JP Davis is the advisor institutions call when the moment matters.
For more than twenty years, that moment has taken many shapes: a leadership transition, a board that has to grow into its role, a campaign that has to land, a reputation worth protecting. The money that followed, more than one hundred million dollars1 across higher education, the arts, public spaces, and LGBTQIA+ movements, was only ever the evidence of the trust that came first.
He founded JP Davis Partners in 2021 to bring that counsel to the causes that get left out of most rooms. What follows is the record, in order, so you can check it yourself.
1. More than one hundred million dollars raised across the institutions advised. A single gift among them, forty million dollars, set a University of Louisville school record.
Two decades, on the record.
Owsley Brown Frazier
Hand-selected to assist Louisville businessman and philanthropist Owsley Brown Frazier in his transition from corporate leader to national philanthropic figure. Helped create the Owsley Brown Frazier Family Foundation and coordinated tens of millions in community investment.
University of Louisville
Directed major gifts and strategic initiatives in the Office of the President. Instrumental in U of L’s $1 billion fundraising campaign, the largest in school history. Led strategy that secured a $40 million gift, the largest single gift the university had received at the time.
Fund for the Arts
Helped net the Fund nearly $50 million, one of the largest gains in fundraising in its 71-year history.
JP Davis Partners
Founded in winter 2021 with the onePULSE Foundation as the inaugural client. Now serving 25+ nonprofits across LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, Appalachian, arts, and conservation work.
Council, Buttigieg, McGarvey
Ran for Louisville Metro Council. Raised nearly $1 million across state, congressional, gubernatorial, U.S. Senate, and presidential campaigns, including for Mayor Pete Buttigieg, America’s first openly gay major presidential candidate, and as Morgan McGarvey’s volunteer fundraising chair in 2022.
Louisville · LSE · the White House
BA and MPA with honors from the University of Louisville. Studied at the London School of Economics and interned at Parliament. White House intern in the Bush administration. Certificate in Fundraising Management from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.
“We are proud to be one of the few gay-owned consulting firms in the non-profit and fund-development space. I want people to see me and our firm as a place championing change, acceptance, and a new way of approaching philanthropy that is rooted in equity, justice, and new voices.”
Institutions and causes that trust the firm.
The firm is JP, plus a curated bench.
JP Davis Partners is led by JP, with a bench of globally recognized, industry-leading advisors brought in by engagement, each a leader whose counsel has guided some of the world’s largest institutions. The bench also includes deep expertise in digital, AI, and brand, work that has shaped experiences used the world over. Every project is staffed to its specific need (campaign counsel, board facilitation, communications, executive search) without the overhead of a large firm. If you would like to know who would be on your project, ask.
Fundraising is one of eight ways institutions and leaders put the firm to work, alongside strategy, governance, leadership, foundation counsel, enterprise advisory for founders and family businesses, public policy and crisis navigation, and technology and AI.
Rooted in Appalachia.
A native of Ashland, Kentucky, JP moved to Louisville for his BA and MPA at the University of Louisville. He stays connected to Eastern Kentucky through the Peggy Davis Scholarship, which he co-founded with friends in honor of his mother to help high school students from the Ashland area pursue higher education in business.
A labradoodle named Dallas.
JP lives in the Highlands neighborhood of Louisville with Dallas, his beloved labradoodle. He is a fierce LGBTQIA+ advocate, a chili cook-off regular, and, for the record, a defender of bourbon and the occasional Wendy’s run.
