Chad Gobel is a 25-year veteran of institutional advancement programs and one of the preeminent consultants serving healthcare philanthropy. Chad has personally worked with more than 100 healthcare organizations over the last ten years.

In 2011, Chad founded Gobel Group with one employee and one client. Today, Gobel Group has grown to over 25 healthcare professionals and actively works with more than 150 clients around the world. Gobel Group celebrated its ten-year anniversary in 2021. It has worked with over 550 healthcare organizations in its history. Gobel Group has become the leading philanthropy consulting firm working exclusively in healthcare.

While Gobel is internationally recognized for its best-in-class grateful patient and family philanthropy program with active clinician engagement, it also offers counsel and assistance for every step of the development process, including proven solutions for campaign planning and management, data analytics, systems, and information services, development audits, hospital and system philanthropy office integrations, among other areas.

In 2018, Gobel launched G2G, short for “Gratitude to Give,” a breakthrough technology product that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to help healthcare organizations increase philanthropic support. G2G has proven to be more than four times as effective as traditional predictive models on giving.

Before starting Gobel, Chad played leading roles in billion-dollar medical center campaigns and served in leadership roles as Cleveland Clinic and University of Rochester Medical Center. Chad received his MBA from the Ohio State University and his undergraduate degree from Towson University. Chad is a frequent speaker at national conferences, served on the faculty of the AHP Madison Institute for ten years, and has published the widely circulated book “How to Become a Top Producer in Healthcare Philanthropy.” Chad is an active advocate and donor for children and animal causes in his community. He serves on the Executive Committee and the Board for the Brandywine Valley SPCA.

Desirae joined Gobel Group in 2012. She serves as Principal Consultant, Programs and has worked first hand with over 35 hospitals in that time. In her role, she has educated hundreds of physicians and clinicians, encouraging the identification of thousands of prospects capable of making major and principal level gifts. She has successfully mentored and fostered an increase in gift offer productivity to successfully close gifts of all sizes, including a $2M gift from a grateful patient.

Prior to joining the firm, Desirae served as the Director of Advancement at the University of Rochester Medical Center, overseeing all development functions within a clinical unit. She worked closely with physicians and board members to close six and seven figure gifts. She was directly responsible for growing grateful patient fundraising programs, building strong internal and external relationships, campaign planning and implementation, volunteer management, major/leadership gift strategy and solicitation, special events and donor recognition programs. Previously, she worked at Rochester General Hospital, partnering with employed and private physicians to implement process improvements and create aligned interests between physicians and the hospital.

Along with her experience in medical center fundraising, Desirae has special expertise in the areas of campaign preparation and implementation, major gifts strategy, evaluation of advancement office structure and programs, strategic planning, and executive coaching.

Jenny has a true passion for grateful patient programs and philanthropic operations. She has extensive experience in healthcare philanthropy including implementation and management of fundraising systems, information management, gift processing, donor acknowledgments, reporting, metrics and prospect management. Before joining the Gobel Group, Jenny oversaw advancement services at Abington – Jefferson Health and prior to Abington she was an integral member of the development operations team at Fox Chase Cancer Center. At both Abington and Fox Chase Jenny was instrumental in implementing grateful patient programs by putting the systems, procedures, training and support in place to manage robust programs. She led two fundraising software conversions, one at Abington from Sage Millennium to the Raiser’s Edge and another at Fox Chase from Team Approach to Blackbaud Enterprise CRM. She holds a certificate for Foundations in Project Management from Villanova University and a Blackbaud certification in the Raiser’s Edge-Professional. Jenny has presented multiple times at conferences on numerous topics including grateful patient programs, developing trainings around system conversions and strengthening the partnership between frontline fundraisers and development operations. She presented a best practice webinar for AASP titled “Prospect Screening: Your Roadmap for Measurable Results” and wrote a chapter in the book published by CASE, “Advancement Services: Enhancing Fundraising Success”.

