Major Gift & Planned Giving Mentoring Faculty

Meet the UW NEXT Volunteer Planned Giving Faculty

UW NEXT is proud to be working in partnership with United Way Worldwide on providing this valuable resource featuring 20 UW NEXT members who have accepted the invitation to serve as volunteer faculty to provide insight and guidance on how to launch, relaunch, expand, and grow a Planned Giving program. These volunteers are dedicated to serving our Local UW Network. Each of the volunteers have experience in building an endowment to further assist with revenue diversification. These faculty members are former and current United Way professionals with exceptional knowledge and experience in endowments, planned giving, major gifts, leadership giving programs, fund development, revenue diversification and so much more.

Roster of Volunteer Faculty (click on names to be taken to their bio):

Tim Allison
Tim is the Chief Advancement Officer at the Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH) where he is responsible for the philanthropic initiatives at each of the state’s seven community colleges. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Foundation for New Hampshire Community Colleges. In addition, he has successful major and planned giving experience with the University of New Hampshire, the United Way of the Seacoast (Portsmouth, NH) and the United Way of Southern Maine (Portland).

Keith Barsuhn
Keith served as President and CEO of United Ways in Canton, Ohio; Greensboro, NC; and Orange County, NY: and held senior positions for United Ways in Atlanta, GA and Columbus, OH. He also served as interim CEO for United Way NEXT. Keith is part of the planning team to redesign and revamp the planned giving mentoring effort for UW NEXT.

Roma Bose
Roma is an independent Development professional, with twenty-five years of experience working with state, national and international organizations in the fields of healthcare, artificial intelligence, and community development initiatives. Her expertise includes fundraising and communications strategies that yield high-dollar returns for core-operations, community projects, capital campaigns, and more. During the course of her career, she has led, as well as set up, new non-profit organizations, delivered training in management, governance, project designing, and donor engagement strategies. She thrives in frontline fundraising and non-profit management roles. Roma served for more than 10+ years with United Way Worldwide.

Tom Brown
Tom is a former United Way CEO and in retirement served as planned giving staff with great success in Tocqueville Legacy giving. Tom is also a past member of the UW NEXT board of directors and served on the executive committee as board chair. He has been a planned giving mentor and consultant for many years. In addition, Tom created a named endowment fund.

Carla Crossno
Carla served as a senior marketing and development executive for United Way of Dade County (Miami) and directed a feasibility study for their $300 million endowment campaign. She was also responsible for organizing the United Way NEXT Major Gift and Planned Giving Alumni 2021 Zoom Reunion. Carla is the Principal with Hatched consulting firm serving non-profit organizations.

Janet Clarkson Davis
Janet has over 27 years’ service to the nonprofit sector including major gift and planned giving experience with United Way at the local and national level. She is the founding principal in the firm Clarkson Davis, capital campaign and resource development consultants. Currently, she is serving as Development Director for Ogunquit Playhouse.

Dan Dunne
A former United Way CEO, Dan championed the United Way of Central Alabama’s highly respected planned giving program. Upon retirement, he has taken on multiple UW NEXT planned giving mentoring and consulting roles. He has also been hosting planned giving office hours over the past several years. In addition, he has created a named endowment fund.

Monica Estabrooke
Monica has extensive major gift and planned giving experience with United Way at the local and national levels. She is also a former United Way NEXT Board Member. Monica provided leadership to design and implement UW NEXT’s first planned giving mentoring and consulting efforts.

Bob Ferriday
Until retirement, Bob was the Chief Financial Officer for the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and continued on a part-time basis leading their planned giving program. He serves as Treasurer for UW NEXT and a as volunteer planned giving mentor and consultant. Bob is deeply involved in helping to redesign UW NEXT’s mentoring and consulting services.

Denise Fleckenstein
Denise began her non-profit career at Matrix Human Services. She went on to revitalize planned giving programs at the University of Detroit Mercy, Cranbrook Educational Community and the Beaumont Hospital Foundation. Denise came to United Way for Southeastern Michigan in 2010 to establish and grow a planned giving program and served on the United Way Worldwide Major Gift and Planned Giving Council for 12 years.

Ann Fox
Ann held senior major gift positions at local and national levels. She provided major gift leadership at United Way Worldwide. In addition, she has served in executive fund raising positions nationally at the American Red Cross and Planned Parenthood. Currently Ann is consulting a local United Way’s endowment campaign and recently joined the UW NEXT Board of Directors.

Chuck Gordon
Chuck directed a highly successful major gift and planned giving program at United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley including successful completion of a $30 million endowment campaign. Today he serves as President and CEO of the New Kensington Group, providing strategic planning, fundraising, board/governance and executive search consulting assistance to nonprofits and foundations. He has held executive positions in several national nonprofit organizations and has served as a member of a UW NEXT planned giving consulting team.

