Cinira Baldi
Chief Development & Communications Officer
Cinira Baldi is an experienced communications and development expert in restructuring and relaunching brands and teams to meet their highest potential. With a focus on audience insights, analytics, and research, she is skilled at developing a vision and plan to achieve market interest and then devising strategies and tactics to create storytelling to engage and win share of mind.
In her role at Project HOPE, Baldi focuses on developing strategic partnerships and creating new opportunities to increase the reach of the organization’s impact. She recently created and gained approval from the board of directors to embark on a four-year, $15 million investment to capacity build in fundraising to grow Project HOPE’s relief and development programs.
Before joining Project HOPE, Baldi led the Mass Markets team for Mercy Corps. This team performed engagement marketing and fundraising, with goals of increasing brand awareness, growing a sustainable base of donors and revenue, and increasing influence and impact through digital strategies. Using direct marketing, website, social media, marketing communications, and donor advancement strategies, Baldi led her team in using best practices in marketing and fundraising, raising more than 67% of the agency’s unrestricted revenue. In just three years, she grew the organization from $8.9 million to $15.5 million in net unrestricted revenue.
Baldi’s international development and humanitarian work includes experience with complex crisis and fragile states, climate change and its effects on global health, and refugees and migrants and disaster response. She has spent time working with Project HOPE’s programs in Uganda, Thailand, Jordan, Dominican Republic, China, and Indonesia.
Baldi spent almost two decades in marketing, product development, and retail in the corporate sector. Her early career was in retail marketing. While she was employed at Qwest Communications, she was chosen to lead the marketing and sales organization in launching its first-ever retail channel, which included more than 100 store locations. After a fulfilling career at Qwest, Baldi went to work for SCA Direct, which is part of the Omnicom agency, leading their Marketing and Business Development team. Working with well-known clients such as CARE, Defenders of Wildlife, and Environmental Defense Fund, she found that her business acumen and corporate experience were of great value to the nonprofit sector. Baldi also led the integrated membership retention program with AARP in Washington, D.C. Her role was key in integrating the organization’s advocacy, brand, fundraising, and product teams.
Baldi holds a BA in Psychology from George Mason University. She has had extensive training in leadership development and change management and prides herself on leading through sea change to ensure a smooth transition and on accessing individual strengths to build high-performing teams.