Upstate Trio Launch Ultra Advising
Tivoli, NY —Leveraging its founders’ deep experience in nonprofit management, communications, and public service, Ultra Advising Inc. has opened for business with a vision to support mission-driven organizations. Co-founder Caroline Crumpacker (The Public Theater, Thirteen/WNET, Art Omi), who recently announced her departure from Opus 40 Sculpture Park, is joined by co-founders, Zuhirah Khaldun-Diarra (UNICEF USA, Converse, National Urban League), and renowned writer and editor Rebecca Wolff (Fence Magazine & Fence Books, Bomb Magazine, Hudson City Council) to provide strategy, program development, fundraising, and communications support services for organizations driving social and environmental impact including foundations, social enterprises, and nonprofit, arts, and community-based organizations.
“We formed Ultra Advising so we could support organizations working for the greater good as they navigate shifting landscapes and economic cycles to achieve their missions. Having worked in nonprofit management for 25 years, I know the challenges we are all facing, and I have spent my professional life finding all kinds of ways to keep our organizations strong, resilient, and meaningful” shared Caroline Crumpacker, co-founder of Ultra Advising.
Co-founder, Rebecca Wolff continued, “I’m so excited to begin this work with Caroline and Zuhirah and to connect with organizations that are looking to have a positive impact on society and help them clearly articulate and deliver on their visions. Connecting supporters and the communities they serve is of the utmost importance — whether their focus is the arts, education, or community supported agriculture and we are looking forward partnering to support their growth through purposeful and effective strategy and communications.”
With its headquarters in Tivoli, NY and principals hailing from Hudson and Red Hook, Ultra Advising will have an initial focus on the growing nonprofit sector in New York’s Hudson Valley, Capitol Region and New England — but is poised to support national and international nonprofits and foundations as well with a wide variety of services including, strategic planning, grant writing, fundraising strategy, branding, digital marketing, media relations, creative, and events. The goal throughout is to supporting organizations in finding their own best ways forward in a today’s challenging environment.
Ultra Advising hopes to become a hub of support and conversation for nonprofits and will host regular events and talks on issues facing nonprofit leadership with the inaugural launch event featuring a talk with George Khaldun — cofounder and former Chief Operating Officer of Harlem Children’s Zone, and President of Urban Leadership Consultants, LLC — about how to create long term impact at community-based organizations.
Wolff, Crumpacker & Khaldun-Diarra in the Tivoli office.
Ultra = Three brilliant women, working together to help nonprofits shine their lights
ABOUT CAROLINE CRUMPACKER
Principal and Co-Founder, Ultra Advising
Caroline Crumpacker has worked in arts administration for 25 years. As executive director of Opus 40 Sculpture Park, she was able to quadruple the organizational budget, quadruple membership revenue, help develop a successful annual gala, and launch a multiyear process of restoration to the site’s central sculpture, with funding from the IMLS and the Mellon Foundation. Prior to Opus 40, she worked in leadership positions at Millay Arts, Thirteen/WNET, The Public Theater, and The Poetry Society of America.
During her tenure on her Community Board in New York City, Caroline founded and co-chaired an arts committee. She was also part of an action-group dedicated to the arts created by Congressperson Jerrold Nadler and was The Public Theater’s representative to The Cultural Institutions Group. She has served on the Board of Directors of The High Meadow School in Stone Ridge, Fence Magazine/Fence Books, and Belladonna Collaborative.
Caroline has been a mentor for nonprofits through LitTap, the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, and the Alliance of Artists Communities. She served as a consultant for the New York State Council on the Arts, and a juror for the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Massachusetts Council on the Arts, and Yaddo. On the editorial board of Matters of Feminist Practice and a member of the Belladonna* Collaborative, Caroline was a founding Poetry Editor of Fence magazine, and an editor of the French/American online magazine DoubleChange. She has published one full-length book of poems (Astrobolism, 2016) and three chapbooks. She lives in Red Hook with her husband, puppeteer Roberto Rossi, her daughter Coco, a college student, and their rescue dog Pooka.
ABOUT ZUHIRAH KHALDUN-DIARRA
Principal and Co-Founder, Ultra Advising
An award winning seasoned brand and communications executive with over 20 years' experience and a focus on philanthropic and social impact organizations and initiatives, Zuhirah has worked with numerous mission driven and nonprofit organizations for the past 12 years including UNICEF USA where, for 4 years, she led integrated campaigns to increase support for UNICEF’s global development and emergency response programs. She won the UNICEF 2019 Inspire Award for the “Children on the Move” campaign she developed to raise support for the global migration crisis. Most recently she headed up marketing, communications, and brand at Jumpstart for Young Children where she also led the "world's largest shared reading experience," Read for the Record, engaging over 2 million adults and children to read the same book on the same day in 11 countries and 50 states and territories in celebration ofng early literacy.
Zuhirah began her career in the music industry and worked as a tour publicist for the The Roots at Geffen Records, later becoming publicist to Jay-Z (securing his first New Yorker feature and appearance on SNL) at Island Def Jam Music Group. She also managed communications for the Bronx Museum of the Arts’ Hip Hop and Contemporary Art exhibit; Testify Books; and Converse sneakers where she was key to the then bankrupt brand’s resurgence in 2001 and a 2400% investor return sale to NIKE in 2004.
Zuhirah first turned to nonprofit communications through a consultancy with the historic civil rights organization, the National Urban League. During what turned into an 8-year tenure at the National Urban League, Zuhirah led marketing for the organization’s engagement initiatives including: Put Our Children 1st education advocacy program with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and national voter education initiatives, as well as managing the Leagues’ marketing of the first ever Red Nose Day in the United States, and was awarded the Telly Awards 2012 Communicator Award for Outstanding Online Video Content for "Empowering Health" film short, looking at the success of community-based diabetes prevention programs in Ohio and South Carolina.
Zuhirah has worked and traveled extensively in the U.S. (producing events and conferences in over a dozen states), Europe, Africa, and Asia. A born and bred New Yorker, Zuhirah has lived in Tanzania (where she advised the Zanzibar National Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture), Bermuda, and the Netherlands (where she received an MA in Cultural Analysis from the University of Amsterdam). Zuhirah holds a BA in Economics from Barnard College and is a born and bred New Yorker currently resides ing in Hudson, NY with her partner-husband and teening and tweening offspring.
ABOUT REBECCA WOLFF
Principal and Co-Founder, Ultra Advising
Rebecca Wolff is the author of five collections of poetry, one novel, and numerous pieces of occasional prose. Her books have been awarded prizes including the National Poetry Series and the Barnard Women Poets Prize. Her novel The Beginners was published by Riverhead in 2011. Wolff founded the influential literary journal Fence, the imprint Fence Books, and The Constant Critic website. She taught creative writing and publishing for the New York State Writers Institute at the University of Albany.
Rebecca lives in Hudson, New York, where she served on the City Council and works in community development, with an emphasis on affordable housing and green trades training. As Alderperson, Wolff obtained a $1 million Anti-Displacement grant, which allowed her to coordinate a team of stakeholders to: launch a new office in City Hall dedicated to maintaining housing affordability; initiate a Community Affordable Housing Land Trust; establish an Affordable Housing Trust Fund; and distribute more than $150,000 (and counting) in emergency rent support. In 2015, she received a prestigious fellowship from the good Works Institute.
