Jennifer Burland Adams

Jennifer Burland Adams has been involved in philanthropy since she was a child, growing up in Bermuda.  What started out as a passion to improve the lives of others as a volunteer in grade school, university and in her 20s, developed into a career as a professional fundraiser.  Jennifer believes strongly that fundraisers are providing donors with opportunities to invest in meaningful opportunities, and that fundraising must be efficient and effective, whilst always being conducted in an ethical manner.  She also believes there needs to be a shift away from reactionary charity by donors to strategic philanthropy, focused on impact and change.  These two passions, on either side of the philanthropy equation, are the focus of Wavecrest.

Jennifer has a BA from McGill and an MBA from the University of Colorado. She was the first, and currently only, person in Bermuda to earn the CFRE (Certified Fundraising Executive) designation and was the founding president of the Bermuda Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). She has served on numerous nonprofit boards, on a grantmaking committee of the largest foundation in Bermuda and is a former Charities Commissioner. She was amongst the first cohort for a new certificate in the Psychology of Philanthropy at the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy in the UK and was a member of the second cohort of Ignite Bermuda. Most recently she was certified as a Privacy Officer in Bermuda and named the Co-Chair of the Nonprofit Division of the Chamber of Commerce.