About CAP®
Developed at The American College of Financial Services, CAP® was founded by Bill and Sallie Wallace. Bill was one of the most admired and revered professionals in the financial services industry who also became a leader in the philanthropic world. Mr. Wallace set out to solve the issues of disparate conversations between estate planning attorneys and wealth/financial advisors and their clients and the nonprofits and their donors. By opening the doors of communication and collaboration between the nonprofits, philanthropists, and advisors, Wallace knew that so much more good could be accomplished.
About Central Florida CAP® Study group
The Central Florida CAP Study Group is a private/public partnership collaborating across sectors and disciplines to do more in our community through philanthropy. The Catholic Foundation, F4 Wealth Advisors, Rollins College, and ShuffiedLowman are co-hosting this study group designed to bring together client-facing advisors and nonprofit executives to earn the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP®) designation provided by The American College of Financial Services. This designation signifies that the student has successfully passed exams for three graduate-level courses.
Students register with The American College of Financial Services for the CAP courses and our partnership assists with coordinating the windows for exam schedules and hosting nine monthly meetings including a graduation and networking opportunities. Cohort size is limited to facilitate lively interactions which recap course materials, highlight actual experiences and engage national and regional speakers with cohort members.
The Catholic Foundation provides partial scholarships for Catholic nonprofit professionals. Our partnership is grateful for the generous grant provided by Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation supporting our meetings, graduation and partial scholarships for Central Florida nonprofit executives.
The CAP® 2024 Cohort
Meet the new cohort of the 2024 Central Florida Chartered Advisor (CAP®) in Philanthropy Study Group! CAP® is a designation earned from The American College of Financial Services after the successful completion of three graduate level courses and exams. The cohort will engage in monthly meetings which help bring the curriculum to life through multi-sector and multi-discipline discussions about work experiences of existing CAP®s and cohort members. It also provides the opportunity to engage with Central Florida philanthropists and national experts on philanthropy. F4 Wealth Advisors ShuffieldLowman, Rollins College and The Catholic Foundation provide operational support. The Catholic Foundation provides partial scholarships for Catholic professionals. ShuffieldLowman and Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation support Study Group through grants to enhance philanthropy in our Central Florida community. The Study Group has increased the CAP® population in Central Florida by over 60%.
Born and raised in Miami, Jeannette joins the team after spending almost 15 years in Boston, Massachusetts. She brings with her an array of fundraising experience, most recently focusing her work in the areas of Planned Giving and Endowment at the WGBH Educational Foundation (Boston’s public television and radio station). While at WGBH, Jeannette helped grow the Planned Giving and Endowment programs for the station.
Prior to her time at WGBH, Jeannette began her fundraising experience as a collegiate member of the fundraising board of Lee’s Place—a grief, loss and therapy center in Tallahassee, FL. From there, she continued her passion for serving others through fundraising at The Make-A- Wish Foundation of Southern Florida and then at Visiting Nurse | Hospice Atlanta.
Jeannette earned her bachelor’s degree in English literature and political science with a minor in communications from Florida State University. She is a member of the Chi Omega Fraternity where she served for over ten years as a collegiate advisor for the Tufts Chi Omega chapter.
Jeannette lives in downtown Orlando with her husband, Joseph, and their three children. She is a parishioner at St. James Cathedral where she is a lector. Jeannette is also a parent at the St. James Cathedral School and on their Marketing and Advancement Student Advisory Board Committee. Previously, she was a member of the Planned Giving Group of New England (PGGNE).
My life experiences led me to the conclusion that my purpose in life is to help people help people.
Hi, my name is Dan Kaminski and I believe that my purpose in life is to help people help people. It’s ironic that it took me so long to come to this conclusion, as I was taught to be of service to others at a young age.
My elementary school was on the leading edge of technology and acquired Apple PowerBooks through a grant well before other schools did. The challenge was that our teachers didn’t know how to use them. As someone who loves to learn, I quickly picked up how to use and more importantly, troubleshoot the laptops. This eventually turned into me helping the teachers when problems arose, even being pulled out of other classes to help. I didn’t know it at the time, but these early experiences shaped my future. It felt good to help the teachers because it in turn, helped a lot more of my classmates.
In college, I naturally found my way in to an IT role. It was fun and intuitive for me to fix the myriad of issues staff, students and professors encountered. My junior year I applied for and was accepted into a position that gave me oversight of a multitude of specialized systems. I covered 29 departments, 40 full time staff and 300 student workers. This role would end up being my first ‘real’ job out of college. Every department I covered was in the stone ages as far as I was concerned. Lot’s of paper pushing, busywork and inefficiency. For a tech-forward person like myself, this was a goldmine of opportunity.
I went department by department asking what they did, how they did it and why they did it that way. What I heard on repeat was, “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” At that time I made it my mission to help my staff be more efficient through newer technology and automation. In my mind, that meant that they could provide a better experience and more services to more students. Thus making a way bigger impact than I could alone. This was my way of giving back to my alma mater.
