Robert F. Sharpe, Jr.
1-800-238-3253 ext. 5315
rsharpe@sharpenet.com

Robert Sharpe, Jr. is president of The Sharpe Group. He has over 25 years of nonprofit fund development and consulting experience. He has helped hundreds of leading nonprofit organizations and institutions plan, develop, and implement successful major gift planning and endowment development efforts.

An honors graduate of Vanderbilt University and Cornell Law School, Robert formerly practiced law with a major firm specializing in income, gift, and estate taxation. Prior to his legal experience, he served as a development officer for a liberal arts college.

He has written numerous articles on a variety of gift planning topics. His remarks on charitable giving have been featured in leading publications and media including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Smart Money, Market Watch, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Trusts & Estates, Kiplinger’s, and other national media.

Robert is a member of the editorial board of Trusts & Estates magazine. He is co-author of the Model Standards of Gift Valuation adopted by the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning and served on the PPP Strategic Directions Task Force.

He is a frequent speaker at gatherings across the country including Partnership for Philanthropic Planning (formerly NCPG) regional and national conferences, Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) National Conference, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) National Conference, the International Fundraising Congress, the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy Advanced Planned Giving Institute, and the American Bankers Association Trust Asset Management Conference. 

Nancy Jeffers is a managing consultant for The Sharpe Group and has more than 25 years experience assisting a variety of nonprofit organizations with their planned giving efforts. Nancy advises clients on a number of issues, from helping implement an organization’s first gift planning efforts, to coordinating the marketing strategies of well-established planned giving programs.

In addition to her client responsibilities, Nancy also coordinates speaking engagements for The Sharpe Group.

John W. Jensen, CFP, is senior vice president and a consultant for The Sharpe Group based in the Washington, D.C. area. With over 35 years of nonprofit development experience, John works with charitable organizations and institutions in Washington, D.C. and across the country to design and implement effective charitable gift planning programs. He is a frequent speaker at national gatherings of gift planning professionals and has served as a columnist and on the editorial advisory board of a number of planned giving publications. John also serves as a member of the board for the Partnership For Philanthropic Planning (formerly the National Committee on Planned Giving.

A Certified Financial Planner, John was formerly the development vice president at The Nature Conservancy and National Wildlife Federation. In both cases, he was responsible for major expansions of both its direct marketing and planned giving programs. He served four years in the Maine House of Representatives and was the founding chairman of Earth Share.

Barlow Mann is chief operating officer of The Sharpe Group. He has over 25 years of experience in the field of planned gift development. He consults with leading nonprofit organizations and designs their planned giving programs, trains fundraising professionals at Sharpe seminars around the country, and speaks at nationally-recognized gift planning gatherings. 

A graduate of Tulane University and The University of Memphis School of Law, Barlow was director of development at the University of Tennessee Center for Health Sciences prior to joining The Sharpe Group.

Don Mann is a senior consultant for The Sharpe Group. He has 24 years of financial marketing experience and 29 years of direct marketing experience. A Brown University BA and Columbia University MBA (Marketing/Banking), his career has combined Magazine Publishing (as co-founder of Grosvenor Publications, a division of National Geographic) and Direct Marketing Consulting (Bloom & Gelb, NY; Founder: Malmo Direct, TN; and Founder: FUSION Marketing Group, TN).

At FUSION, Don developed a marketing process that came to be known first as Database Marketing and ultimately as Customer Relationship Management. This process utilizes a combination of demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data applied through statistical modeling to predict future purchase behaviors. It changed the way all banks continue to market products and services to their retail customers and established a series of marketing practices that have been adopted by numerous other industries.

At Sharpe, he is applying these same principles to advance understanding and prediction of donor behaviors and is involved in marketing technology applications for our clients. He founded and directed the Financial Database Marketing School at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, is co-author and editor of the book The New Age of Financial Services Marketing, and has received numerous commendations and awards from the Direct Marketing Association, the Financial Services Marketing Association, and the Bank Marketing Association. 

Kathy Robbins is a managing consultant and director of marketing for The Sharpe Group. She has over 18 years experience working with a number of nationally-known nonprofit organizations and institutions across the country in marketing their planned giving programs, with extensive experience in assisting both healthcare and educational organizations with their gift planning efforts. 

Prior to joining The Sharpe Group, Kathy worked in a Memphis-based bankruptcy law firm. She is a graduate of The University of Mississippi. 

Courtney Tarena is a Consultant Associate for The Sharpe Group. She aids mid-sized organizations and institutions with their gift planning efforts. Working closely with the Managing Consultants, Courtney coordinates sales presentations and assists in the execution of the company’s marketing plan.

Courtney previously worked at a community-based nonprofit organization and has a degree in Business Administration from The University of Memphis.

Triena Winbery is senior vice president and a consultant for The Sharpe Group. An attorney, Triena most recently served as a senior vice president for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. During her twenty-year tenure at St. Jude, she served as general counsel and investment advisor prior to successively serving as head of gift planning, head of direct marketing, and head of corporate funding.

She holds bachelor’s and J.D. degrees from the University of Memphis. Prior to her service at St. Jude, Triena practiced law and worked for four years in the Trust Division of a major bank.