Louise Cummings Retires from Read with Me

Volunteer Reading Program Says Goodbye to Louise Cummings

PALM DESERT —Retirement announcements can be bittersweet.  Especially for the employer who is losing an individual regarded as almost irreplaceable.  Such is the case with the nonprofit Read With Me Volunteer Programs, which has to say goodbye to long-time Development Director Louise Cummings.

“Louise Cummings is the best grant researcher and writer I have ever met in my 60 years of experience in philanthropy,” said Roberta Klein, Founder and Former President of Read With Me Volunteer Programs.  “She finds grantors who could be interested in our program and meticulously completes inquiries and applications, answering questions with factual accuracy.  Her special talent is in incorporating stories from participants in the organization that validate its effectiveness.  Her warm personality is reflected in the way she answers the grant application questions and talks with the grantor staff.  Louise is a master at scheduling submission and follow-through.  Read With Me would not be where it is today without Louise’s invaluable contributions.  We love Louise and will miss her tremendously.”

Louise has been in nonprofit management since 1968.  Her positions, besides Read With Me Volunteer Programs, have included Executive Director of Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Orange County; General Manager of Seattle’s A Contemporary Theatre; Development Director of Alzheimer’s Association of Orange County; Development Director of AIDS Services Foundation Orange County; Development Director of South Coast Repertory Theatre of Orange County; Development Director of Animal Samaritans; Director of Development of La Jolla Playhouse; Development Director of Forest Ridge School in Bellevue, WA.  She is a Past President of the Association of Fundraising Professionals in Coachella Valley (AFP) and a recipient of the 2014 Outstanding Fundraising Professional award from the Coachella Valley AFP.  She just retired as President of the Sun City Palm Desert Home & Garden Club.  She co-founded the Sun City Literary Guild and is an active volunteer with the Sun City Library.

“I have been proud and humbled to be a part of the missions of so many non-profit organizations in my 57-year career, but none so proud as my professional relationship with Read With Me as their grant writer and fundraising consultant for the past seven years, said Louise.  “Read With Me has a powerful and important role to teach our most struggling children to read and comprehend English – the foundation to giving children the opportunity to succeed.  And, as Frederick Douglass so powerfully said, ‘Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.’”

Louise and her husband, Terry, have three children and six grandchildren.

For more information about Read With Me Volunteer Programs and how you can get involved as a volunteer, please go to https://www.readwithmevolunteer.org/volunteerg or call 760-567-1830.