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Jeffrey Berndt
Director Of Advancement at The Thacher School
Professional Background
Jeffrey Berndt has dedicated his professional career to empowering nonprofit leaders, donors, trustees, and organizations in realizing their visions and missions. Over the past two decades, he has significantly impacted some of the most highly regarded nonprofit organizations in America. Currently, Jeff serves as the Managing Director of Roundtable Investor Partners, a unique peer-to-peer private investment partnership. Here, he collaborates closely with philanthropic families and their respective endowments and foundations to create an endowment-style investment platform coupled with strategic advisory capabilities.
Roundtable Investor Partners consists of an exclusive network of families represented by dynamic leaders from various backgrounds, all of whom are committed to conducting business and philanthropy in creative, impactful, and lifestyle-enriching ways. With a wealth of experience, Jeff is instrumental in providing thought leadership and developing innovative strategies that help nonprofits elevate their fundraising efforts and achieve their strategic objectives.
In addition to his role at Roundtable, Jeff has cultivated a passion for assisting nonprofits in developing robust and sustainable revenue programs. He focuses on generating actionable content that equips ambitious, socially conscious enterprises with the tools needed to thrive in today's competitive environment. His extensive experience includes advising on and implementing myriad growth capital campaigns that have successfully raised millions of dollars in expansion capital for high-growth nonprofits. These initiatives are designed to enable organizations to scale their innovative models and reach a broader audience across the country.
Education and Achievements
Jeffrey Berndt holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of New England, where he honed his skills in leadership, organizational management, and strategic planning. This academic foundation plays a crucial role in his ability to guide nonprofit organizations towards success, fostering both innovative thinking and operational efficiencies.
Jeff's early educational experience at Lexington High School further shaped his commitment to community service and social responsibility, driving his passion for philanthropy that continues to influence his career today. His dedication to empowering others is evident in the various leadership roles he has undertaken throughout his career.
Leadership Roles and Contributions
Jeff has a rich history of leadership roles that reflect his commitment to advancing nonprofit success. He has served as the Director of Advancement at The Thacher School, where he played a critical role in expanding fundraising initiatives and enhancing community engagement. As the Managing Director at Roundtable Investment Partners and Carleon Capital Partners, Jeff leveraged his extensive background to empower philanthropic families and impact their investment in the nonprofit sector.
Previously, Jeff held the position of Managing Partner at New Profit Inc., where he was instrumental in driving structural changes that enabled nonprofits to maximize their impact. He also served as the Director of Development at Noble and Greenough School, where his innovative approach to fundraising led to substantial increases in philanthropic support.
In addition, Jeff took on the role of Associate Director of the Campaign of a Century at Middlesex School, where he demonstrated his ability to lead successful capital campaigns while highlighting the importance of arts and education in community building. Through these experiences, Jeff has consistently showcased his ability to strengthen institutions and uplift the nonprofit sector as a whole.
Personal Philosophy and Motivation
Underlying Jeff's professional accomplishments is a profound belief in the potential of nonprofit entities to enact positive societal change. His commitment to inspiring others to believe in their ability to achieve their missions is at the forefront of his endeavors. By providing strategic guidance and practical support, Jeff enables organizations to harness their full potential, mobilizing resources, and cultivating the necessary support that leads to sustainable growth.
In his role at Roundtable Investor Partners, Jeffrey Berndt exemplifies the spirit of philanthropy and entrepreneurship, seamlessly merging his investment expertise with a deep-seated commitment to serving the community. His work exemplifies the essence of what it means to be a socially-conscious leader, advocating for impactful solutions that leave a lasting legacy. Whether it is through refining revenue strategies or collaborating with nonprofit leaders, Jeff remains dedicated to nurturing the next generation of visionary organizations ready to address the pressing challenges faced by communities across America.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.