Before joining Gobel Group, Zeliff served in high-profile roles as the Chief Marketing Officer for the United States Marine Corps as well as the Dean of the Jack Welch Management Institute. He also serves as an adult volunteer and Executive Director for The Young Marines National Foundation. Mike achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before retired from the Marines in 2009. He holds a Ph.D. in Marketing from the George Washington University, where he also served as an adjunct faculty member. In all his roles, Mike demonstrated a superior talent for attracting, training, developing, mentoring, supporting and retaining world-class talent and partnerships.

As a writer, my role is to shape hearts and minds through the power of narrative—through the magic telepathy of words. A former reporter, magazine columnist, and Disney screenwriting consultant, I have learned the best way to communicate and persuade is through showing, rather than telling: presenting a story that touches audiences in an emotionally compelling way.

Nancy is a philanthropy professional with over 33 years of varied and comprehensive experience in the field. Her work has included building and shepherding a foundation and corporate relations program at Duke Medicine, establishing and directing a non-profit organization, and evaluating grant programs for private foundations. She is most interested in helping organizations establish effective foundation fundraising programs that optimize knowledge and experience to connect innovative ideas with appropriate funders, creating collegial and transparent lines of communication between foundation representatives and the people and programs that can advance their priorities, and mentoring people new to the field, including both fundraisers and philanthropists.

In his prior role as Senior Vice President of Philanthropy at City of Hope, Nathan oversaw operational and fundraising activities that helped generate more than $165 million per year. Prior to joining City of Hope, Nathan served as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Advancement Operations and Campaign at UC San Diego and also as a fundraising consultant with CCS Fundraising. As a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE), Nathan is regarded as a thought leader in the nonprofit industry and presents frequently on the topic of precision philanthropy. In 2018, Nathan presented the first TEDx on the topic of artificial intelligence and the future of generosity. Nathan holds a Master in Nonprofit Administration from University of Notre Dame, a Master in Business Administration from University of Redlands, a certificate in International Economics from University of Cambridge and a certificate in Artificial Intelligence from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Cronin will serve as part of the Philanthropy Services team, helping clients implement Gobel Group’s custom data modeling, analytics, and dashboard offerings.

Before joining Gobel Group, Cronin held a position as the Database Manager for the Advancement department at Dana Hall School. Cronin holds a bachelor’s degree in Music from Syracuse University. When she’s not parsing data, she enjoys spending time with her husband and daughters, hiking with her dog, and serving her community as a member of her local cultural council.

Chris is a story teller. Before Gobel, Chris worked for many years as the senior cinematographer for Kodak’s Entertainment Imaging division. In this position, he was responsible for producing and shooting films used in launching every new motion picture stock that Kodak introduced since the late 1980’s. Chris has also worked independently on commercials and independent features. With his eye for well-designed lighting and composition, he creates stories with remarkable images.At Gobel, Chis works with clients to create a digital library of videos that are used to create products (orientation programs, training programs for physicians and volunteers, website promotional videos, and other tools) that help clients create a culture of gratitude in their hospital.

Lauren joined Gobel Group in June 2011 and has held roles of increasing responsibility in her tenure. In her current role, Lauren works to cultivate and maintain relationships with industry strategic partners to drive continued growth of our brand and business. Lauren also works closely with the CEO to champion and manage development of Gobel Group’s new innovative products and technology solutions.

Lauren has a strong background in project management, research and administrative roles. She brings a strategic, focused and detail-oriented passion to her work. Previous roles within the company have included four years as Senior Director of Business Development and Marketing, Director of Administration, and Philanthropy Analyst. Prior to meeting Chad and launching a career in healthcare philanthropy, Lauren was serving as a paralegal in upstate New York while considering a career in Law. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration with a minor in Public Administration from the State University of New York.

