WHO WE ARE | PIVOT Create & Consulting | Strategic Fundraising & Planning

At PIVOT we ignite generosity.

With over 45 years of combined experience, Erica Mirich and Lela Diaz - the dynamic leaders behind PIVOT Creative & Consulting - bring a wealth of expertise in strategic communications, fundraising, and organizational development.

Erica and Lela's commitment to philanthropy and community impact has made PIVOT a leader in driving successful outcomes beyond expectations.

Together, Erica and Lela's strategic expertise make PIVOT a hub for successful and impactful creative consulting.

PIVOT Consulting, led by creative powerhouses of Erica Mirich and Lela Diaz, transformed two of our projects, one regional and one national, into brand creation and awareness successes.

PIVOT was instrumental in guiding us from inception to implementation with unparalleled expertise. PIVOT's high-touch, high-care approaches work! Many thanks, we’re grateful for your contributions!

Rick Rhodes, Executive Director, Northeastern Regional Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (NERA), a proud member of agInnovation

ERICA MIRICH

principal & founder

Erica is a passionate coach and consultant committed to helping people and organizations create a better life, community, and world. Her expertise in strategic communications, storytelling, and organizational strategy and management allows her to provide inventive and strategic support, guidance, and direction to clients through personal and professional leadership.

Erica has spent more than 25 years working with institutions of all sizes to instill the confidence and build the systems needed for inspired and meaningful community impact. Her true passion is encouraging organizations to “do well by doing good,” guiding them to develop strategies and policies that benefit the organization’s bottom line, the people they serve, and the community at large.

Her team at PIVOT works with organizations to build internal capacity through operational and inspirational fundraising campaigns, Board development, strategic planning, and visionary organizational branding and messaging. She believes that data drives social impact and progress, and she conducts organizational audits to determine how benchmarking and metrics tracking can improve institutional outcomes.

Her key accomplishments include providing thought leadership and boots-on-the-ground support to organizations such as Microsoft’s Give Back Challenge, the USDA’s Institute for Food and Agriculture, the national Land-Grant University system’s agricultural research brand—agInnovation, the Nevada Museum of Natural History, Hope Means Nevada, the League to Save Lake Tahoe, Truckee Meadows Tomorrow, Providence High School, Sage Ridge School, and Stevenson School, among others.

Erica is a Board member of the Nevada Women’s Fund, an organization dedicated to empowering women to improve their lives and those of their families. She is also past president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Monterey Bay Chapter.

She has a master’s degree from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan. Based in Reno, NV, she enjoys adventuring around Reno-Tahoe with her husband and three boys, watching soccer, skiing, and hiking with her canine bestie, Bear.

LELA DIAZ

principal

For more than 20 years, Lela Diaz has brought a strategic vision and focus to global nonprofits, resulting in increased private funding that advances missions and societal change.

Diaz’s passion for philanthropy comes from her desire to see positive change in the world, which she achieves by connecting people to the causes they care most about in meaningful ways. During her career, Lela Diaz has provided direction and creative strategies through fundraising consulting and significant leadership positions. She has helped national, international, and regional charities build dynamic development programs and achieve their goals through effective planning, fundraising, governance, and coaching.

Executing and advising on capital, endowment or programmatic campaigns, Lela brings extensive expertise to campaign strategy and management. The services of PIVOT Creative & Consulting are custom developed and designed to make your experience in philanthropy productive and fun and, perhaps most of all, successful beyond expectations.

Key accomplishments include providing leadership to national and global nonprofits including Feeding America, Education Above All Foundation (an initiative of Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser of Qatar), University of Monterrey Mexico, Direct Relief International, The Nature Conservancy, The US Mexico Foundation, the Wadhwani Initiative for Sustainable Healthcare in India, Mayfield Senior School of the Holy Child Jesus, and Loyola High School of Los Angeles.

Diaz’s broad experience in Board development began as a consultant for Campbell & Company and Carter where she led Board trainings, created Board best practices, and conducted governance audits that resulted in more effective and productive governance practices. Diaz is proud to be a founding Board member and current Chairperson of Raise the Barr, a national organization that partners with single-parent students and their children to increase opportunity and economic mobility through education.

Diaz earned a master’s certificate in the advanced study of philanthropy from Loyola of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Southern California. She is based out of Los Angeles (a fourth-generation native) and enjoys hiking, traveling, watching soccer, cooking, and spending time with her family and her husband.