CoreStrategies for Nonprofits, Inc. is headed by founding partners, Gail Meltzer, CFRE, Robyn Fern Perlman, and Terrie Temkin, Ph.D., executives whose decades-long expertise in all realms of nonprofit management has earned them international acclaim and plaudits.

 

She convinced the board and staff to participate in the inaugural Children's Miracle Network Telethon (CMNT), secured a local station to broadcast the event, garnered sponsors to cover the costs, and enlisted volunteers. The annual CMNT fundraiser is now one of the largest telethons in the world and has elevated the profile and status of children's hospitals.

A Children's Hospital executive says the amiable Meltzer is a tenacious implementer. During her 30 year career as a senior development officer in the nonprofit arena, nonprofits have benefited from the comprehensive fund raising programs and major gifts campaigns she has created. Meltzer has helped long-term care facilities, leadership training programs, private schools, youth group homes, medical centers, community mental health centers, homeless shelters and museums among many other organizations.

Meltzer is the founding president of the Jacksonville Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and for three decades has mentored many fund development professionals, board members and nonprofit staff and volunteers. As president of the consulting firm Fund Raising Advantage, Inc. and now a founding principal in CoreStrategies for Nonprofits, Inc., she is a skilled trainer, specializing in teaching boards and staff how to embrace fund raising and create dynamic and effective donor relations programs for their organizations.

Gail has also experienced life on the other side” by serving on numerous nonprofit boards during her career. She has had the distinction of being designated a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) since 1990, which requires ongoing rigorous documentation of fund raising success as well as service to the profession.

Gail has had articles published in the Grassroots Fundraising Journal ("After the Lights Go Out: Turning your Special Event into Future Gold" July/August 2003); Advancing Philanthropy ("All on Board!" March/April 2004); Fundraising Success Magazine ("Accountability and Stewardship" July/August 2004); South Florida Sun-Sentinel ("Helping Board Members Embrace the Fun of Fundraising" January 31, 2005); The Major Gifts Report (How to Overcome Premature Campaign Announcements); numerous issues of the AFP Broward Chapter quarterly newsletter 2002-2006; and one of a series of briefing papers for nonprofit board members published by the First Nonprofit Educational Foundation (Fundraising: A Partnership between Board and Staff). How to Make Money as a Freelance Fundraising Copywriter by Mary Guinane McNamara (Article: “25 Website Basics for Nonprofits”) 2008.

 

Robyn Fern Perlman

While an executive at Caesars World, Robyn Fern Perlman exported the entertainment conglomerate’s motto of glamour, fun and creative enterprise to the hills of Kentucky, putting a serious twist on it. To communities without running water, Robyn imported the ballet. Her vision: children exposed to the arts would grow up knowing that “anything is possible.” With that vision, she helped form the WINGS Foundation, which was instrumental in bringing not only the arts but science programming to children in rural Kentucky.

Robyn’s uncanny ability to meld media, corporate entities, celebrities, civic and philanthropic leaders with charitable concerns – developing press conferences, media tours, speaking engagements and community affairs programs on the national level – continues unabated. Her nonprofit and government clients have included the Urban Land Institute, Florida Department of Transportation, Broward County Transit, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, the Museum of Art of Fort Lauderdale, 11th Circuit Dependency Court, Guardian Ad Litem, the Dependency Court Intervention Program for Family Violence, North Broward Hospital District, and the Henderson Mental Health Center.

As president of R.F. Perlman, Inc., a strategic marketing and public affairs firm founded in 1993, she specialized in the development and implementation of public relations strategies not only for nonprofit organizations, but also initial public offerings, corporate development, technology, retail sales, consumer products, travel and tourism, and patent and copyright issues. She has a unique ability to work in partnership with in-house public relations and marketing executives to help create imaginative campaigns that complement the organization’s objectives.

For example, under the auspices of Warner Bros. Publications Robyn created a national campaign for music education in public schools. She engaged the major press and staged public events in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., corralling the support of the White House, elected officials, school chancellors, principals, teachers, pupils, local orchestras and major musical celebrities.

Robyn – a founding principal of CoreStrategies for Nonprofits, Inc. – has held many positions in her more than 25 years in the business. She has served as senior in-house public relations director, senior corporate public relations liaison and independent consultant for companies such as Lucent Technologies, Saks Fifth Avenue, Kenny Rogers Roasters Corporation and Holland & Knight.

For Caesars World she handled the promotion, publicity and marketing of the Caesars’ image including landmark events such as hotel grand openings, publicity tours, sporting events and various extravaganzas. She collaborated with such diverse entities as Vogue Magazine, Bloomingdales, the designer Diane Von Furstenberg, and national headliners.

Robyn’s knowledge and experience enables her to quickly assess clients’ goals in order to develop comprehensive strategies that ensure quality publicity. But, it is her ability to encourage dialog between key stakeholders that takes her clients to a whole new level.

Robyn currently serves as Vice Chair of the Broward County Early Learning Coalition, which allocates $90 million per year for school readiness programs in the county. She also serves as a mentor and chair of the scholarship committee for the Women of Tomorrow Mentoring Program, which gave out over 100 scholarships to senior high school girls in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties in 2007. Robyn is also on the board of Legal Services of Greater Miami and Women Executive Leadership which helps accomplished women learn about and acquire corporate board seats. She has a B.A. from the University of Miami.

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Terrie Temkin, Ph.D.

Dr. Terrie Temkin is an acknowledged thought leader in the areas of governance, board development and planning.  She is an award-winning speaker and a sought-after group facilitator who, as one meeting planner said, “serves steak with her sizzle.” 

Terrie, who brings more than 30 years of nonprofit management, organizational communication and adult education experience to her work, began her consulting life by founding NonProfit Management Solutions, Inc., in 1994.  She rapidly built a solid reputation and an international client base.  Among those clients: the National Council for Voluntary Organizations in England, the Center for Innovative Programming Azerbaijan NGO Project, Pilot International, the National Epilepsy Foundation, the National Immune Deficiency Foundation, the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, the National Wildlife Refuge Association, National Business Volunteers for the Arts and Zappkaas in Kenya.  A growing desire to provide her clients with the most unique capacity-building consulting services available to community-benefit organizations led her to co-found CoreStrategies for Nonprofits, Inc. 

Known to many as “the Ann Landers of the nonprofit world,” Terrie authored the biweekly “On Nonprofits” column in the Miami Herald for five years.  The column is currently published by a number of chapters of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, community foundations and management support organizations.  She has written three books, has chapters in three others, and has written and presented numerous papers. Her articles are found in such publications as Advancing Philanthropy, Board Member, Bottom Line Personal, Community Jobs, Consulting Today, Enhance, e-Volunteerism, Journal of Voluntary Action Research, Nonprofit Board Report, Nonprofit Boards and Governance Review, Nonprofit Nuts and Bolts, Nonprofit World, and Strategic Governance.  Staying up with the technology, Terrie is now also facilitating Webinars for organizations such as the Society for Nonprofit Organizations and E-Philanthropy.

Besides working with her own clients, Terrie regularly works with nonprofit management support organizations around the country.  Believing in the need to educate future leaders in the philanthropic field motivates her to also serve as an adjunct faculty member for Florida Atlantic University’s Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Management.

Terrie is a member in good standing of the Society for Advancement of Consulting^SM (SAC), completing a certification process that speaks to her ethics and professionalism. 

Click here to see a list of Terrie's Publications