Joe Bull

With 37 years of experience in the philanthropic arena, Joe Bull is known as an effective leader of highly performing advancement teams and for his technical expertise as a charitable gift planner.

He is a nationally recognized speaker and author on issues related to charitable gift planning, principal gifts, and philanthropy. His comments have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, and The Chronicles of Philanthropy and Higher Education.

Previously, Joe served as Assistant Vice President of Development and Executive Director of Gift Planning at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to that appointment, he was Senior Vice President for Community Engagement at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. Earlier in his career, he served 16 years as Director of Planned Giving at The Ohio State University, was Senior Philanthropy Officer for Global Priorities at the Worldwide Office of The Nature Conservancy and held leadership roles in planned gift development at Duke and North Carolina State Universities.

Service to his profession is important to him. Joe is currently the President of the American Council on Gift Annuities and was the 2005 Board Chair of the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners. As such, he is only the second person ever to have held the top leadership position at both of charitable gift planning’s professional organizations. Additionally, he was a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the national monthly newsletter Planned Giving Today for 15 years, a member of the Editorial Board of the web-based Planned Giving Design Center, and a faculty member of the College of William and Mary’s National Planned Giving Institute.

He received a BS in Business Administration, summa cum laude, from The Ohio State University. Joe also earned both an MA and a JD from Ohio State and is admitted to the Ohio and North Carolina bars.