Deborah Heineman has marketed everything from Sotheby”™s to Sports Illustrated.
She developed business for Time Warner and Reader”™s Digest, but not before building a promotions subsidiary at New York City-based Griffin Bacal Advertising.
But for all of the outward success she”™s acquired in the corporate world, it”™s perhaps her present role as executive director of the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem that most illustrates her business acumen.
Over the course of three years, Heineman has helped transform the nonprofit, which is dedicated to the protection and reintroduction of wolves into the wild, into a force of nature ”“ with a $500,000 annual operating budget.
When the economy and budget cuts hit a nonprofit”™s bottom line, Heineman said it”™s vital to tweak an organization”™s way of doing business rather than immediately reverting to layoffs.
“Because things like individual donations are less controllable, you have to find a way to supplement that with money,” she said. “This is business. You have to get a great ROI (return on investment).”
Heineman specifically referenced the nonprofit”™s Wine and Wolves event and holiday party.
“I thought, ”˜We have to reinvent it,”™” she said. “We have to make it a zero-cost event and if they write a check, it goes to our wolf center. We also have to keep the costs reasonable.”
Heineman talked to the Waccabuc Country Club and booked the barn for the member rate. She scoured the local restaurant scene, encouraged eateries to conduct an event sampling and told them “it”™s an opportunity to showcase what you do.”
Heineman introduced a tiered event at the Bedford Post, igniting support from owner, actor and humanitarian Richard Gere.
She was also instrumental in acquiring a donation of land and houses for a new education center for the organization.
“My family has always been committed to the environment and to New York City and in supporting nonprofits in general,” Heineman said. “My grandfather was one of the original members of the American Museum of Natural History. He was a butterfly collector and donated a pretty impressive collection to the museum.”
The Heineman family has also donated stone from a quarry on Picton Island ”“ a place “on the border of Canada on the St. Lawrence River my grandfather had purchased” ”“ to be used to refurbish the south end of the storied museum on Central Park West.
The family was honored last summer by the Thousand Islands Land Trust in commemoration of the donation and opening of the Heineman Family Nature Preserve.
Heineman”™s ties to her family legacy are strong.
“When I went to Williams (College), I was the second class of entering women and I knew I wanted to go there,” she said. “My father had gone, so had my uncles. I was sort of one of the boys. I applied early decision, got in and went to Williams pre-med. I was a science jock and thought I”™d become a veterinarian.”
In the late 1970s, Heineman worked for Time Life Books, by coincidence, perhaps, writing for the “Wild World of Animals” series. Even then, “It was a topic I loved.”
