That successful record is due, in part, to Lauren's extensive experience in fundraising. Her background includes nonprofit, corporate and consulting experience:

• As the MidAtlantic corporate contributions manager for the First Union Foundation, Lauren oversaw the allocation of approximately $4 million in charitable funds across six southeastern states. First Union Corporation, now Wachovia Corporation, is currently the fourth largest financial services company in the United States.
• As vice president for development for the Arts & Science Council - Charlotte/Mecklenburg (ASC), she managed what is today the single largest united arts fund in the nation. During her three-year tenure, the ASC annual campaign grew by over 80 percent.
• At Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, she directed the regional major gift program (targeting gifts between $10,000--$100,000 annually). While having responsibility for this national program, she also managed Wellesley's most lucrative markets--New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
• As associate director with Coxe Curry & Associates, Atlanta's premier development consulting firm, she managed portions of the campaigns for the Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta Outward Bound Center and the Atlanta Children's Shelter.
• Lauren began fundraising while a student at Duke University, where she served on the Executive Council of the University Development Office and chaired her senior class gift campaign. She graduated from Duke with a bachelor of arts in philosophy and political theory.

Lauren Batten is committed to her community. She is an elder of Covenant Presbyterian Church, serving as Stewardship Chair twice within five years and co-chair of Covenant’s successful $6.5 million capital and benevolence campaign in 1998. She is an advisory board member of Charlotte Emergency Housing and is a founding board member of the Brain Tumor Fund for the Carolinas. An alumna of Leadership Charlotte, she received a 2002 Women in Business Achievement Award from the Business Journal. Lauren was also honored in the Business Journal’s 2000 publication of its “40 Under 40” listing and was a finalist for the National Association for Women Business Owners’ “Rising Star Award” in 2001.