Janeal Ford, MPA, CFRE
President and CEO
Janeal Ford is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of IN Fundraising. For more than 20 years, she has worked alongside nonprofit leaders to strengthen fundraising programs, secure grant funding, and build organizations that can sustain their impact over time.
Before founding IN Fundraising, Janeal spent more than 15 years in nonprofit leadership and fundraising roles, where she experienced firsthand the challenges of balancing mission, resources, and community needs. Those experiences continue to shape her work today and her commitment to helping organizations build practical, sustainable fundraising strategies.
What began as a solo consulting practice has grown into a team of fundraising professionals serving nonprofits across the country. Under Janeal’s leadership, IN Fundraising has helped clients secure more than $80 million in charitable gifts, grants, and philanthropic investments.
Janeal holds a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Utah and is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE).
Originally from Utah, Janeal has called San Diego home since 2013. Outside of work, she enjoys caring for her ever-growing collection of plants, spending time with animals, exploring the outdoors, and pursuing creative projects. A creator at heart, she is constantly learning, building, and imagining new possibilities, whether in business, fundraising, or everyday life.
Janeal Ford is not only extremely knowledgeable about the nonprofit sector, but she is also passionate and practical in her teaching practice. I benefited from her expertise as a student in her UC San Diego Extension Annual Giving course. She facilitated and guided us expertly through what any nonprofit professional would need to know in the realm of annual giving. She created a community among a class made up of both nonprofit professionals (with varying levels of experience) and professionals exploring the nonprofit sector. If that were not enough of a feat, she did this during a pandemic with a remote course. She made sure the experience remained valuable as she facilitated Zoom classroom meetings that were interactive and a good use of our time. She shared her space with guest speakers who provided meaningful insight about the different aspects of annual giving. Finally, her assignments were useful because they helped students simulate real-world experience ranging from writing a direct mail piece to analyzing why a solicitation went wrong. Her specific feedback on each assignment was timely and designed to help us move forward to the next assignment or work in our professions. Janeal’s experience and leadership skills, along with her warmth, make her an ideal, collaborative instructor. .