Alice A. Pinsley, of Stamford, CT, passed away at home on May 22, 2024, after struggling with illness.. She was born in Bronx, NY, and raised in Teaneck, NJ.

Alice was a leading member of the National Committee on Planned Giving (NCPG, now the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners) from 1987 to 1990. She was appointed as a founding Board member in 1987. She was Chair of the first national NCPG Conference in 1988 and served as the second NCPG President from 1989 to 1990. Just before leading NCPG, Alice had served as President of the largest regional planned giving association at the time, the Planned Giving Group of New England (PGGNE), based in Boston.

Alice championed the need for raising professional standards of practice for charitable gift planners, a core mission of NCPG then and now. She chaired a committee that developed an ambitious training and certification program, which was approved by the NCPG Board. However, when proposed at the NCPG Conference in 1989, gift planners attending the conference were not in favor of a multi-year certification process led by the new national association. 

Alice studied psychology at Case Western Reserve and went on to get a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Chicago. From the start Alice had a passion for charitable giving that dictated her professional and personal life. She started her career fund raising for the Sierra Club Foundation. Then she directed Planned Giving for the Nature Conservancy.

When Alice married Bob, she moved from the DC area to Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Once she became a certified financial planner, she established her own consulting practice as a planned giving consultant. Alice was more qualified than most in the field, and she was among only a few pioneering women to specialize in the tax implications of trusts and a leader in the fast-growing field of charitable gift planning. Her practice and Bob’s career brought them both back to the New York area where they settled in Connecticut over 35 years ago.

Throughout her life, Alice traveled far and wide to visit tropical oceans and the snowy mountains of Alaska, because she truly appreciated experiencing beauty in nature. In her later life, Alice found joy in reading biographies about inspirational people. Most of all, Alice truly enjoyed her life working to help noble causes and benefit charitable organizations.

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Memorial contributions may be made to IRC International Rescue Committee (https://www.rescue.org/) in Alice A. Pinsley’s name.

Memorial written by Ronald A. Brown, member of NCPG Board during Alice Pinsley’s tenure, and former Director of Gift Planning at Princeton University.