Phil Perham

Director of Planned Giving

Phone: 
Man standing in a marble stairwell wearing a button down shirt and dark suit jacket.

Biography

Following a 15-year career as a financial adviser to corporate executives in Saratoga, New York, I aspired to return to a small-town academic community — as I had experienced as the son of a lifelong college administrator. Combining that desire with experience in estate, tax and investment planning landed me at Colgate University’s Office of Planned Giving in 2008, and exposed me to the rewarding world of nonprofit fundraising. As a Northfield Mount Hermon graduate, I had developed an appreciation for the value of a boarding school education. When the opportunity to join Exeter as the director of planned giving was presented in 2012, I was thrilled to make the move to New Hampshire. 

While Planned Giving work involves interesting nuances within the world of philanthropy, and the technical knowledge of complex planned gifts satisfies the numbers geek in me, it is certainly the long-term relationship-building with people who love Exeter that is the most rewarding element of my work. Facilitating relationships that result in a donor connecting their philanthropic motivation with Exeter’s priorities has made for a tremendously satisfying career. Planned gifts are highly personal and involve issues and conversations about one’s mortality and legacy. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with so many remarkably loyal Exonians who have decided to include the Academy in their estate plans — raising this wonderful school to the level of their family.