I would rather spend the skill on this than on almost anything else.
Organizations
Panels and seminars
Some of the most useful work is a room of forty people and a whiteboard: a board learning how donor advised funds actually work, or a group of young professionals opening their first retirement account.
Billed as master of ceremonies for a luncheon, and as a panelist on a session about caring for aging parents. Two different rooms, one organization.
On the mic
Full program rather than a highlight clip, which is the honest way to judge whether someone can carry an evening.
Fundraiser, Islamic Center of Santa Ana.
Nonprofit leadership
Elsewhere
Next step
If your night is on the calendar and you are still deciding who runs it, that is the right time to ask.