In 2017, I had the privilege of co-founding a virtual financial services company called BetterWealth. Our mission was to impact a million people by 2025. This of course brought up the concept of helping people help people once again because that type of goal is not easily achieved alone. A lot of traditional financial advisors thought our ideas wouldn’t work because we were young and very few advisors did business online at that point. We spent more than three years in the trenches before virtual meetings became mainstream. As our business became more successful, we were looking for creative ways to reduce our tax bills each year.
In 2019, we were introduced to the concept of a private family foundation as a way to reduce our tax liability and make a bigger impact on the world. I was fascinated by all of the possibilities made available by starting a foundation. For me, foundations became like the process of shopping for a new car; I started seeing them everywhere. From the biggest ones like the Rockefeller Foundation to local ones like the Noel Family Foundation and everything in between. But like with most things during my BetterWealth tenure, starting a foundation went to the wayside because we were busy doing other things.
In 2022 I became an Enrolled Agent for the sole purpose of better understanding the tax code and how to use it to our advantage. Spoiler alert: the tax system is a mess but there are a lot of court tested and approved ways to benefit from it. Later that year a friend of mine told me about her trip to Uganda and the disheartening story of a young girl she sponsors there. One of my first thoughts, probably in the only way I know how, was the question, how could I help? As soon as I got home I sponsored my first two kids from Uganda, Paul and Newton. I somehow felt a connection with both of them just from their photos. It made a lot of sense when I read their bios; they both have a desire to help other people.
As excited as I was to support them, I quickly became disheartened by how many other kids were left unsponsored. That’s when the concept of starting a foundation came back into the picture. As adults, we talk about second chances all of the time but there’s countless kids in our backyard and around the world that don’t even have a first chance. What I mean is they don’t have access to clean water, enough food, clothing, shelter, medical help, and proper education. I’ll admit, I used to be naive and think that regardless of where you were born we all technically had the same amount of opportunity. Obviously, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
This is where my concept of a foundation called First Chance for Kids was born. A way to raise and grow enough funds to eventually support all of the remaining unsponsored kids. I wish I could tell you that I raced into action, but alas, I’m a slow mover. I’m a high ‘fact find’ and low ‘quick start’ for you Kolbe test nerds. As it turns out, the more I tried to learn about foundations, the less excited I became. It seemed like foundations were only for the rich and famous.
Through BetterWealth, I started doing presentations about tax strategies for entrepreneurs. Invariably, I always included a case study about how a private foundation could be a great tax strategy. Time and time again, people wanted to know more about how the foundations worked. I started acquiring every book I could find on the subject. As people continued to ask, and I continued to learn, I decided that I becoming an expert on foundations would become my full focus.
Originally from Portland, Oregon. I’ve worked for non-profit organizations (mostly faith based) since 1995 when I started with Fuller Theological Seminary as Marketing Director for their Continuing Education Program. Since that time, I worked for Multnomah University in Portland, Oregon in Public Relations and then as Marketing Director for Medical Teams International. From there I had my own marketing and print brokering business until I came to work for The Idea Agency (now part of Russ Reid) where I did radio-thons for homeless charities across the country. More recently, I was the Director of Development for United Cerebral Palsy in Portland, then Director of Development and Marketing for MarriageTeam Ministries based in Vancouver, Washington. For the last six years, I’ve been Development and Stewardship Director for St. Luke’s Lutheran Church and School in Oviedo, FL. I have an eclectic professional background which currently has me operating a golf tournament while also managing a planned giving program for St. Luke’s. I’ve been married for more than 32 years to my best friend and we have one son who is a mental health counselor in Orlando. When I’m not doing ministry work, I have a side business where I refurbish and resell vintage items and we love to explore Florida. We moved here for the sunshine because we got tired of the constant clouds of the Pacific Northwest.
Read about our previous graduates!
They have increased our Orlando-area CAPs by more than 60% providing enhanced advisory services to our regional philanthropists
Interested In Joining the Central Florida CAP® Study Group?
Learn more about how you can benefit our community and differentiate your services by earning the CAP® designation with the next Central Florida CAP Study Group launching in August 2022. The Study Group is intentionally small allowing for an elite and diverse mix of each discipline and intimate conversations with national and regional speakers. A partial scholarship for the Central Florida CAP Study Group has been made possible by support from Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation, for more information please contact one of the partners: The Catholic Foundation, Madelyn Weed F4 Wealth Advisors, Darrell DeVaney ShuffieldLowman, Greg Meier Each year the Central Florida CAP® Study Group will engage multi-sector, client-facing advisors and nonprofit executives to discuss ideas, experiences and coursework focused on improving philanthropy in our Central Florida community for generations to come. Study sessions will enhance learning specifically about our region and our donors with an exchange of ideas and opportunities to meet donors and national and regional speakers. Regional existing CAP®s may join the cohort for sessions and NightCAP®s to develop a collaborative network of professionals to support those we serve by elevating their philanthropic aspirations for greater purpose and outcome. The group’s motto is “Doing More Together For Our Community Through Philanthropy.”