Meet Our Team

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Jim Starr is president and CEO of America’s Charities, which inspires employees and organizations to support each other and the causes they care about. Jim has set the organization’s focus to raise $1 billion for worthy causes by 2026, as well as its priorities enabling America’s Charities to reach that goal.  He has led the expansion and growth of America’s Charities through strategic partnerships and service offering expansion. Jim is a frequent speaker and writer on topics covering corporate social responsibility, employee giving and volunteering, and employee assistance funds.

An accomplished leader with more than 30 years of experience and a proven track record in the nonprofit and healthcare sectors, Jim has served in national and field executive leadership roles with multi-million dollar revenue and expense targets. He also brings a wealth of experience in strategic planning, business development, and partnerships. Prior to joining America’s Charities, Jim served the mission of the American Red Cross in a variety of senior leadership roles that touched every aspect of Red Cross services. Preceding his work with the American Red Cross, Jim was a senior management consultant for a strategy consulting firm focused on the healthcare and government sectors.

Jim holds an MBA from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a BA in Organizational Communications from George Mason University.

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Lavelle Donnelly leads the Charitable Funds Management Solutions department, providing oversight, leadership, and guidance to the team.

Lavelle has been involved in processing funds for America’s Charities’ private and public sector campaigns since 2002. Rising through the ranks at America’s Charities, she has gained an in-depth perspective and skill to implement quality control procedures that allow the easy tracking of funds and data. Her experience is focused on the use of technology to provide solutions to a client’s customized needs while ensuring the accuracy of funds distribution.

In looking for ways to retain clients by providing good customer service, Lavelle established America’s Charities’ Help Desk serving thousands of donors and charities each year. Her success in managing high revenue accounts started half-way around the world in the Philippines, where she was a money-market trader managing the funds of high net-worth individuals and various top 100 corporations at one of the nation’s largest banks. 

Lavelle received a B.S. in Tourism Management with a minor in Economics and has done post-graduate studies in Educational Psychology from the University of the Philippines. She also has a Project Management Certificate from George Mason University. 

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As Vice President, CSR and Marketing at America’s Charities, Sarah is responsible for overseeing the strategy and execution of the organization’s marketing and client corporate social responsibility programs.

Since joining America’s Charities in 2011, her role has continued to grow with the organization’s evolving strategy, technology offerings, and needs. Starting out as Marketing and Customer Service Associate, Sarah provided workplace giving design and communications support to campaign coordinators, provided troubleshooting and Help Desk services to employee donors, and helped streamline America’s Charities’ Help Desk process. In 2014, her role expanded to include the management of all aspects of America’s Charities’ digital marketing, content creation, and lead generation activities (including Google AdWords, paid social, email marketing, social media, and SEO). Sarah’s role has since expanded to include leading configuration, site testing, implementation, and overall user experience for America’s Charities clients.

Prior to joining America’s Charities, Sarah supported marketing and business development initiatives for Industrial Federal Credit Union’s ten regional branches, lead the credit union’s involvement in community events, and enjoyed growing the ‘Kids’ Club’ youth financial literacy program which is one of many causes Sarah passionately supports.

Sarah holds a B.S. in Marketing with a minor in Psychology from Valparaiso University. 

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Robyn Neal, who joined America’s Charities in 2001, is the VP, Charitable Grants and Compliance. She leads and provides strategy and compliance oversight to the Charitable Grants team and the organization. In this role, Robyn is responsible for keeping abreast of the regulatory environment and changes that impact charitable giving, emergency assistance funds and other areas of America’s Charities operations.

The Charitable Grants team works with our nonprofit clients to gain access to workforce payroll giving campaigns throughout the nation. This includes the Combined Federal Campaign, one of the nation’s largest workforce giving campaigns. The team also provides best practices and counsel to members on how to maximize campaign efforts and results, including facilitating the client onboarding, renewal and application process, and supporting campaign events and promotions.

The Charitable Grants team also manages Emergency Assistance Fund and Scholarship programs for over 200 clients, providing full program design and development, application review and support and timely grants approval and disbursements. Emergency Assistance Funds are designed to provide financial assistance to individuals that have been impacted by disaster, illness and other unforeseen events. Since its inception in 2019, America’s Charities Emergency Assistance program has provided millions of dollars to thousands of individuals in need.

Robyn currently serves as Board Chair of the Combined Federal Campaign Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to promote and support the CFC.

She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Binghamton University and a J.D. from Duquesne University School of Law.

Robyn is proud to be a part of furthering the work of America’s Charities in mobilizing the power of giving to improve the world.

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David Stathis is the vice president of information technology (IT) at America’s Charities. His role focuses on planning and implementing technology initiatives across the organization. Through developing and executing information security policies and procedures, he ensures that America’s Charities meets current security best practices. David manages security audits for external clients to meet their security requirements and implement changes if necessary.

Since coming on board at America’s Charities, David has been focused on modernizing the IT infrastructure. He provides technical expertise and IT project management on various projects. David spearheads the IT strategic and operational plan to address ongoing data maintenance, including a plan of data recovery, continuity of operations, and timely restoration of service after a system failure.

Prior to joining America’s Charities, David worked for nine years at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. He led technology initiatives within their internet safety and outreach programs. In this role, he evaluated, procured, and implemented new technology solutions and managed several external websites, overseeing their ongoing development.

David holds a Master of Business Administration from James Madison University and a B.S. in Information Technology from George Mason University.

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Kimberly H. Young, America’s Charities’ vice president of business development, is responsible for expanding and enhancing employee engagement in the private sector. She also provides leadership support for America’s Charities-Community First. Kim brings more than 20 years of experience that intersects the corporate, nonprofit, philanthropic, and faith communities.

Prior to joining America’s Charities, Kim served as director of corporate services and network developer at the Council on Foundations, a national association serving public and private foundations with global impact. In these roles, she developed and directed programs and services to the Council’s corporate giving and foundation members, served as staff liaison for the Council’s Corporate Advisor Network, and was a project lead for developing the Leading Corporate Philanthropy Initiative. This signature initiative included research published in 2012, “Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value: A Practitioner’s Guide to Leading Corporate Philanthropy, the Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value Corporate Practitioner’s Toolkit,” and related conference programs. She brings expertise in corporate giving and foundation management, professional development for philanthropy leaders, conference program development, and strategic philanthropic network engagement.  

Previously, Kim served as a community relations manager for Capital One in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Her career began at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce where she supported their national field sales and membership teams and served on the Government Relations team.

Kim holds a Master of Divinity from Evangel Theological Seminary, Bachelor of Business Administration & Human Resources Management from Strayer University, and certifications from Genesis International Coaching & Consulting Institute, LLC, Project Management Institute, and the Northern Virginia Center for Pastoral Care.