DJ Hampton II, JD
DJ has been very successful directing major gifts and planned giving programs for United Way at local and national levels. He served in executive fundraising positions with national nonprofit organizations. He is the President of ALoday Consulting and Lead Strategist and Partner for Turnkey for Good Consulting. DJ accepted the role of President and Chief Executive Officer at Trident United Way in Charleston, SC in April 2023.

Karsten Halusa
After graduating from James Madison University with a Bachelor of Music, Karsten found his way to United Way of America (now United Way Worldwide) as a temp in 1998 and was hired in 1999. His work focused on prospect management/research, resource development operations, and various functions in IT working with donor data. In 2022, after being with United Way for nearly 23 years, he began working for Carnegie Institution for Science as its Associate Director of Advancement Services.

Ed John
Ed served over 43 years as a fund raising professional. For 33 years of those years, Ed served with United Ways at the local and national level, mostly in major gifts and planned giving. Ed retired as a partner in a major and planned giving consulting firm. Until retirement, Ed was licensed as a certified financial planner and held certifications in wealth and retirement management.

Ned Montgomery
Ned has held high level professional positions in the private sector to include being chairman and CEO of Mellon Bank (East). He held various high-level volunteer positions with the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania to include campaign chair. Upon retirement, he became part of the United Way’s staff focusing on resource development and major gifts. Ned is known as the consummate major gift fund raiser for numerous prestigious organizations in Philadelphia and a popular speaker on major gifts at United Way conferences.

Eve Powell
Eve has over twenty years of successful experience in planned giving, major gift development, and relationship management. She worked for United Ways in Atlanta, Dallas and Denver and other institutions including Georgetown University, the Baylor Medical Center Foundation and the Women’s Foundation of Colorado. Eve recently joined Columns Fundraising consulting firm.

Kristi Shepard
A 25-year staff member at United Way of Dane County in Madison WI, Kristi Shepard has led all aspects of the organization’s leadership giving programs. As Director of Foundation & Gift Planning, she is the lead staff for the United Way of Dane County Foundation and coordinates planned giving activities. Within the Resource Development Department, she manages longstanding relationships with major givers, Tocqueville Society members and 25+ year Loyal Contributors. Kristi also co-staffs United Way READI, a retiree membership group focused on community volunteering. She has represented Dane County on numerous United Way Worldwide councils. Kristi previously worked at Wisconsin Public Radio in individual and corporate support. Kristi is past president and a current member of the Wisconsin Association of Charitable Gift Planners and is a longtime member of and past president of the Greater Madison Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She is active in many community organizations including the King Coalition of Madison & Dane County and Friends of the Cottage Grove Community Library. Kristi is a proud alumna of Drake University with a BA in Broadcast News. If she could be doing anything, she’d be watching a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game!

Jeffrey L. Stec, J.D.
Jeffrey started his career in law at a big firm before practicing family law with a focus on reuniting parents with children taken by protective services. His courtroom experiences inspired him to take his advocacy work to United Way of Greater Cincinnati where he was the director of planned giving for six years. For the past 20 years Jeffrey has been facilitating community engagement and strategic planning for governments and nonprofit institutions with an emphasis in the educational sector, while also teaching continuing legal education courses in empathy-based persuasion. He has recently written a book on how local governments and institutions can rehumanize our public debate one conversation at a time.

Wes Wicker
Wes has over 35 years of experience in development for United Way and higher education. He served as Vice President of Major Gifts for the Metro Atlanta United Way and a similar capacity for the United Way of Central Indiana (Indianapolis). Wes chaired United Way of America’s planned giving roundtable and served on the United Way Major Gift Council. Wes is a principal and partner for Columns Fundraising consulting firm.

Joyce Wilbur
Joyce served United Ways in several roles for over 30 years on the local, national and worldwide levels. She specialized in relationship management with major investors including the staffing for the founding of the United Way Worldwide Leadership Council (major donors) and the national Women’s Leadership Council, and oversaw the support provided to local United Ways in major, planned and principal giving.

Rochelle Zeidman
Rochelle is the founder and president of Zeidman & Associates. She is an expert in principal and major donor giving, foundation, and corporate philanthropy. She served as the Executive Director of Individual Giving for NPR, Director of U.S. and International Giving for United Way Worldwide, held progressively senior-level executive positions for 14 years with the American Red Cross, and was the Managing Director, Development, of CFP Board Center for Financial Planning. Rochelle has extensive experience with high level donors creating transformational results.