John P. Cerniglia, CFRE
John is a seasoned non-profit executive with 35 years’ experience delivery transformational results for great causes. He started as the first and only employee who opened the mail, ordered lunches and lumber, and solicited $75,000 gifts. John has led teams as large as 35 professionals and has impacted philanthropic results in 45 countries. He has directly solicited and closed dozens of current commitments from high net-worth individuals valued from $100,000 to $4M, and bequests valued from $2.5M to $100M. His accomplishments have been reported in Fundraising Success Magazine and The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Currently, John serves as President of Sat-7 USA. There, he leads a nationally deployed team focused on engagement and giving among 13,000 active donors, delivering $12M annually to broadcast the hope of the gospel in the Middle East and North Africa. For seven years John led the Generosity Team at Operation Mobilization USA. There, 25 professionals cultivated major donors, foundations and churches and delivered $22M a year for missions in 145 nations.
John previously served at the United Methodist Children's Home as the VP of Development. He led a team of 15 focused on external relations including church activation, foster family recruitment, fundraising, volunteer engagement, and marketing and communications. His team innovated a new model to engage 900 churches, growing family recruitment by 80% in three years, and created 10 million media impressions promoting the sale of its 74-acre campus. His team also launched a new donor acquisition initiative, meeting or exceeding metrics for average gift, response rate and major gifts upgrades.
From 2012 to 2015, John served as National VP of Resource Development Strategy & Operations for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. John and his team of 25 led the planning and execution of the $450M “Great Futures Campaign.” John led a nationwide effort to launch BGCA’s first-ever multichannel integrated direct response program, focused on mail, email and social markets, acquiring 100,000 new donors and generating $3.5 million annually in new unrestricted revenue in its first three years.
For 10 years John served in a wide range of resource development leadership roles at the global headquarters for Habitat for Humanity International. He facilitated global strategy, policy and fundraising performance for a team of 35 fundraisers on five continents. He also directed a 20-person team responsible for global campaign strategy, development services, and a leadership giving program that produced over $20 million in FY10. Under John’s guidance Habitat closed a five-year capital campaign, chaired by Jack Kemp, former US Secretary of Housing & Urban Development. The “More Than Houses” campaign generated $593 million against a $500 million goal. Additionally, John’s development services unit provided prospect research, writing, collaborative development strategy, Board member and senior staff engagement, and donor recognition.
For 11 years John served as CEO for Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity, where he was responsible for guiding organizational governance, strategy and structure, and for transforming this $3 million local affiliate into a nationwide “Top 40” Habitat affiliate.
John is a native of Huntington, NY, a CFRE, and an alumnus of Houghton College in western NY State. He and his family live in Peachtree City, GA, just outside Atlanta.