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CCPG Awards
The Jonathan Heintzelman Service Award
The Jonathan Heintzelman Service Award is presented most years to a person who is recognized for providing extraordinary service on behalf of the Chicago Council on Planned Giving. The award was named in 2010 in honor of Jon Heintzelman who was the first President of CCPG when it was formed in 1980. Jon, who is a graduate of North Park University and Northwestern University School of Law, was Director of Planned Giving at Northwestern University for over two decades, then became Acting Vice President of Development at Northwestern before being named as Vice President of Advancement at Loyola University and now is now the Exectutive Director at Ter Molen Watkins & Brandt. In addition to running outstandingly successful programs at Northwestern and Loyola, Jon has contributed his talents to CCPG for many decades as a respected leader in the planned giving profession and as a frequent presenter of many luncheon and symposium programs. He is considered a true leader among development and planned giving professionals and his name reflects well upon those people who are selected as awardees of the Jonathon Heintzelman Service Award.
2022 Jonathan Heintzelman Service Award Recipient
Laura Knitt, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Laura began her gift planning career in 2003 as Associate Director for Planned Giving of ELCA Foundation (part of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and at the same time joined Chicago Council on Planned Giving. Laura's service to CCPG includes six years (2014-2020) as a member of the board of directors, five of those years as secretary. In Laura's first year on the board, she co-chaired the committee that researched, recommended and helped move CCPG's website to a new platform. Highlighted among Laura's other contributions has been several years as a valued leader of and contributor to CCPG's program committee.
At ELCA, Laura worked with donors, regional gift planners and allied professionals on a full range of gift plans. She also maintained regulatory disclosures and state-by-state registrations for ELCA's charitable gift annuities and its private endowment investment offering for thousands of congregations and other related ministries. In 2011, Laura became ELCA's Assistant General Counsel, where she addressed a variety of nonprofit legal issues. Her experience with ELCA's comprehensive national gift planning and endowment operation led her to a senior consultant position with Robert F. Sharpe & Co. (Sharpe Group), where she advised client charitable organizations around the country on strategies to promote gift planning among their donors. Laura currently works in HUD's Chicago Multifamily Regional Center.
The people to date who have received the CCPG Service Award are:
- 2009 Joel Schaffer, DePaul University
- 2010 Jon Heintzelman, Loyola University (Award named in honor of Jon at the 2010 event)
- 2011 Denise Baronowski, Banking industry
- 2012 Sandy Macnab, Alexander Macnab & Associates
- 2013 Patty Shanahan, Chicago Botanic Garden
- 2014 Joseph Like, American Academy of Pediatrics
- 2015 Payson Wild, Provenza Consulting
- 2016 Robert Shafis, Field Museum
- 2017 Elizabeth Roghair, Consultant
- 2018 Rich Goode, DePaul University, Office of Advancement
- 2019 Anita S. Ridge, University of Illinois (Chicago)
- 2020 Kathy Kielar, WTTW | WFMT
- 2021 Chuck Van Hecke, Loyola University
The Russell V. Kohr Award
In most years the Chicago Council on Planned Giving recognizes and honors a respected leader in the planned giving field from the Chicago area. These are people who are respected as mentors to others and have been noted and accomplished professionals to whom others seek counsel and wisdom.
The Award is named for Russell V. Kohr, the founder of the planned giving program at Ravinia Festival, and who managed that successful program for two decades. Through his talents and skills, Russ made possible the creation of the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia. Russ was the oldest member of CCPG when he retired from Ravinia in 2003 at the age of eighty-three. He died shortly thereafter.
Russ had many years in fundraising following his graduation from Northwestern University and his service in the Navy during World War II where he served with distinction in the Pacific theatre. Most of his professional years were in higher education until he came to Ravinia in 1983. He received the Alumni Merit Award from Northwestern in 1971 in recognition of his accomplishments in the development profession. He was a gentle soul and a thoughtful, innovative, dignified and very effective leader in the planned giving profession.
2022 Russell V. Kohr Award Recipient
Andy Hibel, HigherEd Jobs
Andrew Hibel started his planned giving career as an intern with the University of Illinois Foundation. He worked as a full-time planned giving officer for Penn State University, Advocate Health Care and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. He served CCPG as a conference co-chair (1999), Vice President (2000 and 2017) and President (2018-2020). He is also a co-founder and the chief operating officer of the leading academic job board, HigherEdJobs. While serving as a planned giving officer at Penn State, Andy met his HigherEdJobs co-founders, Eric Blessner and John Ikenberry, and together they believed that there must be a better way to pursue careers in higher ed. With this simple vision, they founded HigherEdJobs.com.
Throughout his time with HigherEdJobs, Andy has remained passionate about planned giving and his work in the field took on a new dimension when inspiration from small organizations he served led him to co-found a public charity (The Advise Us Foundation) as a sponsoring organization for donor-advised funds with a mission to even the playing field for smaller charities to begin or increase use of planned giving in their organizations.
Together with his equally philanthropically minded wife, Elizabeth, Andy also formed the Planned Giving Initiative (PGI) of The Hibel Family Foundation. PGI brings collaboration and education to efforts that can dramatically increase the accessibility and integration of planned giving both to organizations who will benefit by implementing a planned giving program and those seeking a career in planned giving.
Andy holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Education (Higher Education) from the University of Illinois, Urbana and a Juris Doctor from Indiana University, Indianapolis.
The people to date who have received the Russell V. Kohr Award are:
- 2005 Marc Carmichael, R&R Newkirk Co.
- 2006 Art Murray, Bank of America and The Salvation Army
- 2007 Bill Cline, Northwestern University
- 2008 Dorothy Speidel, Northwestern University
- 2009 David Crabb, University of Chicago
- 2010 Frank Minton, PGCalc
- 2011 Charlie Slamar, Charles Slamar and Associates
- 2012 LeRoy Johnson, Covenant Trust Co.
- 2013 James R. Hellige, Foley and Lardner
- 2014 Scott McCue, McCue LLC
- 2015 Kathy Sperlak, R&R Newkirk
- 2016 H. Kenwood Lewis, Northwestern Memorial Foundation
- 2017 David S. Rosen, Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago
- 2018 Marilyn Schaffer, Lincoln Park Zoo
- 2019 Andre Donikian, Pentera
- 2021 Marguerite H. Griffin, Northern Trust