Crystal Middlestadt is the Co-Executive Director and Resource Development Director of the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT), a national, multiracial organization that promotes the connection between fundraising, social justice and movement-building. Crystal is an innovative, skilled, and passionate leader, facilitator, and trainer with more than 15 years experience with nonprofit leadership, resource development, gender justice, anti-violence organizing, and empowerment based self-defense. Born and raised in Oregon, Crystal moved to Denver, Colorado in 2004 where she found home, fell in love with the mountains, and took her violence prevention organizing to the next level.
Crystal’s curiosity in how funding influences organizational and movement priorities led her to join her first development committee in 2006 while program staff at The Blue Bench, a local rape crisis center. Since 2014, she has co-coordinated the Allied Media Conference “Resourcing & Sustaining Our Movements” track, held in Detroit, MI, reaching hundreds of resource mobilizers each year. She is looking forward to joining the board of Resource Generation, an organization that organizes young people with wealth and class privilege in the U.S. to become transformative leaders working towards the equitable distribution of wealth, land and power.
Prior to joining the GIFT team, Crystal served as program staff and Co-Executive Director of Survivors Organizing for Liberation (SOL), a statewide organization dedicated to building safety and justice for LGBTQ communities. Crystal previously served on the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Program’s Governance Committee and Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment’s Sexual Assault Prevention State Team. She is an active LGBTQ anti-violence trainer for the Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance program.
Crystal spends her spare time reading tech blogs and poc sci-fi, building her music collection, and camping throughout the West. She has a B.S. in Sociology and Women’s Studies from the University of Oregon.
What are you looking forward to as a fellow of TLC?
“I am honored join this incredible cohort of leaders. My hope is that the TLC Fellowship will provide a dynamic network of local support while deepening my understanding of leadership and strategies to create change in my community. I am eager for opportunities to engage in critical reflection on leadership practices, including within shared leadership structures, with my peers in Colorado.“