2013 Fithian Leadership Award Recipient
Sally Alspaugh, CAP
Director of Family Philanthropy, Xavier University

One of the highest honors in the financial services industry – as well as AiP’s top honor – goes to Sally Alspaugh, CAP, Director of Family Philanthropy for Xavier University.

The Fithian Leadership Award acknowledges professionals with distinguished careers in service to the philanthropic community. Honorees are chosen for their efforts to uphold the standards of excellence in ethics, service and charitable planning encouraged by the Association.

Sally Alspaugh has served the public’s best interest in both the for-profit and the non-profit sectors. As a financial planner for many years in the for-profit sector, Sally’s heart was always in helping her clients practice their philanthropy in the most efficient manner possible. Now, as the Director of Family Philanthropy at a private university, she dedicates full time to helping families achieve family harmony through the practice of family philanthropy in the non-profit world.

An engaging speaker and lecturer, Sally educates colleagues and clients on advanced strategies in layman's language interspersed with real life case studies and anecdotes. Having served as advisor to wealthy Cincinnati individuals and families for over 30 years, she has been a guest expert for Cincinnati WVXU's Law Talk and WAXY 790 AM's Funny Money in Miami, Florida. For years, her column was featured in Eastside Weekend's financial section.

Sally is past President of the National Association of Philanthropic Planners, International Association of Advisors in Philanthropy, past President of Queen City Association, Trustee of The Greater Cincinnati Planned Giving Council, former Advancement Committee member of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, and Advisor to Bethesda Foundation.

Sally has given of herself tirelessly to the cause of AiP and its predecessors for decades. In addition to serving as Conference Chair more than once, she has served on the board of AiP and is currently a board member of the AiP Foundation.

In 2003 Sally was working with Johnne Syverson, leading the NAPP Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There were only 35 attendees at the Conference that year, and the Board was resigned to shutting down NAPP for "lack of interest”. However, by the end of the Conference, Sally and Johnne committed to each other to keep NAPP going because they appreciated and enjoyed the attendees and their values so much that they wanted to keep "hanging out” with those people, even if it meant turning NAPP into a small study group. That decision then led to a concerted effort to revitalize NAPP, which in turn led to merging NAPP with NAFWC in 2005, renaming the merged organizations as The International Association of Advisors in Philanthropy, more commonly called AiP. It was Sally’s leadership and stick-to-it-iveness which led AiP from the brink of extinction to what AiP is today. Sally has continued providing her enthusiasm and leadership to the revived AiP structure ever sin ce.

Sally is most deserving of the AiP Fithian Leadership Award, because without her past leadership, there would likely not be an AiP organization in existence today.