John Hicks Receives the 2021 Ralph E. Chamberlain Award
The Ralph E. Chamberlain award, inaugurated by the AFP-NYC Chapter in 2012, is designed to honor an area fundraising professional for a lifetime of service to the fundraising profession and to AFP and our Chapter. Anyone who fits the criteria is eligible, except for current AFP-NYC Board members, or Board members designate or elect. The Award is presented annually at the Chapter's Annual Meeting in January.
Ralph E. Chamberlain, CFRE had a long and distinguished career of service to the AFP, beginning in the 1960s when the organization was first established as the National Society of Fund Raisers (NSFR), through the late 1970s when the name was changed to the National Society of Fund Raising Executives (NSFRE), and until his death in 1999. Ralph helped form our NYC chapter, then the Greater New York Chapter. Most of his fundraising career was spent with The Salvation Army, serving many years as the director of development and director of the National Information Service. He was also founder and chairman of the board of Precise Kit Promotions Inc., a manufacturer of disaster aid kits for private and government agencies. He was a deeply committed philanthropist and volunteer and devoted much of his time to education, health and arts programs and causes. He served on the board of Hartwick College (Oneonta, N.Y.), Hassett Healthcare (Cooperstown, N.Y.), Glimmerglass Opera (Cooperstown, N.Y.), the Farmer’s Museum (Cooperstown, N.Y.), the Bergen County, NJ 200 Club and the Do-er’s Club of Bloomingdale, N.J. He frequently helped those organizations with their fundraising campaigns and other activities. A music lover himself, Ralph played the trombone with a professional orchestra in Syracuse. Ralph’s dedication to the organization was widely known. Because of his long-time support of the Foundation’s annual fund and generous planned gift, the IAFP Board of Directors renamed their Conference Scholar Program in 2000 to honor his memory and commitment to the Association.
AFP-NYC is proud to present the 2021 Ralph E. Chamberlain Award, honoring an area fundraising professional for a lifetime of service to the fundraising profession, and to AFP and our Chapter, to John Hicks, Principal and Founder of DLBHICKS, LLC.
John is Principal and Founder of DLBHICKS LLC, a consulting practice that provides fundraising guidance and support to nonprofit organizations from grassroots to global. John is a member of the faculty of Columbia University's Master's Degree in Nonprofit Management program. He serves as a lecturer for the Rutgers University Institute for Ethical Leadership and an instructor for Candid’s “Proposal Writing Bootcamp.” John has been awarded "Stellar Speaker" status by The Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and has appeared as a featured speaker for The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and Institute of Fundraising (UK). He is a contributing author to After the Grant (Foundation Center, 2010) and to The Nonprofit Handbook: Fund Raising (Wiley, 2001).
A Certified Fund Raising Executive, John is a former member of the Board of Directors of AFP International. He is past president of the AFP New York City Chapter and has served as Chair of Fund Raising Day in New York, the nation's largest one-day conference on philanthropy.