Larry Vellani, who has more than 20 years of fundraising experience in North Carolina, Indiana and Ohio, has been named director of foundation relations at Elon University. Vellani will work to increase Elon’s support from foundations and other philanthropic institutions and will work with faculty and staff to prepare grant proposals for a variety of campus programs and university initiatives.
Vellani comes to Elon after working with the N.C. administrative office of courts since September 1994. As assistant administrator for program services, Vellani worked with private, not-for-profit and public agencies on fundraising and organizational development. Vellani helped nearly double the program’s operating revenues from $3.2 million to $6 million and secured more than $1 million in funding for nationally recognized researchers and consultants to advise and assist the courts and their community partners.
Vellani served as director of the Indiana Sentencing Resource Center from 1988-1994. He tripled the program’s budget and advised local agencies in securing local funding from public and private sources.
He has served as a contractual consultant to The Sentencing Project, Inc., and the U.S. Department of Justice on fundraising, organizational development and juvenile and criminal justice policy.
Vellani also brings teaching experience to his new position. He has served as an adjunct professor in Elon’s department of political science and public administration since 1996 and has also taught or served as a guest lecturer at colleges in North Carolina, Indiana and Ohio.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Ohio State University, Vellani holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Indiana University.