Director of Prospect Research and Management

Jason joins Gobel Group as a Senior Consultant in Programs, bringing with him over 13 years of experience in Development, Fundraising, and Philanthropy. His professional experience includes work with alumni relations, board relations, marketing and public relations, operations, special event planning, annual funds, major gifts, planned giving, and campaign planning.
During his career, Jason managed, and was on teams of, development staff ranging from 2 to 25 individuals with annual fundraising goals ranging from $125K to $15M. He successfully led annual fundraising programs for 10 years including implementing a leadership annual fund program which increased unrestricted giving by 30% in one fiscal year.
Just prior to joining Gobel Group, Jason was the director of Development for Clinical Engagement at Albany Medical Center in Albany, NY. He effectively led the integration of a grateful patient program working alongside the Dean of the Medical College and other executive leadership. During his tenure at Albany Med, he coordinated and led the efforts for 7 gift officers working with 70+ clinician champions while acting as the liaison to Development Operations. He succeeded in shifting the culture of grateful patient philanthropy from one that was episodic in nature, focused mainly on a few service lines, to one that became fully immersed throughout the institution. Grateful patient and family philanthropic gifts rose to over $7M. Working in partnership with their physician and clinician champions, he and his team regularly closed five, six, and seven figure gifts from grateful patients and families in support of the strategic priorities of the Medical Center.

Mike will leverage over 43 years of institutional advancement experience to assist Gobel Group clients with implementing its comprehensive Grateful Patient and Family Philanthropy Program. Mike will also help expand Gobel’s innovative solutions for Campaign Planning and Management. Before Gobel Mike chaired Mayo Clinic’s development efforts at its three major sites in Minnesota, Florida, and Arizona. Under Mike’s leadership, Mayo Clinic launched its first-ever comprehensive campaign in history. This campaign surpassed its $1.25 billion goal in less than its anticipated five years. Mike has been a presenter and panel participant at meetings of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Institutional Advancement (AAMC-GIA), and the Association of Fund Raising Professionals (AFP). He received his BA and MA degrees in journalism and communications from the University of Iowa.

With over 10 years of experience in client management, Mindy understands the importance of anticipating and exceeding client needs. Prior to Gobel Group, she worked as the Client Services Manager for En Route, a marketing agency specializing in tourism and civic arenas. She also previously worked with Holland America Cruise Lines and Flamingo Educational Tours, planning logistics and executing itineraries. With such a well-rounded background, Mindy provides her Gobel Group clients with a unique perspective which she utilizes while helping them successfully implement grateful patient programs. Mindy is a graduate of Johnson & Wales University with a B.S. in hospitality management and A.S. in travel and tourism management.

Kimberly Nagy is an accomplished healthcare executive with a career spanning more than 35 years. Kimberly currently serves as principal and founder of Kimberly Nagy Consulting LLC.

Prior to becoming a healthcare consultant, Kimberly served as Executive Vice President of Patient Services and Chief Nursing Office of Northwest Community Healthcare, a 500+ bed, Magnet Designated®, Level II Trauma, Level III NICU, Acute Care Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois. During her tenure, she brought together individuals to forge high-functioning teams, established herself as an inspirational change agent, using her clinical and business acumen to identify necessary transformations in current strategies, designed and developed new processes to support continued growth of the organization. Her capability in achieving exemplary nursing and operational outcomes at all levels of operation is evident throughout her career, setting high standards of improvement and ensuring they are achieved. She also served as Chair of the Nursing Executive Council leading out on organizational imperatives to increase nurse board certification rates, reduce RN turnover, enhance organization-wide care coordination and internal and external partnerships, and advance knowledge in areas of professional development, service line standardization, workforce planning, and strategic governance.

Earlier in her career, Kimberly served as Vice President of Operations and Chief Nursing Executive Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital, a 200 bed, Level II Trauma, Acute Care Hospital, Lake Forest, Illinois. During her time at Lake Forest Hospital, Kimberly’s hands-on transformational leadership, vision and guidance assisted the organization to earn its initial Magnet® Designation.

Kimberly earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Nursing from Purdue University. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society, American Organization of Nursing Leaders, Illinois Organization of Nursing Leaders, American Nurses Association, and American College of Healthcare Executives. She earned Nurse Executive Advanced Board Certification from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

Kimberly has served as an Independent Board Member for the Susan G. Komen Foundation in Chicago Affiliate and a Member of the American Organization of Nurse Leaders – Directors Fellowship Task Force.

