About Us

We develop strategies to achieve your success

Underwood & Associates has served the non-profit community since 1985, assisting a wide variety of organizations to successfully develop strong strategies. In bringing over 40 years of non-profit experience to the table, the principals and associates of the firm can help your organization fully realize its unique institutional potential and fundraising goals.

Underwood & Associates understands that all organizational cultures are unique, with different visions and goals, and reflect diverse fundraising preparedness and competency. We also understand that professional counseling relationships are ultimately measured by results—and that the best results invariably start with the best information we can capture about an organization’s current state of readiness for significant fundraising. Simply put, the more information we can capture at the outset of the client/counsel relationship, the more successful we can be in helping a non-profit achieve its organizational potential and fundraising goals. For this reason, Underwood & Associates places particular emphasis on first examining and understanding each client’s particular strengths, weaknesses, and potential for success based on an internal audit of the organization.

Cliff L. Underwood, as a professional fundraiser, has helped generate more than half-a-billion dollars in contributions for non-profit institutions in a career that has spanned more than 40 years. He has served as the Director of Special Campaigns at the University of California, Berkeley where his fundraising program was selected for the United States Steel award for the top program in the nation. As a teacher, he has participated in the Extended Studies program at the University of California, San Diego, and has taught through the Center for Philanthropic Studies at the University of Indiana, Chapman College and Non-profit Management Solutions. Cliff also directed the fundraising programs for the San Diego Zoological Society, where he oversaw the growth of the membership program from 80,000 to 250,000 households and initiated the funding for the world renowned Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species. In 1985, he left the Society to found Underwood & Associates.

Shari Underwood is a former successful attorney who has been a partner and participant in Underwood & Associates feasibility studies and capital campaigns for over 20 years. Her primary responsibilities are to conduct and analyze feasibility study interviews, and manage the organization and time lines for campaign strategies. She has been a prime mover in major campaigns in both San Diego, California and San Antonio, Texas. Representative of San Diego projects are the “Midway Magic” Campaign to bring the aircraft carrier USS Midway to San Diego and convert her into an Aircraft Carrier Museum; the Water Conservation Garden; the Balboa Theater; Veterans' Village; the East County Performing Arts Center; and the Point Loma Presbyterian Church. San Antonio projects include the highly successful Saint Mary’s Hall campaign; the San Antonio Botanical Garden; Mount Sacred Heart School; and San Antonio Youth Centers. Shari also participated in campaigns outside those two cities, which include: Pilgrim Place, Claremont, California; Santa Cruz High School, Santa Cruz, California; and the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, and Woodrow Wilson Scholarship Center in Washington D.C. 

The National Parks David has served are Yosemite National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks, Lassen Volcanic National Park and Saguaro National Park.

Universities include the University of California, Berkeley, The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, California State University, Los Angeles, California State University, Long Beach, California State University, Fresno, California State University, Chico, California State University, Dominguez Hills, the University of Arkansas, and the University of Washington, Bellingham.

Independent and private schools include Cathedral School (San Francisco), the Breck School (Minneapolis), San Francisco Day School, Fountain Valley School (Colorado), Marymount High School (Bel Air, California), St. Margaret’s Episcopal School (San Juan Capistrano, California), Santa Catalina School (Monterey, California) and The Bishop’s Schools (La Jolla, California).

Arts and Cultural organizations include the California Historical Society, Museum of the Rockies (Bozeman, Montana), Haas-Lilienthal House (San Francisco), San Joaquin County (CA) Historical Society and Museum, Los Angeles Children’s Museum, Children’s Museum of Stockton (CA), and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Conservation organizations include the National Audubon Society (New York Headquarters), Save the Redwoods League, Zoological Society of San Diego (San Diego Zoo), Marin Area Land Trust, and the Point Reyes Bird Observatory.

Social Service Organizations include Edgewood Children’s Center (San Francisco), Lighthouse for the Blind, Florence Crittenton Services (San Francisco), and the San Diego Food Bank.