Valerie M. Jones, CFRE, has addressed audiences from Baltimore to Beijing, including many AFP conferences. She has raised more than $175 million for nonprofits, both as a staff fundraiser and, since 1998, through her consulting firm, Valerie M. Jones Associates. Jones has taught thousands of board and staff fundraisers to ask comfortably, authentically, and successfully. Amazon named her book, Nonprofit Hero, Five Easy Steps to Successful Board Fundraising, (Rowman & Littlefield) one of its Top Ten Hot New Releases for Nonprofits and it made Book Authority’s List of the Best Fundraising Books of All Time. Jones’s appearance on ABC’s Shark Tank’s 2021 season finale secured a $500,000 investment for her husband’s dinosaur business.