"I direct fundraising for the Annual Fund (from individual and institutional donors), including the solicitation of memberships, orchestrating direct mail, email and social media campaigns, and special events. Founded in 1844 as the Maryland Historical Society, the Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC) is the state's oldest continuously operating  nonprofit cultural institution. We have 350,000 objects, along with 7 million books, photographs, documents and manuscripts, including the earliest existing version of Francis Scott Key’s poem celebrating the victory over the British during the Battle of Baltimore. The poem set to music and became the Star-Spangled Banner, now the United States national anthem."

"I was recruited by the Baltimore-based Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Maryland’s leading classical theatre company, to be its new Director of Development, as the organization was emerging from the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic and celebrating its twentieth anniversary. I am responsible for designing and implementing a comprehensive fundraising plan... incorporating annual giving, grant solicitation and management, special events, and capital initiatives. Ongoing duties include identifying, cultivating, soliciting and stewarding major gifts from individual donors, foundations, government agencies, and corporate partners."
Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Theatre
(Photo from Theatre Consultants Collaborative,  Alan Gilbert Photography)

‏"I joined the Development team at Center Stage before the start of their $30 million capital campaign and subsequent renovation of the theater's historic downtown building. In charge of Annual Giving, I cultivated relationships with trustees and major donors through committee activities, direct solicitations and special events, and I directed efforts to increase smaller gifts through direct mail and online giving campaigns, in addition to assisting in coordinating and shepherding asks for the campaign. Recognized as the State Theater of Maryland, Baltimore Center Stage is the area's largest regional theater, with individual gifts totaling nearly $1 million each year during my tenure there."

‏"A native Baltimorean, I have attended many events and activities organized by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, so I was pleased to join the Board of Directors in early 2017. I contributed expertise to their marketing and development efforts and served as Board Chair from 2022 to 2023, orchestrating the quasi-government entity through its difficult post-pandemic period."

Brian D. Lyles photo from 2019 Light City and Baltimore Book Festival

‏"After years of providing multimedia assistance at the annual CityLit Festival, I joined the CityLit Board of Directors in 2013, and I served as Board Chair/President from 2017 to 2020. My experience in non-profit management was helpful in guiding the organization's transition from its founding executive director to a new director."

Author Kwame Alexander (seated with daughter) and volunteer Claudia Bismarck at CityLit Stage, 2015 Baltimore Book Festival.  Photo by Brian D. Lyles

‏"While working at People's Community Health Centers, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), I was asked by our regional association of health centers to produce promotional materials for all of our member organizations to use in marketing enrollment into the Affordable Care Act."

‏"I was hired as Grants Manager for this 44-year-old non-profit, managing a portfolio of operational grants, including all of the organization's Ryan White HIV funding requests and reporting, plus other government, corporate and foundation funding specifically for its Baltimore City clinics. I later assumed the Director of Communications position at People's, but still managed grant writers... Begun as a free clinic with all volunteer physicians in 1970, PCHC was the first "look-alike" accepted into the government's Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) program and operated as a full FQHC for many years before closing in 2014."

Photo by Brian D. Lyles: Medical Director Lelin Chao, M.D. being interviewed at a National Health Center Week event. 

"I wrote a grant to assist the University of Maryland's midtown campus (then known as Maryland General Hospital) to develop a Point of Contact Breast Cancer Intervention program for women in the predominantly African-American neighborhoods surrounding the hospital in Downtown/West Baltimore. The proposal was successful in obtaining $84,935 from Susan G. Komen Maryland to provide free mammograms, breast exams and diagnostic tests, plus support programs, education and minority outreach."

Photo from Susan G. Komen Maryland newsletter

‏"I was asked by Joan Clarke, a former colleague from Children's National Medical Center, to assist in fundraising for her clients in the Washington, DC area. I served as the interim Chief Operating Officer for her agency, 2Hearts Consulting LLC. Our clients included education and social service organizations. As a project manager and grant writer, one of my most rewarding projects was creating marketing materials and obtaining a $25,000 grant for the Path Forward Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a non-profit that develops and delivers innovative programs and support to help women in business... Joan Clarke is an ongoing mentor in fundraising, specializing in "linking the heart of the donor with the heart of the institution, one relationship at a time." She helped to create United Way's Tocqueville Society before serving as Executive Director of the Giant Steps campaign at the Children's Hospital Foundation."

