Alexander Haas, one of the leading fundraising consulting firms in Atlanta, has a new owner — New Jersey-based Collegium.
But according to Alexander Hass CEO David King, little will change.
“We are still Atlanta-based,” King said in an interview. “Our roots are here. [Collegium doesn’t] have any other company under their umbrella that’s headquartered in the South. For them, it was a geographic opportunity.”
Collegium has about a dozen companies, including three other fundraising consulting firms as well as marketing, branding and management entities. Each company continues to have its own identity and operates as a relatively independent entity.
“Collegium has acquired businesses that were profitable and productive,” King explained. “They really acquired brands, and those brands have value. They were attracted to our brand.”
Still, the sale of Alexander Haas is significant because of the deep Atlanta history attached to the Haas name.
The late Beatrice “Be” Haas is considered the godmother of fundraising in Atlanta, launching her business in 1954 when most women didn’t venture into the world of business.
“It’s an amazing story,” said Ann Curry, chair and former owner of Coxe Curry & Associates, a firm that can trace its origins to Haas. “Be Haas really invented fundraising consulting the way it is now done in Atlanta. That was largely her invention.”
A WABE documentary about Be Haas highlights the civic contributions she made in Atlanta. She also was honored with the prestigious Shining Light Award in 1988. Haas continued to work until she died in 1997 at the age of 92. She will be inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement at an event in March.
In trying to map out the family tree of fundraising in Atlanta, nearly all the branches lead to Haas. The first firm was named after Grizzard Haas. Although Be Haas owned 90 percent of the firm, she felt the man’s name needed to be first, Curry said.
Later, in 1979, Frankie Coxe bought the firm from Haas. As partners came and left, it had various names.
“When I started in this business in 1986, it was Haas Coxe & Alexander,” said King, who joined when he had just turned 20. “I would describe Be as a force. Nothing got in Be’s way.”
In 1987, one of the partners, Doug Alexander, and other members of the firm split off over a difference in priorities. Frankie Coxe wanted to focus on Atlanta clients, while Alexander believed in going after national clients.
“Be, after weeks of indecision, decided to go with them,” said Curry, who joined Frankie Coxe as a co-owner in 1992. “I always felt like Be was my spiritual mentor in the way my life was laid out.”
After the split, King stayed with the Coxe side of the house until he went to work for a couple of nonprofits in 1988 before joining Alexander Haas in December 1990. Over the years, the firm had various names to reflect different partners — namely Bonnie O’Neill and Del Martin. Then, in 2004, Doug Alexander decided to sell his interest in the firm. That’s when King became an owner as well as CEO of Alexander Haas.
Over the years, the firm has focused its business on higher educational campaigns and institutional clients.
David Eidson, owner and CEO of Coxe Curry, said his firm rarely competes with Alexander Haas. Almost all of Coxe Curry’s business is in metro Atlanta and Georgia.
“We don’t see them much in our space,” Eidson said. “They are primarily in the higher-ed space.”
Still, Eidson said the contributions of Be Haas are still felt seven decades after she started the industry. “Think about what she did in 1954 — a widow, a Jewish woman. It’s pretty spectacular.”
King admits it wasn’t an easy decision to sell the firm to Collegium; he first dismissed the idea.
“I was approached by them a second time,” King said. “It took us over a year from the initial conversation to deal closing. A lot of that hold-up was me.”
King, 57, said business was going well. And first he had to get comfortable knowing he would no longer have the unilateral ability to make decisions for the firm.
“We actually had our three best years in the history of the firm in 2021, 2022 and 2023,” said King, who said the firm now has 14 consultants and five support staff. “We very much could have continued doing what we were doing.
In the end, King recognized the advantages of partnering with Collegium, which could provide technical and support services like data analytics and video production that would help Alexander Haas better serve its clients by staying on top of technology.
It didn’t hurt that Collegium’s CEO Craig Leach had worked in fundraising his entire career, had similar values, appreciated Alexander Haas and found a special connection with King.
“We both play guitar,” King said. “And we are both Bruce Springsteen fans.”
Before executing the deal late last year, King checked with the other sister firms that are part of Collegium, and he was reassured the umbrella firm allowed the acquired entities to continue doing business as they had before the sale. Three other fundraising consulting firms are under the Collegium umbrella.
“We are siloed from other consulting firms. We could be competing for the same clients, but we would never know it,” said King, who felt comfortable with the interdependent partnership. “There was never any discussion about whether we would stay in Atlanta or alter the name or change our employees. If you looked at us one day before the merger and one day after, you would not have seen any difference.”
