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It's hard to believe it, but we're already into our third month of 2025. With our new APRA-IL board members starting to settle in, it's about the right time to bring back our "20 Questions With..." series.
First up is Andrew Gutierrez, who joins the APRA-IL board this year as our new Vice President. Andrew has worked in the philanthropy space since 2018, having held roles such as Associate Director of Development Organizations at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and as a Systems Analyst and later Data Scientist at Cleveland Clinic’s Philanthropy Institute. Read on for 20 questions!
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1. What is the superpower that you use often at work?
As someone who has worked exclusively in large fundraising shops for most of the past five years, I’m always thankful that I can draw from my first role in the field - working as a Development Associate on a two-person fundraising team at a small local organization. In practice, I was wearing just about every hat from annual giving and event planning, to communications and CRM management.
In the larger shops I’ve worked in since where those roles tend to be more separated out, my colleagues have definitely appreciated that I can “speak their same fundraising language”, even though my roles have primarily been more data-centric.
2. What is one thing Apra has done for you?
APRA’s resources for using analytics and data science in prospect development have been invaluable for me throughout my career, especially as a former liberal arts major who has had little-to-no formal training in statistics or in computer programming languages.
3. If the annual Apra International conference could be anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be?
I’m going to go with Montreal, QC - just on the off chance I can get a group to sneak out with me at lunchtime for some Canadian poutine.
4. How do you explain your role to people outside of Development?
Imagine if you combined the process of a scientific researcher (developing a hypothesis, proving or disproving it through testing) with the tools of a computer scientist (programming languages and statistical modeling), then pointed them at fundraising strategy. Which individuals are most likely to give? How much can we expect them to give? How many of them will come back and give a second time?
I guess if I can put it even more simply, I’m really just attempting to answer the big questions about fundraising that keep me up at night (emphasis attempting).
5. If you were not in Prospect Research, what career would you have?
I originally entered into the philanthropy field as a grant writer (I was a converted English major), so my guess is that I’d be somewhere on the proposal writing/foundation relations side of things. Although, I’ve always had this thought that I could make a decent wedding DJ - who knows, maybe I’d be the guy playing the Cupid Shuffle at your cousin’s wedding instead.
6. If you could tell your 15-year-old self about your job, what would you say?
“Andrew, while you unfortunately aren’t going to be the extra guitarist in a reunited Led Zeppelin, you’re still going to carve out a rewarding career niche where you get to use really cool technical skills to answer interesting questions about what makes people likely to give - all while supporting some extremely talented colleagues.”
7. Why did you join the Apra-Illinois board?
I relocated to Chicago from my native Cleveland in late 2023. One of the best parts about moving here has been getting to connect with so many talented PR&D professionals from such a diverse range of institutions, and this exposure has only helped my own growth as a professional (not to mention, helping me make friends as a new transplant in town too). It only felt right to join the board for 2025 and to get further involved with the amazing community here.
8. Why do you think Apra-Illinois and all of the local Apra chapters matter?
It’s one thing to be able to digitally connect with others in the PR&D field over, say, a webinar or a lunch-and-learn through “Big APRA”. But as I’ve found, there’s really no substitute for connecting in-person with colleagues who are living and working right in your own backyard.
9. What is your #1 productivity tip?
Definitely to use some sort of task management software. I’ve used Trello pretty religiously over the past few years to track items in my work queue, when things are due, and when things are completed.
10. Best advice ever received?
“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
11. If you wrote a book about prospect development, what would it be called?
“Algorithms to Bullet Profiles, Coefficients to Deep Dives: The Continuing Hunt for (Prospect) Diamonds in the (CRM) Rough”.
12. If you wrote a memoir on your life, what would it be called?
“Moving Out of Your Hometown and Finding Your Way… for Dummies”
13. What book are you reading right now?
Niche topic alert, but Powder Days by Heather Hansman. It tells the story of how recreational skiing caught on in America and eventually became a “luxury” sport, and along the way there’s some really interesting explorations of inequality and housing prices in ski resort towns (researchers, if you want a tip on new leads - look for home addresses in places like Park City, UT or Steamboat Springs, CO).
14. Currently, what is your favorite restaurant in your city?
I had possibly one of the best meals of my life recently at Dear Margaret in Chicago’s West Lakeview neighborhood - every course was more mind-blowing than the last. Highly recommend it, especially for special occasions (and get the oyster mousse!)
15. What is your favorite social platform to connect with people?
I use Instagram as much as any Zillenial, but I’m really into the more specific interest-focused apps. I use Goodreads for tracking what my friends and I are reading, Beli for tracking our favorite restaurants, and Strava for tracking bike rides and runs (and, most importantly, for competing with my friends over who can come up with the goofiest names for our workouts).
16. What is the last movie you watched?
Most recently I saw Robert Eggers’ remake of Nosferatu at the Music Box Theatre here in Chicago. Did they really have to give the vampire a Mario moustache?
17. If you could have dinner with anyone living or dead, who would it be?
I’d love to have dinner with each of my late grandparents. I’d have so much I’d want to ask them about their lives when they were younger that I didn’t get the chance to ask when they were still around - what was it like to ride the streetcar to school every day? Or how was it being the child of first-generation immigrants? Or being stationed in Europe after VE-Day? I could go on and on.
18. What is your hobby?
It’s more of a true side gig than a hobby now, but I’ve been teaching spin class for about two years; currently I teach three times a week at Chicago’s Fitness Formula Clubs. I love putting together a fresh workout routine every week, along with an eclectic class playlist that might have anything from Kylie Minogue to Daddy Yankee to Alanis Morissette. And, in this post-pandemic era where people can struggle to find meaningful in-person connection, I love fostering a regular weekly community where my class attendees can make friends with other riders.
Beyond that, I stay busy with reading, outdoor cycling, playing guitar, frequenting thrift stores, and helping my bar trivia team to victory every Wednesday night.
19. Are you a texter or a caller?
Texting for sending memes and silly GIFs; calling for everything else.
20. Who or what inspires you?
Undoubtedly, it’s been my work colleagues - I’ve been very fortunate to have worked intra-team, cross-team, and cross-department with some extremely talented individuals at every step along my career. More than anything, it’s the amazing work my colleagues have done which continues to motivate and inspire me to become a better professional.
