Robert F. Sharpe, Jr.
1-800-238-3253 ext. 5306
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. 

Aviva Shiff Boedecker
415-940-0496
aviva.boedecker@sharpenet.com

An attorney with more than 25 years of gift planning experience, Aviva has served as a director of planned giving at the University of California, Berkeley, the Marin Community Foundation, and San Francisco Ballet. She has also served on the board of the National Committee on Planned Giving (the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning), is a past President of the Northern California Planned Giving Council and the Marin County Estate Planning Council, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the UC Berkeley Extension Wealth Management Program. Aviva writes for many planned giving publications and is a frequent lecturer on gift planning. A member of the California Bar, Aviva is an alumna of the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Brad Champlin
1-800-238-3253 ext. 5336
brad.champlin@sharpenet.com

Brad served as a senior executive for the holding company of a top 10 bank for over 25 years. Brad’s responsibility for the bank included marketing, training, legislative/public affairs and the bank’s foundation. Brad was a leader in Tennessee and the American Bankers Boards of Directors and was also on the Government Affairs Review Committee. He has been an active participant in his community serving on numerous boards. Brad co-founded of the National Bipolar Foundation. He holds an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Working with Sharpe Group’s industry-leading consultants, Matthew supports and counsels Sharpe’s clients to help them achieve measurable results. Matthew also manages internal technology applications and products for the Sharpe Group and advises clients on technology-related best practices. Prior to joining Sharpe Matthew worked with ALSAC, the fundraising arm of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In addition to his five years in the nonprofit industry Matthew is an active volunteer in the Memphis community. Matthew holds a BS in business administration from the University of Tennessee and an MBA from the University of Memphis.

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 consultant for The Sharpe Group. Based in Washington, DC, John has guided over 60 nonprofits to improve their planned giving performance. As development vice president at both The Nature Conservancy and the National Wildlife Federation, John’s game changing strategies and team management led to record results. Having been responsible for overall fundraising leadership at four nonprofits, he sees gift planning within a larger fundraising context.

Building on two decades of nonprofit achievement, John is a frequent speaker at local and national fundraising conferences and served on the board of the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning, the national gift planning professional association. John served as a columnist for the NonProfit Times and Planned Giving Mentor.

Prior to Sharpe, John was founding chairman of Earth Share, the landmark initiative that has raised more than $260 million for over 300 environmental organizations nationwide since 1988. The Earth Share breakthrough is typical of the Jensen result record—guiding innovation that delivers unprecedented resources for good causes.

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. 

Jim Ross is a financial leader with three decades of business experience. He developed and honed his talent as a manager with an international public accounting firm, the CFO of a publicly traded health care company, and president of a large financial institution. He has provided a broad range of operational and process analysis and advice to clients on strategic planning and board governance policies and procedures including Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Jim served as Chairman of the Board for Memphis Junior Achievement and as a member of the Junior Achievement National Board. Jim is trained as a CPA and holds a MBA degree from the Vanderbilt Owen School of Business.

Anne is the Director of Creative Services for The Sharpe Group. Anne manages the Sharpe creative services group. Anne shares her extensive communications knowledge with clients and in Sharpe training seminars. Prior to joining Sharpe, she was an executive with Federal Express Corporation where she managed corporate communications and held other positions for over 26 years. She most recently served as Director of Communications for the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis. She holds both an undergraduate and graduate degree in Journalism.

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.