Biography

Ray Crabbs is Vice President – Business Development & Founder for New Planet Energy. In this role, he is responsible for the strategic planning, operations and assisting New Planet Energy develop its new technology, of producing ethanol from any carbon based material, with emphasis on plants located in rural communities. He is also the Founder and CEO of America’s Fund for Communities, a nonprofit organization established to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of philanthropy. In addition, America’s Fund allows a major donor to contribute to a single nonprofit at the national level and have their program interests implemented in a series of communities throughout the nation. Prior to founding America’s Fund, he was Senior Vice President, Chief Operations Officer and CFO of the Points of Light Foundation and has had an exceptional career as an executive in the nonprofit field. He has served as chief staff officer for four of the seven organizations for which he has worked. During his 37-year career he has raised more than $400 million for these and other organizations. As President of his own consulting firm, VISION ASSOCIATES, he has a national client list for which he provides board development, strategic planning, management and resource development counsel. Prior to founding VISION ASSOCIATES, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives (now known as Association of Fundraising Professionals.) Working through the more than 200 members of the Board of this 12,000 member professional society, Crabbs launched the organization’s first major fundraising effort. Additionally, he developed and implemented fiscal controls and procedures to stabilize the financial integrity of the Society. From 1987 to 1990, he was Senior Vice President of Quest International, and was responsible for training, marketing, public relations, communications and resource development. During this period, annual contributions to this organization, which develops school-based youth programs, grew from $167,000 to more than $4.5 million. Before assuming his position with Quest International, Crabbs was with the National 4-H Council for twelve years. There he held key positions which ranged from Associate Director of Development to Chief Operating Officer. In 1982, he was given responsibility for planning and implementing their $50 million capital campaign which concluded with more than $60 million. His prior positions include Chief Executive Officer of the Washington State 4-H Foundation and Assistant Director of Development for Washington State University. Crabbs is a member of a number of management, fund raising, and civic organizations. He has been a contributing author to “Association Trends” magazine and has served as a member of the Boards of the Foundation of the American Society of Association Executives and the Foundation and Private Sector Initiatives of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (a division of Health and Human Services.) He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of WorldReach and serves on a number of other national, regional, and local nonprofit boards. Additionally, he is a sough-after motivational speaker and lecturer on nonprofit management and fund raising and is a former Fellow of the Kellogg National Fellowship Program and listed in the Who’s Who of the Midwest. He holds a B.S. in Economics and a M.A. in Public Administration from Washington State University.