Graphics from 2Hearts website, designed by Brian D. Lyles

‏"As a graduate of Gilman School with an interest and background in writing about architecture and historic preservation, I was pleased to volunteer time and talents to my alma mater's alumni magazine. Gilman's nearly century-old Carey Hall was undergoing an extensive renovation and expansion, and the two articles I authored documented the project. Over the years I have also contributed time to other alumni activities."

Cover of Gilman's Alumni Bulletin, Spring 2008

‏"I provided freelance grant writing and marketing services for the United States division of S.O.S. Children's Villages, an international charity that is the largest nonprofit in the world dedicated to the care of orphaned, abandoned and other vulnerable children. A memorable project was the editing, redesign and print coordination of a large format brochure."

Cover of brochure produced by Brian D. Lyles

‏"I was asked by Denise Resnik, the head of a local PR agency, to fill in for one of her employees who needed to take a leave of absence due to a family emergency. The project was to manage a new campaign that brought together a local office design and furniture company, Goodmans Interior Structures, with the Phoenix Business Journal to promote and assist Phoenix-area non-profit organizations... Years later, Goodmans Eye for the Good Guys campaign is still going strong."

Image from printed campaign material

"Recruited by former co-workers from Children’s National Health System in Washington, DC, I moved to Phoenix, Arizona to join the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). The non-profit was conceived as part of a business development effort for Phoenix. As Manager of Corporate & Foundation Relations for the Neurogenomics Division, I secured funding and strengthened relationships that helped the organization move from its start-up phase and into its newly constructed headquarters with state-of-the-art labs and offices for scientists."

Photo by Brian D. Lyles of TGen headquarters on the day of its dedication

‏"When Children’s National Medical Center (now known as Children’s National Health System) embarked on a $200 million fundraising campaign, I was recruited from Baltimore to join in the effort. As Grants Manager, my first success was the acquisition of a new $1 million capital grant to fund the build-out of a new neurological research lab for the Children's Research Institute, affiliated with the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. I also managed a $3-4 million annual portfolio of new and existing operating grants, including establishing and managing corporate and foundation relationships that helped the Giant Steps campaign exceed its goal."

Photo of Children's Hospital lobby from website

‏"While at the Museum of Industry, the Baltimore effort for Operation Sail 2000 asked me to join their marketing committee. It was a thrill to become a part of the international event, which celebrated the millennium by welcoming 30 tall ships and more than 1.5 million visitors to Baltimore, with an estimated economic impact of more than $100 million."

Photo by Brian D. Lyles of tall ship entering the Inner Harbor for OpSail 2000

"I was working at the Baltimore Museum of Industry when the American Association of Museums held its Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo in Baltimore in 2000. I was one of several managers and directors from local museums who participated in marketing the conference."

"When asked by a friend to become a freelance copywriter for the East Baltimore Bulletin, I welcomed the opportunity to assist in the revitalization and community-building effort begun by Johns Hopkins University. The area was part of an empowerment zone, and I wrote articles about some of the people, businesses and groups making a difference in the community."

Brian D. Lyles photo of the historic Billings Administrations Building at the John Hopkins Medical Campus

"I was asked by the Museum of Industry's Founding Director Dennis Zembala to become the institution's Development Officer. During my two years there, I oversaw the corporate membership program, developed a new annual report, supervised a brick campaign, assisted in presentations to the Maryland Legislature for bond bill funding, managed a new gala, hired a staff, and was promoted to Director of Marketing & Development."

From web, Baltimore Museum of Industry exterior

"My first board experience was the term I served as a trustee for Chase Brexton Health Services. Beginning as a free clinic in Baltimore's gay community center, the organization had evolved into a Federally Qualified Health Center, serving the entire community with multiple locations, but still maintaining its heritage of specialized care to LGBT patients. I was proud to provide the graphic design for Chase Brexton's 20th anniversary program... Prior to serving on the Chase Brexton board, I had served on a mayor's task force for gay and lesbian issues, was a founding member of a African American group in support of gay and lesbian equality, became communications chair for the first openly gay candidate to Maryland's legislature, and served on the funds distribution committee for Baltimore's AIDSWALK."