CEO of Fundraising Firm
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Raymond Grace, 63, the founder and chief executive of CDR Fundraising Group, a Bowie company that raises funds for
nonprofit organizations, died April 14 of esophageal cancer at his home in Riva.
Mr. Grace founded CDR, originally named Creative Direct Response, in 1982. He raised money for health groups,
animal welfare causes, Catholic charities, children's groups and various veterans' organizations, including POW-MIA, the
Blinded Veterans Association, Wounded Warrior Project and Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. He also worked with
MADD, the Special Olympics, the U.S. Olympic Committee, the Winter Olympic Games and the Christian Appalachian
Project.
Raymond James Grace was born in Abilene, Tex., and grew up in the Washington area. He graduated from Gonzaga
College High School in 1962 and Xavier University in Cincinnati in 1966. He was a Navy Seabee during the Vietnam
War.
He worked in advertising, fundraising and printing businesses in the Washington area before founding CDR. He had
been semi-retired since 2004. Last year, he received FundRaising Success magazine's lifetime achievement award.
Mr. Grace was a founding member of the Association of Direct Response Fundraising Counsel and the business
advisory council of the National Federation of Nonprofits, now part of the DMA Nonprofit Federation. He helped develop
the first set of ethics for the fundraising industry.
He was a member of Holy Family Catholic Church in Davidsonville.
Survivors include his wife of 39 years, Reezie Scanlon Grace of Riva; three children, Brian Grace of Riva, Mary
McCarthy of Davidsonville and Melissa Patterson of Edgewater; three brothers, Timothy Grace of Arnold, Patrick Grace
of Kensington and Michael Grace of Annapolis; a sister, Mary Robinson of Davidsonville; and four grandchildren.
-- Matt Schudel