Terri Grunduski, Executive Director
With over 32 years experience public relations, marketing and business management and 25 years experience in the field of sports philanthropy, Terri Hickman Grunduski and her team brings expertise to the SagerStrong Foundation to help lead and support the Foundation to build a legacy for Craig Sager and his family.
Prior to the SagerStrong Foundation, Grunduski co-founded a company to assist non-profits with strategic planning, public relations, marketing, website work, foundation development and social media. That company came out of many years of work in the field with co-founder Donna Feazell and Marketing Expert Jill Beckett. Prior to Grunduski Group, Grunduski was the Executive Director of the Dempster Family Foundation. Brought on as the Inaugural Executive Director in 2009, Terri created the Foundation, which, in less than three short years under the inspiration of the Dempster Family, raised over a million dollars and awarded over $430,000 to charitable organizations across the United States, and over $26,000 to charitable organizations in Canada and abroad, through the Dempster Foundation Canada.
Terri began her Family Foundation work as the Executive Director and creator of the Jim Mora Count On Me Family Foundation in 2006. In partnership with Jim and Shannon Mora, she helped establish the Foundation, which, raised over 1.2 million dollars in her five years of work there and granted over $500,000 to charitable organizations in Georgia and Washington.
It was a natural progression into Foundation work for Terri, whose passion of pairing professional athletes with local charities started years ago in hockey. Terri worked with the Atlanta Thrashers Professional Hockey Club as the inaugural Manager of Community Relations and Director of the Atlanta Thrashers Foundation. When the Atlanta Falcons professional football team was getting ready to expand their philanthropic efforts through Arthur Blank’s purchase of the team, the Falcons hired Terri to manage Community Relations for the team. She was the Manager of Community Relations for the Atlanta Falcons from 2003 – 2005 where she directed community outreach and oversaw the creation of programs that supported the Falcons’ commitment to help Georgia children become physically fit and active.
Terri started her career at Turner Broadcasting in 1992 as an intern at Turner Sports and then, for seven years, as a public relations professional for Turner Learning, the educational division of Turner Broadcasting.