Kathy enjoys working collaboratively with teams to create, capture, and use data to gain new insights. This allows groups to effectively apply data to guide learning, critical conversations, and decision making. Whether it be from her work operationalizing grateful patient programs, aligning donor preferences with actual giving experiences, or creating systems to capture child health and development outcomes, she brings years of nonprofit and healthcare philanthropy experience to the Gobel team.
Previously, Kathy served in leadership roles with The University of Kansas Health System and Children International which gave her the opportunity to learn from and work alongside teams across the United States, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from The University of Miami, as well as a Master of Public Health degree from The George Washington University.

Kevin Pickett has two decades of experience advancing healthcare philanthropy including 17 years in complex gift planning. In securing transformational gifts and crucial philanthropic support, he demonstrates creativity and professionalism while collaborating across all areas of the institution. His experience includes serving as Executive Vice President at a nationally recognized cancer center and Executive Director of Development at another major, national cancer center where he led a team of development professionals raising $50 million+ annually. Previously, he was VP for Institutional Advancement in higher education and Director of Estate and Asset Services for a national health charity. Programs under his leadership have won multiple awards for creativity and effectiveness. Kevin is a nationally recognized expert and speaker on gift planning, digital fundraising and development marketing. He has published several articles on gift planning and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NonProfit Times and Planned Giving Today. He formerly served on the faculty of the Rice University Center for Philanthropy and Leadership. Kevin has served as a board, conference and committee leader in a variety of professional associations and is actively involved in the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, Association of Fundraising Professionals and Partnership for Philanthropic Planning. He earned a BA from Kentucky Christian University and an MBA from the University of Houston. He has achieved the designation of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM.

With over 40 years of healthcare management experience in both the clinical setting and in philanthropy, Helen is a well-known expert in developing and implementing successful grateful patient engagement programs. She works with Gobel Group clients to achieve new levels of fundraising with innovative grateful patient programs. Helen was most recently the executive director of Grateful Patient Programs at Duke Medicine and is a trained clinical nurse. Helen has experience closing major and planned gifts and has played a key role in several billion dollar campaigns. She is a well-known speaker at AHP, AAMC and CASE conferences. Helen has been awarded a number of honors, including the Triangle Business Journal 25 Women in Business Leader Award and the Innovation Award from Duke Medicine Development and Alumni Affairs. Helen holds a BSN degree as well as the MPH in Health Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Denise brings more than two decades of experience advancing healthcare philanthropy in executive leadership roles. Most recently she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Philanthropy Officer for Stratum Health System and Tidewell Hospice in Sarasota, Florida, where she also provided leadership over the organization’s marketing and communications programs. Previously she served as Chief Development Officer for St. John’s Hospital and St. John’s Children’s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois. She is now transitioning from this great career into consultant work.

She has experience with elevating annual, major, capital, and endowment building programs; donor relations and stewardship programs; planned giving; prospect research; implementing grateful patient and clinical integration programs; volunteer management and special events. In addition to her advancement experience, she also brings an executive leadership team perspective to her clients.

“I’m thrilled for this transition from being a Gobel Group client to working with Gobel Group’s clients on their Grateful Patient Programs.”

Denise is an active member and has held volunteer leadership positions with the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP) and Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and earned her Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) designation in 2008. She has her bachelor’s degree in public relations from Western Kentucky University and her master’s degree in communication from the University of Illinois-Springfield.

Lawrence is a fundraising professional with two decades of diverse and extensive experience in the not-for-profit sector, and will lead Gobel Group’s work in the provinces of Canada. Most recently, Lawrence served as the President & CEO of the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba. As the senior executive member of the Foundation, he guided it to an almost 175% increase in revenue over a five-year period, and broadened the foundation’s scope of fundraising programs with the largest increase in revenue coming from annual gifts, major gifts, and a major emphasis on donor retention and stewardship. He has a bachelor’s degree and education certificate from the University of Manitoba and a Fundraising Management Certificate from the AHP Madison Institute. Lawrence has served as a volunteer on numerous healthcare boards and is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal for his contributions to society.

