Life’s WORC, the nonprofit that helps individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism, has named Shannon Preston as its new senior director of development.
Preston previously served as director of advancement with the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts and brings 13 years of senior development experience to her new role at Life’s WORC.
Preston believes that her experience in fundraising, recruiting and increasing donations will be vital to her new position as senior director of development. In this role, Preston will oversee the organization’s development, public relations, event management and community outreach activities.
“In my most recent role at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at Long Island University in Brookville, I am especially proud of having increased its total contributions by 67 percent over a three-year period,” Preston said. “Other achievements at Tilles include my reviving event fundraising for its annual gala and golf tournament by recruiting top-level honorees, committees and participants, as well as increasing annual donations from corporate and private foundations and state funding exponentially.”
Preston has also begun securing funds for individuals with disabilities as it pertains to Life’s WORC.
“Relating to Life’s WORC, I also secured funding for Tilles Center’s Sensory Friendly Program designed specifically for individuals with disabilities,” Preston said. “At the Metropolitan Opera, I lead a staff responsible for raising an average of $13 million in unrestricted giving annually, played a major role in increasing annual event revenues by over 100 percent in a 10-year period, and helped to create, launch and expand the Met’s International Council, a group of donors and board members from all over the world.”
Life’s WORC was founded in the 1970’s by Victoria Schneps with the help of Geraldo Rivera. Preston explained the importance of the organization’s history and expansion through Queens to the work it is doing today.
“[Life’s WORC] was founded in the early 1970s following an investigative report by Geraldo Rivera who, as a young reporter in 1972, exposed the deplorable conditions that existed within the Willowbrook State School, then the largest institution in the nation serving children with developmental disabilities. Rivera first learned about these conditions from Life’s WORC’s founder Vicki Schneps,” Preston said. “Her daughter, Lara, diagnosed at an early age with severe brain damage, was a resident at Willowbrook. When cuts in state funding caused the institution to fall into extensive disrepair, Schneps, along with other concerned individuals, picketed to fight for the rights of Willowbrook’s more than 5,000 residents.”
“When Rivera’s scathing investigative report uncovered the atrocities inside the institution, national outcry ultimately forced its closing. It was in the early ‘70s that Schneps would start Life’s WORC and open its first home in Little Neck, Queens. Its first residents were former Willowbrook residents,” Preston said. “Today, Life’s WORC provides beautiful homes located across the region, from Manhattan and Queens to Nassau and Suffolk, for individuals with disabilities, as well as Community Services, Financial and Trust Services, and its Family Center for Autism.”
The mission of Life’s WORC is to provide supportive services, programs and resources which help individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism lead productive, fulfilling lives. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was important to Life’s WORC that the organization kept their facilities clean and their individuals healthy.
“During COVID-19, Life’s WORC’s role in the community was as important as ever as we worked diligently to keep the individuals with disabilities and autism that we serve safe and healthy while continuing to provide a variety of necessary services,” Preston said.
Preston will bring a different set of experiences to Life’s WORC. She will be responsible for leading the nonprofit as senior director of development and advocating for the funding of the organization.
