David Bernard
Philanthropic Advisor & Gift Planner at Western Michigan University | Musician | Connecting people to their impact
- Role
- Associate Director of Gift Planning at Western Michigan University
- Location
- Kalamazoo, MI, US
- LinkedIn followers
- 500 followers
About David Bernard
I am a collaborator, listener, and philanthropic advisor. My passion is to help people, teams, and organizations better connect and maximize their impact.At Western Michigan University, I am privileged to serve alumni and supporters as a philanthropic advisor while supporting and uplifting the efforts of my University Advancement colleagues as a gift planning technical specialist.Within the WMU Office of Gift Planning I create marketing and donor resources, provide analysis on planned gift donor databases in Salesforce, cultivate our community and network of professional advisors, and develop gift planning strategies for individuals and donor segments. A proud member of the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners, I am pleased to serve on the CGP Emerging Professionals Committee, helping to provide networking, learning, and onboarding opportunities for fellow early-career gift planners.I remain present in the performing arts space and enjoy staying on the cutting edge of performing arts administration concepts and implementation, having worked on and off stage as a classically-trained musician, band leader, teacher, musician’s committee chair, enthusiastic audience member, and board member.As a naturally curious person, I like to connect and chat about the following topics- charitable gift planning- nonprofit board governance- performing arts management - fundraising in higher education- leadership and personal growth- AI and tech in any of these spaces- continuous improvement and innovation- incremental & small scale urban developmentLet’s have a conversation!
Experience
Associate Director of Gift Planning
Jul 2025 — Present · Kalamazoo, MI, US
Education
Western Michigan University
Bachelor of Music, Music Performance, Trumpet
2006 — 2011
Western Michigan University - Haworth College of Business
Master of Business Administration - MBA
2021
Skills
- Event Planning
- Bicycle Repair
- Music Performance
- Social Media
- Social Entrepreneurship
- Ensemble Coaching
- Marketing Strategy
- Public Relations
- Internal Communications
- Editing
- Bicycle Mechanic
- Microsoft Office
- Corporate Communications
- Public Speaking
- Marketing
- Trumpet
- Strategic Planning
- Entrepreneurship Development
- Social Media Marketing
- Customer Service
- Microsoft Excel
- Music
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