Senior Consultant, Heaton Smith

Donna M. Bandelloni knows that genuine, values-based giving occurs through truly customized consulting and deep, active living; she is fully committed to the relationship-building experience that occurs within gift planning.

Before joining Heaton Smith as Senior Consultant, Donna directed nonprofit organizations' gift-planning programs, serving as Director of Gift Planning at California Pacific Medical Center Foundation and Director of Gift Planning at Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health Stanford University. Donna led the Foundations to innovate their gift planning programs and deepened relationships with staff and donors—nurturing hundreds of individual donor relationships and substantially surpassing giving goals.

Donna's experience spans directing philanthropic business units in financial institutions including Mellon Wealth Management, Merrill Lynch, and Wells Fargo. Early roles in retirement planning and trust services made Donna realize that she wanted to dedicate her career to helping nonprofits and clients achieve their gift-planning goals.

A sought-after speaker and well-known leader in the philanthropic space, Donna has served on the Board of Directors for American Council on Gift Annuities and for the Northern California Planned Giving Council. She chaired the inaugural legacy-giving conference for The Woodmark Group, a consortium of national and international children's hospitals, an experience she is particularly fond of due to her affinity for organizations that benefit children.

Donna's friendly demeanor can be traced to her formal education as a teacher. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Education from the University of Connecticut and Certified Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP®) designation from the American College of Financial Services. After many enjoyable years on the West Coast, Donna recently relocated back to the East Coast with her husband. They enjoy traveling to Italy, where they pursue wine tasting and cooking interests.