Cheryl Lintner is a project specialist for DRG, and the Community & Partnerships Manager at Awarded Software, a platform that helps institutions manage scholarship awarding, donor stewardship, gift agreements, communications, and more, bringing together donor relations, advancement technology, and the people who do this work every day. In her role, Cheryl leads conference strategy, partnership and webinar development, and community-building initiatives for the platform's donor relations practitioners.
Cheryl started her development career in 2008 in a small non-profit based within a healthcare institution. In 2010, she moved to donor relations in higher education at Rutgers University, then in 2013, returned to healthcare to develop the first comprehensive donor relations program for three hospital foundations within the RWJ Barnabas Health system. In 2016, she joined Hackensack Meridian Health Foundation, where she spent the next decade leading the donor relations team responsible for 18 hospitals and network entities, growing a donor relations program that included multiple, recurring touches for all donors and an emphasis on major donor stewardship.
Cheryl is Past President and a Board Director of the Association of Donor Relations Professionals (ADRP), and holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, which means she has both the credentials and the personality to tell you your project timeline is unrealistic. She regularly presents on all things donor relations and stewardship, bringing the same sharp, sarcastic wit to the podium that she brings to everything else.
Prior to entering the non-profit sector, Cheryl worked in the legal field and in academia. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and History from the University of Delaware and a doctorate in Anthropology/Archaeology from the University of California, Berkeley, so if you ever need someone to dig up an ancient civilization or a decade-old gift agreement, she's your person.
When she's not obsessing over stewardship strategy, she can be found hiking, camping, kayaking, or biking somewhere outdoors, lounging in the sand at the Jersey Shore, or buried in a weird science fiction novel.