Karuna Schwartz

Karuna joined AISES in 2021 as Director of Individual Giving and is the point of contact to support the design and implementation of individualized strategies of planned gifts to the AISES organization. Her goals are to help donors find the most effective ways to support AISES by connecting them to the impact these donations make on the lives touched by their generosity as well as maximize their ability to give. Karuna is responsible for working effectively and collaboratively across the organization to identify opportunities for enhanced donor outreach and developing an annual and longer-term strategic plan for Planned Giving. With understanding, careful structuring and a little patience, she assists donors from the beginning to the end of the gift process in areas of individual/family endowments, scholarship endowments, and gifts of stock. A favorite area of focus is individual giving and direct mail. She enjoys the design and implementation phases associated with direct mail. She loves researching the trends, metrics, and opportunities that direct mail requires including cultivation, acknowledgement, and stewardship of donor assets. She will work to ensure best practices are in place to meet major gifts, donor acquisition, and robust annual giving campaigns. As a charitable gift planning specialist for over 20 years, Karuna has worked raising funds for a variety of nonprofits that are dedicated to making the world a better place. When she is not facilitating private, philanthropic support, she is a meditation teacher for the nonprofit she founded in 2017 called Mind Oasis. Her most favorite things in the world, in addition to her husband, son, dogs, motorcycle, and trail running in the mountains of Colorado, is to share meditative tools designed to create a kinder and more compassionate society. Karuna received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Parkside, and a master’s degree in nonprofit management from Northeastern University in Boston.