Jason Manning is a Senior Consultant of Programs. We recently conducted an interview with him regarding his background and experience.
I was in development and fundraising for 15 years before coming to Gobel Group. Immediately prior to Gobel, I was Director of Development at Albany Medical Center in Albany, NY. I was hired to manage the Gobel Group engagement as well as my own major gift officer portfolio. I worked with Desirae Davis for over three years as a Gobel client, onboarding Gobel and implementing their grateful patient program at Albany, and I had a wonderful relationship not only with Desirae in particular, but also with the entire Gobel team. Several months after the Gobel Group engagement ended at Albany, I got a call from Chad asking me if I’d be interested in pursuing employment as a consultant at Gobel Group. I was enormously humbled to be asked, considering the breadth and scope of Gobel’s clients.
In the years I was a Gobel client, I really got to understand very deeply what Gobel was able to deliver for its clients, and I had enormous respect for the work Gobel Group was able to do. Attending the boot camps and meeting other Gobel Group clients really gave me an idea of the impact Gobel has on the national conversation in healthcare philanthropy.
The opportunity to expand my role in becoming part of healthcare philanthropy through Gobel Group’s reputation was something I was excited about from the beginning. And over the years I was working with the Gobel engagement, I got to know a number of their employees – Randall Hallett, Desirae Davis, Liz Landis, and Lauren Kline, in particular – and I came to like them as individuals and as professionals, so the idea of working with them as colleagues was attractive to me.
One of the things that I feel I can uniquely offer our clients is the fact that, very recently, I was in their shoes. I was on the front-end of being a major gift officer myself, while concurrently managing and navigating grateful patient programs. Having done that for several years allows me to really step into our clients’ shoes and offer a real peer perspective on what they’re going through. I have an understanding of the good and the bad, the stresses and successes. I also am familiar with the strategies that go along with rolling out a program like this, and I intimately know how to work with clinicians and ensure these strategies are instituted across the board.
When I engage Gobel Group’s clients, I am empowered by Gobel Group’s stellar reputation as a company. That reputation, those resources, and that general success completely surrounds me as an individual consultant and that extends to our clients as well. The clients I’ve been privileged to work with so far are always excited to work with Gobel; they’re excited about what we’re providing and about how it’s going to make a significant difference in healthcare philanthropy. They’re excited about us helping them to build that culture of gratitude as part of our engagement. It’s Gobel’s clients’ excitement to engage with us that I find so thrilling.
I love people and I love working with people – in fact, it’s one of the reasons why I got involved in philanthropy and fundraising to begin with. Meeting new people, learning and understanding their stories, just helping them in general – those are the things I find most rewarding. I feel that what we do at Gobel makes a difference for clients, for hospitals, for grateful patients and their families. What’s fulfilling for me is knowing that the work I do, and that we all do at Gobel, is really benefiting people.
I’m a lucky guy – I’ve been married to my wonderful wife, Shannon, for sixteen years, and we’ve been blessed with two incredible children: our thirteen-year-old daughter, Samantha, and our nine-year-old son, Zack. Outside of our work, our lives revolve around each other and around our children – picking them up, attending their games and sports, events, and school activities. One thing I personally enjoy doing is coaching both of my kids in basketball. I also volunteer at out local fire department in Schodack Landing, and I enjoy being involved in the community.
