Jillian Leslie is the Director for Individual Giving. She creates and directs the implementation of the annual fundraising strategy to current donors as well as working to bring in new donors to the organization. She manages and oversees WOLA’s annual gala which honors human rights defenders in Latin America each year.
Jillian has more than ten years’ fundraising experience having served as the Development Director for other progressive nonprofit organizations like the SHARE Foundation and NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland. Prior to joining WOLA Jillian worked for seven years at a direct marketing fundraising agency and oversaw the individual giving programs for dozens of charities across the U.S., helping them to raise millions of dollars each year.
The region of Latin America – particularly Central America – has been the primary focus of her advocacy and solidarity work for 15 years when she first traveled to Guatemala to work with prominent human rights defenders after the signing of the country’s peace accords. Despite her professional career taking many twists and turns, advocating and fundraising for human rights in Latin America is where she feels most at home and can do her best work.
Jillian received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington in Seattle with a major in Political Science and a double minor in Communications and Human Rights. She lives in Washington D.C. – a city she has immense pride in despite the political rhetoric that surrounds it – with her husband, son, and two cats.