Megan brings to the Gobel Group team 7 years experience in working with healthcare clients.
Prior to Gobel Group she was a Registered Behavior Technician, providing services to clients alongside Board Certified Behavior Analysts and healthcare professionals.
Megan graduated from Elizabethtown College with a Bachelor of Social Work.
As a Client Engagement Manager, she brings her client-focused experience into play as she partners with Principal Consultants to implement our Grateful Patient Program.

Jocelyn brings to the Gobel Group over 16 years of experience in Philanthropy Services. She thrives on taking an analytical approach to her work by assessing the overall situation and strategically developing appropriate solutions.
Jocelyn previously worked at Westchester Medical Center, the FDNY Foundation, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and as a consultant in Philanthropy Services. In each of these roles she developed strong policies and procedures for Database and Financial functions improving data accuracy, segmenting, and reporting. She oversaw multiple database conversions and merges and was also instrumental in implementing numerous software applications including wealth screening for grateful patient programs.
Her strong focus on improving processes for accuracy and efficiency, combined with her numerous years in the healthcare industry and with grateful patient programs, will prove to be excellent assets for our clients.

Sharon is a Certified Public Accountant with over 30 years experience in providing professional services across a broad range of financial areas including compliance, internal controls, business processes, and acting in business advisory roles. She has been involved with multiple not-for-profit organizations as a board member, a volunteer, a part of the audit team, an internal business manager, and the provider of policies, procedures, and internal control reviews.
Sharon has a B.A. from Thomas Edison State University.
At Gobel Group she is responsible for the delivery of financial services including accounting, treasury, reporting, and budgeting, all in accordance with legislative requirements and organizational policies and strategies.

Scott’s professional career has solely been focused on fundraising, specializing in data analytics and healthcare capital campaigns. His first position was at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore during their $150 million capital campaign. While at the Archdiocese, he oversaw various components of capital campaign management including prospect research, campaign consulting, financial reporting, volunteer recruitment, data analytics, campaign projections and pledge redemption tracking, among other projects. Prior to joining Futurus Group, he was Senior Executive Counsel and Director of Data Analytics with a consulting firm primarily focusing on healthcare philanthropy. During this time, while managing over $50 million in capital campaigns, Scott implemented the use of data analytics to maximize the fundraising performance of his clients’ efforts. The results of this work have been used in feasibility studies, capital campaigns, and major gift programs. Scott received his undergraduate degree from Elon University in North Carolina and his Master’s Degree in Psychology at Loyola University Maryland.

Julia Sarazine is a doctoral prepared, board certified family nurse practitioner and published mindfulness researcher. She received her Doctorate of Nursing Practice degree from Rush University where she is also an adjunct assistant professor and her Mindfulness Teacher Certification from The Mindfulness Center at Brown University. She has presented her mindfulness research at several health care conferences. In addition, she teaches mindfulness to healthcare professionals, corporations, and the community. She is passionate about adapting mindfulness training to be relevant the minute participants complete the training. She also has worked in the healthcare environment for over 20 years and in the corporate setting for over 10 years.

Prior to Gobel, Siepser’s career quickly progressed as an advanced workflow design and tech solution specialist in the higher education field. Before Gobel Group, Tracey was a Business Process and Reporting Specialist at Pomona College, where they managed reporting, infrastructure and user training. Siepser’s broad experience with software includes many cutting-edge, user-focused, software systems, including Raiser’s Edge, NetCommunity, Altru, Smartsheet, and Tableau, among others. Siepser attended the University of Miami on a full scholarship in Music Performance.

