Ryan Dumas

Ryan Dumas

Ryan Dumas is a dramaturgically-minded project manager, producer, fundraiser, and consultant for nonprofit organizations, specializing in philanthropy, strategy, and finance with a particular focus on the arts & culture sector. His practice centers both holistic qualitative evaluation and rigorous data-based analysis from a project’s inception to best serve all stakeholders. His areas of expertise include...
Ryan Dumas is a dramaturgically-minded project manager, producer, fundraiser, and consultant for nonprofit organizations, specializing in philanthropy, strategy, and finance with a particular focus on the arts & culture sector. His practice centers both holistic qualitative evaluation and rigorous data-based analysis from a project’s inception to best serve all stakeholders. His areas of expertise include institutional giving, strategic planning, financial analysis, program evaluation, events management, and new work development. He is passionate about partnering with nonprofit organizations to ensure sustainable growth, establish new and alternative forms of income generation, create mutually beneficial partnerships, invest in community engagement, and develop long-term mission-centric strategies.

Ryan currently serves as a consultant at CCS Fundraising, providing imbedded advisory services to impactful nonprofits. He has led CCS' partnerships with The Woodruff Arts Center, the Bob Woodruff Foundation, and Hagerstown (MD) Community College, conducting multiple feasibility and planning studies and managing capital campaigns that have raised over $50 million, personally securing gifts totaling over $8 million. He has also provided strategic planning, Case for Support development, survey design, and leadership transition services to the firm's engagements with the National Association of Cancer Center Development Officers, Delaware Community Foundation, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Prior to CCS, Ryan worked extensively in the arts & culture sector. He served as a fundraiser for Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, and held institutional producing and management roles with Roundabout Theatre Company, The Public Theatre, the Alley Theatre, and William Morris Endeavor. His dramaturgy has been seen at City Theatre Company, PlayPenn, FringeArts Philadelphia, Roundabout Theatre Company, the Drama League, the Alley Theatre, and the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. He worked as a consultant for Sweetwater Center for the Arts, On Site Opera, and Mattel, Inc., and his research on nonprofit arts management has been supported by the Arts Management & Technology Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, the Theatre Communications Group, and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Ryan is currently developing the New Work Risk Assessment Calculator, a season-planning tool for nonprofit theatres combining dramaturgical and managerial considerations that is pending patent approval and under beta testing.

​Ryan is a member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and the Theatre Communications Group, and was selected for the TEDxBroadway Young Professionals 2020 cohort. He holds a BFA in Dramaturgy from the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama and Master of Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon's Heinz College of Information Systems & Public Policy. He is proudly based in Pittsburgh, PA.

Recommended by Ryan Dumas

  • John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower
    18 Aug. 2021
    “ A true-to-life exploration of larger than life dreams in a small town shifts subtly and hauntingly into a searing indictment of power structures: particularly those that men have over women--their lives, their dreams, their beings. Kimberly's play does what I love best--moving from the hyper-real to the intensely theatrical, causing my to immediately feel the deep sense of emotion I would experience in the theatre. An intensely powerful new voice, and a beautiful play. The world premiere should have happened years ago. ”
  • Winter People by Laura Neill
    3 Mar. 2021
    “ How do our actions, even without our knowledge, shape the fortunes and futures of others? Just how easy is it to act selfishly, without regard to how our actions will effect someone else?

    By looking at the social strati between "Locals," Laura is able to confront privilege in really subtle and varied ways. The conceit of using five women to play all the characters also made sense to me—it unites everyone in the play through their embodiment. I was struck by the idea that one major event can have incredibly wide-reaching consequences, which people respond to differently. ”
  • how it feels to fall from the sky by Dominic Finocchiaro
    3 Mar. 2021
    “ Can death make you understand that life is worth living? Can randomness really be fate? How do we find purpose and connection when everything seems so lonely?

    I really really loved this play, and have been thinking about it ever since I first read it. I was captivated by how beautiful Dominic’s writing is. The device that brings these lonely people together is so morbid and upsetting and weird that it manages to subvert expected conventions. The gradual reveal of structure, which helps guide you through to the end, was deeply satisfying. Really moving and beautiful. ”
  • The Gradient by Steph Del Rosso
    3 Mar. 2021
    “ How can we ever heal and grow if we try to quantify process? This play has a very interesting and timely premise, about how do we actually make men better. But, in raising the question of quantifiable growth and progress, Steph shows that that is never really quite possible, and may in fact be detrimental to the cause. ”
  • I Was Unbecoming Then by Lyndsey Bourne
    3 Mar. 2021
    “ How do the authority figures of young women shape their identities? How do young women develop a confidence/knowledge in their bodies when they are forced to repress so often?

    I feel like the easiest way to describe this play is Usual Girls meets The Wolves meets Pitch Perfect. It's a wildly interesting mix of concrete, realistic experience and self-exploration in liminal space. The dialogue outside the choir room space is VERY poetic and beautiful—it allows the girls. to just speak, often about sex and sexuality in frank and occasionally crass ways that boys are often always allowed to. ”
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