Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Two new staff members at Sphinx! Robynn James: Senior Advisor to the President on Leadership Gifts & Lauren McNeary: Manager of Institutional Partnerships

Robynn James: Senior Advisor to the President on Leadership Gifts

Robynn James, CFRE, has joined Sphinx in the newly established role of Senior Advisor to the President on Leadership Gifts, in which she will be responsible for leadership gifts and Board stewardship. 

Robynn is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience in leadership, fundraising and nonprofit management. After completing her bachelor's degree in Journalism at Northern Michigan University, she went on to do graduate work in nonprofit management at Regis University, along with Master's in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at Creighton University College of Law, Werner Institute.  Robynn has held a number of senior level fundraising positions, most notably serving as the National Director of Major Gifts for Compassion & Choices, an organization advocating for the rights of the terminally ill.  Robynn has also consulted and completed major development projects with The American Board of Addiction Medicine Foundation (funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation), GirlSpring (funded by the Ms. Foundation) and The Sierra Madre Alliance (funded by the Goldman Fund) among others.  She has managed campaigns, launched major gifts programs, and secured individual donations from numerous high profile philanthropists and major foundations across the nation.   

Robynn recently moved to the metro Detroit area.  She is a yoga and mindfulness meditation practitioner, hiking and biking enthusiast.

Lauren McNeary: Manager of Institutional Partnerships

As Manager of Institutional Partnerships, Lauren is responsible for the corporate and family foundation portfolio, working in collaboration with Stephanee Strasburg, the Director of Institutional  Partnerships.  Her areas of expertise include research, grants management, reporting and partner relations.

Lauren is passionate about arts and education and uses both as inspiration for her personal blog on Detroit style, The Urban Report. Her  previous work in non-profit development included grant writing, capacity-building,  and grants management for health and youth development non-profit organizations.

Lauren graduated from University of Detroit Mercy with a Bachelors Degree in
Business Administration.

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