About Pennington Gray.
Leadership
Erin Phillips is the founder of Pennington Gray. Founded in 2012, Pennington Gray has since grown to be the leading private advisory firm most trusted by the world’s leading museums and cultural institutions.
Erin works directly with clients undergoing significant change and pursuing major revenue growth. Organizations served include The Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, LACMA, Philadelphia Museum of Art, New Museum, The Metropolitan Opera Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Museum of the City of New York, American Museum of Natural History, New York Public Radio, Library of America, and many more. She has been featured in publications such as Forbes and Inc and has been on the boards for the Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association and Women in Philanthropy. Erin started out on the organizational side running membership marketing for organizations that include The Metropolitan Opera, and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) which awarded Erin with the prestigious Lee Tenenbaum Award for her work in growing the membership to record highs. She is an active member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and is a 2026 recipient of the Enterprising Women of the Year Award.
Services
Pennington Gray is registered fundraising counsel in the United States and offers robust services focused on reengineering paid audience and membership strategy to reflect modern and ever-changing consumer behavior with arts and culture.
This includes:
- Working confidentially with CEO’s and CFO’s to integrate static planning with dynamic readiness. What are an organization’s non-negotiables (“the anchor” and “guardrails”) versus where there is room to responsibly pivot (“the laboratory”)?
- Creating fresh ways to approach the visitor, member, and donor pipeline grounded in the hard reality of numbers
- Re-structuring membership benefits and pricing in support of financial growth
- Developing earned revenue product design and launching