Wendy Ernzen is a storyteller, fund development consultant, podcaster, and advocate who amplifies the voices and lived experience of families caring for loved ones with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). With more than 20 years of nonprofit fund development experience and a decade of board leadership, she helps organizations build fundraising strategy and donor relationships while helping audiences understand what support truly means.

Fundraising & Nonprofit Leadership
• The Donor Journey: Turning First Gifts into Lifelong Support
• The Storytelling Nonprofit from Collection to Donor Connection
• Development Assessments and Sustainable Growth
• Connecting Mission to Investment: Building the Case That Gets Funded
• Using AI to Power Fundraising

Disability, Caregiving & Inclusion
• Caregiver resilience: Big Rocks and Pebble Moments framework
• What families wish systems understood
• Mentoring other parents on the IDD journey
• How women can show up for other women raising kids with IDD
• Caregiver ingenuity and the economic impact of IDD
• The power of lived experience

• Warm tea, qigong, meditation, and walks with Ranger
• Donors doing happy dances
• Stories that stick
• The magic of turning good intentions into generosity
• Ordinary people doing extraordinary caregiving