Conference Chair

Rebecca Tseng Smith
Associate Dean for External Relations, School of Education
Stanford University

Rebecca Tseng Smith is the associate dean for external relations at Stanford University's School of Education. She has spent the last 20+ years studying what motivates people to give very generous gifts to our institutions and what we can do to encourage them. She has found that the answers to the questions of how to do this work are best found by understanding this very personal and powerful human impulse.

Smith believes that the ideas of relational fundraising, as described by David R. Dunlop, provide the best principles to guide our practice, and she has had an opportunity to put these ideas to work at three leading universities.

At Cornell University, she worked in the major and principal gift programs and later served as assistant dean for alumni affairs and development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Cornell's $1.0 billion campaign for endowment was launched and completed during her years there and she participated in many different aspects of it, from developing strategies for the solicitations of lead givers and recruiting and motivating campaign volunteers to celebrating in the College of Agriculture when they completed the campaign at 45 percent over goal. In 1997, she joined the major gift program at Harvard University where she worked with alumni in New York City and Washington, D.C., and assisted with Harvard's campaign to raise $2.1 billion. Now at Stanford University she is leading the School of Education's participation in "The Stanford Challenge," an effort which seeks to direct the university's resources toward solving complex problems, like K-12 school reform.

Smith served on the American Cancer Society's National Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee, which studied and advised the society on its fundraising practices and long-term goals.

She earned a bachelor's degree in English literature and a master's degree in theology at Boston University. She spent her first undergraduate years at Eckerd College, a small liberal arts college in Florida.

Faculty

Robert F. Sharpe Jr.
President
The Sharpe Group

Robert F. Sharpe, Jr. is president of The Sharpe Group and has more than 30 years of charitable gift planning experience. The Sharpe Group consults nationwide with a number of leading educational, health, social service, and religious organizations and institutions in implementing their major and planned gift development efforts. With offices in Memphis, Tenn., and Washington, D.C., The Sharpe Group has worked with more than 10,000 nonprofits nationwide during its 50 year history.

He has authored many articles and other publications covering numerous gift planning topics. His remarks on this subject have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Smart Money, CBS Market Watch, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Trusts & Estates, Kiplinger's and other national publications. He is chairman of the philanthropy editorial board of Trusts & Estates magazine and a co-author of the Model Standards of Gift Valuation adopted by the National Committee on Planned Giving (NCPG). 

Sharpe is a recipient of the CASE Crystal Apple Award for teaching excellence and the Donaldson Distinguished Service Award from the Planned Giving Group of New England. He is an honors graduate of Vanderbilt University and Cornell Law School.

Ronald Schiller
Senior Vice President of Business Development
Lois L. Lindauer Searches

Ronald J. Schiller serves as senior vice president for business development at Lois L. Lindauer Searches, where he brings 25 years of experience in the advancement field. He has hired more than 300 development professionals throughout his career and worked with more than 1,000, serving six institutions in leadership positions.

Lois L. Lindauer Searches focuses exclusively on development and advancement searches and has built a national network of more than 46,000 advancement professionals. Schiller was a client of the firm for more than 12 years. As senior vice president, he helps a growing number of organizations and our nation's most skilled and talented fundraising professionals establish mutually rewarding and fulfilling professional relationships.

Working with National Public Radio in 2009 and 2010, he led a transformation from a fundraising strategy focused solely on NPR to a national fundraising strategy focused on the donor and their overall experience with public radio, a strategy that required much greater collaboration between NPR and its member stations. He and his colleagues established NPR's planned giving and principal gifts programs; in the first year of the principal gifts program, NPR had as many seven-figure gift donors as in all (40) previous years combined.

From 2005 to 2009, he served as vice president for development and alumni relations at the University of Chicago. He led an advancement team of more than 450 that completed a $2 billion campaign at almost 20 percent beyond goal. He and his team created the university's principal gifts program, helping the university secure its first two nine-figure gifts.

Previously, he served as associate vice president of advancement, director of university development and campaign director at Carnegie Mellon University. His responsibilities included management of all areas of university development, planning and direction of the university's $1 billion campaign, and advancement strategic planning. Prior to his work at Carnegie Mellon, he served as vice president for development at Northeastern University, vice president for institutional advancement (development, alumni relations, public relations, international relations and special events) at New England Conservatory of Music, and director of institutional advancement at the Eastman School of Music. He began his development work at his alma mater, Cornell University, during Cornell's groundbreaking $1.25 billion campaign in the late 1980s.

He currently serves as a member of the Cornell University Council, the Cornell University Trustees Glee Club Advisory Council and the board of The Buddy Program.

David Voss
Associate Dean for External Relations in the School of Earth Sciences
Stanford University

David M. Voss is the associate dean for external relations and chief development officer for the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University. He is responsible for principal gifts, major gifts, annual giving, alumni relations, corporate relations and communications for the school. He has held numerous management and field positions in the Office of Development, as well as positions in the Alumni Association and Office of the President during his more than 25 years at Stanford.

A veteran of three major campaigns, Voss played a key role in the reorganization that created the university's current reunion program by integrating all functions of the development office and establishing clear donor access policies. He also teaches a fundraising essentials course that is required for all field fundraisers.

Voss received his bachelor's degree in psychology from Stanford University. He served as an academic adviser for undergraduates, is a member of Stanford Associates and is currently on the board of the Stanford Historical Society.

Special Guest

David R. Dunlop
Retired Senior Development Officer
Cornell University

Dave Dunlop spent his career as a fundraiser working for his alma mater, Cornell University. Although he is not a fundraising consultant, more than 200 other colleges, universities and nonprofit organizations have called on him for advice and training in fundraising for what he calls "ultimate gifts." Among them are large national organizations including United Way of America, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, CARE International and the Easter Seals Society. Leading medical centers and educational institutions in the United States, Canada, England, Ireland and Israel have also called on him for advice and training.

Dunlop was a member of the American Cancer Society's Blue Ribbon Committee for Fund Raising. He served on the faculty of the CASE Summer Institute in Educational Fundraising for 20 years and on the faculty of the Williamsburg Development Institute for 14 years.

The concepts he developed for major gift fundraising are described in chapters he contributed to the Handbook of Institutional Advancement (1986; 2000), The President and Fund Raising (1989), Educational Fund Raising: Principles and Practice (1993), Developing an Effective Major Gift Program: From Managing Staff to Soliciting Gifts (1993), New Strategies for Educational Fund Raising (2002), and in several CURRENTS articles.

He was one of the first professionals to be designated a "Major Gift Laureate" by the Institute for Charitable Giving for lifetime achievement in the field of major gift fundraising. He was presented the Frank L. Ashmore Award for his service to CASE and the advancement profession and was awarded the CASE Crystal Apple for teaching excellence. In recognition of his professional achievements, leadership, innovative management and teaching excellence, the Demont Difference Fund presented him with its 2005 Lasting Difference Award.

CASE Crystal Apple award winner for excellence in teaching.