With more than two decades of experience in non-profit work, we have connections and strong relationships across the non-profit sector.

Meet Meredith

Meredith Nguyen, Founder & Principal

Prior to founding Vim + Rigor, Meredith served the mission of the San Francisco Marin Food Bank for 15 years in successively broader c-suite roles—as the Chief Development Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer as the organization grew from ~130 FTE with a $10MM+ budget to ~275 FTE supporting a $60MM+ budget and began the work to transition the organization from a more traditional charity to a food justice organization. She successfully led the organization through executive director transition, COVID response and transformation, a successful $45 million capital campaign, new building acquisition, and multi-facility expansion and renovation.

Our Collaborators

In addition to the key collaborators below, we often bring in subject matter experts to support our projects.

Alicia Saake-Rosenbaum

  • She is a non-profit consultant with 12 years of experience leading non-profit organizations in pursuit of their mission.

    While COO at Feeding San Diego, she was responsible for a multi-million dollar budget and all functional departments except finance and development, and was the senior advisor to the CEO on budget, human resources, strategic planning, and our emerging work around equity, diversity, and inclusion.

    She is the proud co-founder of the Women in Operations Affinity Group at Feeding America, which supports achieving gender parity in the critical work of food banking.

Cat Slack

  • Cat has led partnerships with dozens of organizations such as: Arkansas Food Bank, California State University in Sacramento, Edmond Fine Arts Institute, First Tee Silicon Valley, Generation Housing, International Rescue Mission, Mizell Center, Maui Food Bank, North Texas Food Bank, Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, United Way of Rhode Island, and many more. She advises c-suite leaders through transition and culture-change as they grow and leads acclaimed trainings for fundraisers in myriad missions across the United States. ​

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    Prior to consulting, Cat led fundraising at Second Harvest of Silicon Valley through annual revenue growth from $37 to $112 million and a $150 million campaign. She served as Chief Development Officer for an organization serving former foster youth, leading a $10 million capital campaign and increased revenue by 133% over five years.​

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    Cat holds an MBA from Dominican University and a BS from Baldwin-Wallace University. She served in the United States Peace Corps in Armenia. ​

Heidi Critz

  • With her many years of experience, she specializes in general administration, allowing her clients to prioritize growth and success. 

Kelly Braunegg

  • With 20 years of experience, she helps organizations create a solid foundation for holistic fundraising growth by streamlining processes, optimizing donor databases, and establishing critical business practices. Development operations is the bedrock by which an organization can build upon to achieve their goals. With a solid starting point, clean data, communicative systems & teams, and some technical savvy, nonprofits are set up for success.

    Kelly is an expert at creating structure, building relationships between teams, organizing, and untangling messes. She has led many partnerships with organizations such as: Alameda County Community Food Bank, Atlanta Community Food Bank, Center for Election Science, Delivering Good, Feeding South Florida, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Power to Decide, and Second Harvest of Silicon Valley. She works with Development Operations leaders at organizations to coach and elevate their teams, as well as directly with staff to hone their skills and create the comfort needed to effectively leverage their databases to drive their fundraising. 

    Kelly has lived all over the United States and has settled in Kansas City, Missouri with her partner and their two dogs. She spends her free time volunteering with local organizations and hosting interactive dinner parties (let’s make fresh ravioli together!)

Denise Gurule

  • She has led finance teams in both nonprofit and for-profit sectors, including 13 years at LEGOLAND California and ten years as CFO/Controller consulting for nonprofits and small businesses. She specializes in building efficient financial systems that empower organizations to focus on their mission while ensuring long-term sustainability.

Meg Davidson

  • She brings fifteen years of experience in the nonprofit sector, including leadership of high-performing Advocacy and Public Policy, Program Analytics, and Evaluation teams.

    Her career has been rooted in building meaningful relationships to drive policy and programmatic change, with a focus on creating opportunities for community members to leverage their own power.

    With a passion for innovative thinking and a commitment to equity, she is dedicated to fostering partnerships and building solutions that help organizations solve their trickiest problems.