Shannon spent nearly nine years building grateful patient programs at two of the top hospitals in the world: Johns Hopkins and Cleveland Clinic. At both institutions she has taken new or struggling development programs in clinical units or satellite locations and built them into highly productive and sustainable grateful patient programs. This includes recruiting and training faculty champions, building and coaching staff to exceed metrics, strategically creating volunteer boards, and personally closing seven and eight figure gifts. She has been involved with billion dollar campaigns at both institutions, and most recently, she has had personal responsibility for a $100 million campaign goal. She has experience in all aspects of a comprehensive development program including stewardship, events, and annual giving. Shannon began her development career at the Land Trust Alliance, followed by the Paralyzed Veterans of America, and Case Western Reserve University School of Law. She received her B.A. from Miami University in Ohio, and her M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Maryland.

With 30 years of experience as a fundraising professional, enterprise software consultant, and operations leader, Susan is recognized as a trusted partner in business process improvement and software implementation and as an expert advisor in fundraising best practices that realize value and drive successful outcomes for social good organizations.

Having started her career in major gifts at Penn State University followed by roles at Juniata College and Allegheny Lutheran Social Ministries in Central Pennsylvania, Susan became the first executive director of the J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital Foundation in Huntingdon, PA, in 2003 where she managed all aspects of foundation operations including board development, policy and procedures, financial management, resource development, marketing, and public relations. Susan implemented the hospital’s first grateful patient, employee giving, and donor recognition/stewardship programs and led a comprehensive strategy that increased fundraising revenue by 678% in three years.

Prior to joining Gobel Group, Susan spent 14 years at Blackbaud in professional services and business operations leadership roles. As a former Raiser’s Edge 7 customer, Susan began consulting and implementing Raiser’s Edge Enterprise solutions for healthcare systems with multi-site hospitals. In 2010, she shifted her expertise to lead complex Blackbaud CRM projects for healthcare systems, child sponsorship organizations, and higher education institutions as a trusted advisor, project sponsor, engagement manager, and consultant. Inspired by changes to HIPAA rules in 2013, Susan proactively conceived and guided the development of a comprehensive Grateful Patient Solution as a custom Blackbaud CRM product enhancement to meet clients’ grateful patient program needs.

Susan is the author of six publications including a white paper titled “HIPAA, PHI, and You: Strategy, data, and ethics for hospital development offices and foundations when implementing a grateful patient program and accessing patient data”. Susan was recognized by her peers in the AFP Allegheny Mountains Chapter as its first Outstanding Fundraising Professional in 2006 and held the CFRE designation from 2000-2018. She is a proud alumna of Gettysburg College, a committed donor to the Huntingdon County Humane Society, and a servant leader in her life’s work.

David Victorson is a licensed psychologist and Associate Professor of Medical Social Sciences in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University where he directs the Consciousness in Health Research Lab. He is also the Director of Integrative Oncology at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Survivorship Institute, and founder and director of a young adult cancer support nonprofit called True North Treks. Dr. Victorson’s clinical and research pursuits have focused on measuring and studying the effects of contemplative awareness practices – such as mindfulness meditation, self-compassion, and yoga – and also on the quality of life and well-being of people with cancer and other chronic medical conditions. Dr. Victorson leveraged his background in mindfulness, self-compassion, and empathy to develop the curriculum for our GRACE program. He is also leading our research study to measure and analyze qualitative and quantitative outcomes of GRACE. Learn more about GRACE here.

Andrew is a Silicon Valley veteran with 15 years experience using machine learning and data science to help companies innovate, including at Google, Check (acquired by Intuit), and over a dozen startups. Andrew has MS & BS degrees from Stanford in Symbolic Systems focusing on AI.

Julie has had an extensive career in fundraising as she spent 12 years at United Way in fundraising and held the position of Vice President for Resource Development. Julie is a highly creative and results driven individual with expertise in generating revenue and a proven track record of increasing support for various organizations and causes in Tucson. She also has sat on various national boards and committees including the United States Cerebral Palsy Athletic Association a subsidiary of the US Olympic Committee. Her extensive work with local non-profit organizations also includes work in the 1990s with United Cerebral Palsy of Southern Arizona and the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and Southern Arizona. She is a 1994 graduate of Denison University.