President and CEO, Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP)
Robert G. Ottenhoff, a veteran in philanthropy, nonprofit leadership, and entrepreneurship, is the inaugural president and CEO of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. CDP seeks to transform how donors think about, respond and give to natural disaster. It offers information, analysis and reports about disasters on its website http://disasterphilanthropy.org/ and provides expert one-on-one analysis and strategic guidance to foundations and corporations. The Chronicle of Philanthropy recognized the launch of CDP as “one of the five high points of 2012” http://bit.ly/12IhYbu.
Prior to joining CDP, Bob spent a decade as president and CEO of GuideStar, an industry leader in the use of providing high-quality data to help donors make better decisions and improve nonprofit practice. He led efforts to develop www.guidestar.org. into a nationally respected, comprehensive source of reports and services on more than 1.5 million nonprofits and built partnerships with many leading corporations and foundations. While there, Bob developed a sustainable “freemium” business model which supports free and fee-based services to more than 10 million users annually and generates most of GuideStar’s operating revenues.
Before GuideStar, he had more than 25 years of management experience in public broadcasting, including nine years as chief operating officer of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the executive director of the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority and founder and inaugural general manager of WBGO-FM, the jazz and news radio station for the New York metro area.
He frequently writes, speaks, and comments on nonprofit and philanthropic issues on television, radio and national newspapers.
