Johnne Syverson

In addition to his role as Vice President of Gift Annuity Services at NGAF, Johnne is the Executive Director of the Charitable Giving Resource Center, LLC. He has professional credentials as a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) Practitioner and is one of only 1,800 practitioners in the United States who is credentialed as an Accredited Estate Planner (AEP®). He was one of the first practitioners in the nation to be awarded the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® (CAP®) designation.

With over 40 years’ experience in helping individuals integrate philanthropy into their traditional financial and estate planning process, Johnne serves as a resource to nonprofits and professional advisors in the area of charitable tax and estate planning, a strategy that enables individuals to increase their income, reduce taxes, and preserve their estate for their heirs and the charities of their choice. He especially enjoys helping nonprofit organizations to help their donors do more for themselves, their families and their communities through the use of various Gift Planning instruments on an outsourced basis through his affiliation with the National Gift Annuity Foundation.

Johnne is a member of the National Association of Gift Planners (CGP), the American Council on Gift Annuities (ACGA), past president of the Mid-Iowa Planned Giving Council, and past president of the International Association of Advisors in Philanthropy (AiP). Johnne holds a Master of Science degree in Financial Services (MSFS) from the American College in Bryn Mawr, PA.

Johnne and his wife Linda reside in West Des Moines, IA. They have three grown children and nine grandchildren whom they enjoy being with very much.

Bryan Clontz

Bryan served from 2013-2014 as the Leon L. Levy Fellow in Philanthropy at The American College of Financial Services. He also serves as a Senior Partner to Ekstrom Alley Clontz & Associates – a community foundation consulting firm in New Haven, CT.

Bryan is the founder of the Dechomai Foundation, Inc. and the Dechomai Asset Trust – two national donor advised funds focusing on non-cash assets generally and S-corp transactions respectively. He is also the founder of The Emergency Assistance Foundation, Inc. – a national fund allowing employers to create emergency assistance and disaster relief funds for their employees, where he now serves as secretary and advisor to the president.

In the decade prior to founding Charitable Solutions, LLC in 2003, he served as the director of planned giving for the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, national director of planned giving for Boys & Girls Clubs of America and then as vice president of advancement at The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.

He received a bachelor of science in business administration from the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC; a master’s degree in risk management and insurance from Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA; master’s degree in financial services and Ph.D. in financial and retirement planning from The American College of Financial Services, Bryn Mawr, PA.

From 2000-2005, he served as a graduate adjunct professor for both personal financial planning and life insurance in the Department of Risk Management and Insurance at Georgia State University. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Planned Giving Design Center (2000-current) and on the Advisory Board for the American College’s Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy designation (2001-current).

Previously, he served on the American Council on Gift Annuities’ Rate Recommendation and Research Committee (2003-2010) and the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning (formerly NCPG) Board (2007-2009).

He has given more than 2,000 presentations on charitable gift planning; been published in an international insurance textbook; and written more than two dozen articles in financial services and planned giving journals, including a planned giving manual entitled Just Add Water, which has sold more than 2,500 copies. Bryan chaired the inaugural statewide Leave a Legacy Georgia! campaign.

He is the co-inventor of a proprietary CGA risk management process (LIRMAS- Life Income Risk Management Analytic Suite) based on an actuarial study he co-authored for the Society of Actuaries on CGA Mortality.