Founder & Director of Development
Matthew has always been involved with nonprofits and community organizations. His first major effort began in college as Chairman of Alpha Epsilon Pi’s, Walk-a-thon for at the University of Illinois, which raised more than $100,000 for the American Cancer Society.
After graduation, Matthew spent a year in New York City working as a production
coordinator on the film unit for NBC’s Saturday Night Live. He then went on to a successful 20-year career in marketing and advertising. During that time, he was often found “gently encouraging” clients to do community outreach and fundraising activities. He spent more than a decade of that career as owner and partner in Kurtzman Slavin Communications, a boutique ad agency in the Chicago area.
In the mid-2000’s he started his own marketing consulting firm, while continuing to do
work for a number of nonprofit organizations including Chicago House and Social
Service Agency, The State Theatre, Equality Illinois, Howard Brown Health Center, 20%
Theater Company and Chicago Lost and Found.
With each passing year, Matthew has felt a great need to focus his energies on making
a real difference in people’s lives, particularly those that did not have the same good
fortune he’s had. Matthew is elated to be working for Back 2 School America and is
proud of the organization’s efforts to date and looking forward to making even greater
contributions to educating children across the USA in the future.
Email: matthewkurtzman@b2sa.org
