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CharityMania is a family owned business based in San Diego that has been operating
since 1994. Neil, Chris, Michele, and Jeff are the company's general partners and chief
operating officers. All four have extensive education and work experience in the software
industry (at companies such as Intuit, Accenture, HP and at Santa Clara University)
and manage the employees and operations of the company. Read our quick biographies below to
learn a bit about each of us and how CharityMania got started.
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Neil Quinn, PhD
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Founder and Managing Partner
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Neil has a broad background in computer science, education, and entrepreneurship.
With his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from University of Southern California,
Neil spent the first 30 years of his professional life working as an engineer, eventually founding his own business,
Quad-Q Systems. Specializing in computerized process control systems,
Neil’s company created marine mammal life-support systems for sea worlds and zoos; medical instrumentation control systems;
and air conditioning, heating, and ventilation control systems, among others.
It came as a bit of a surprise to Neil’s friends and family when he decided to return to school and pursue a lifelong
passion in the field of ethics and theology. He earned a graduate degree in theology (specializing in business ethics)
from the University of Notre Dame and then accepted a job as a professor at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley.
While there, Neil taught graduate electrical engineering classes, business ethics classes,
helped found the Santa Clara Center for Science, Technology and Society,
and was a Presidential Fellow with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
At about this same time, Neil began working with his son, Chris, on a fundraising idea he had to help out their
local parish in San Diego. The fundraisers were so successful that Neil and Chris eventually decided to work on them
full time... and CharityMania was born. Neil has served as the founder and managing partner of CharityMania since
its inception over 15 years ago and is thrilled to be working full time with his son and daughter.
Neil has a BS in Physics from Loyola University, a PhD in Electrical Engineering from USC, and a Masters degree in
Theology from Notre Dame University. In his spare time, Neil loves the outdoors and travelling.
His latest adventures include trips to Antarctica, the Galapagos Islands, and the Grand Canyon.
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Chris Quinn
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Founder and Partner
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Chris has worked in the software industry for over 15 years.
He began his career at Accenture as an information technology consultant for global telecommunication companies
such as ATT and Deutsche Telekom. After earning his graduate degree from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business,
Chris worked as a Sr. Product Manager for Intuit’s award winning TurboTax Online product line and was a founder of
the TurboTax division’s innovation lab. In this role he consulted with teams (both inside and outside Intuit) to help
them develop their innovation processes and solve complex business problems.
Chris has worked with his father Neil on CharityMania fundraisers since their inception over 15 years ago.
From the beginning Chris has worked on many different aspects of the business, but primarily focuses on the user
experience design, statistical analyses, and business planning.
Chris has a BS in Physics from Santa Clara University and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
In Chris’s spare time, he enjoys athletics of all types, especially volleyball,
and spending time with the two joys of his life: his wife and daughter.
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Michele Hannemann
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Partner
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Michele has worked in sales and customer support for over 10 years.
She began her career in Silicon Valley working as a sales rep for Spectra Electronics, a small electronic component distributor.
She then started working for AltiGen Communications, a leading provider of voice over IP business phone systems,
as their Channel Development Manager. Michele joined the CharityMania team full time in 2005 and now oversees all of
CharityMania’s customer support and sales.
Michele has a BS in Combined Science from Santa Clara University.
In her spare time, she enjoys running to stay healthy and has completed a number of half marathons.
She loves sports of all kinds, traveling with her husband, Jeff, and spending time with family and friends.
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Jeff Hannemann
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Partner
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Jeff has worked in the technology field for over 20 years. He spent the first several years of his career at Octel Communications, a leader in voicemail systems.
Jeff then worked at Hewlett-Packard for over 13 years, where he lead software engineering teams and ran HP’s global Lotus Notes environment.
Jeff joined CharityMania in 2009 and helps in all areas of the business, including operations, website management, product development, and marketing.
Jeff has a BA in Computer Science from Middlebury College in Vermont. When he’s not working, Jeff loves to play sports, play poker, travel, and spend time with his wife, daughter, and two sons.
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CharityStudio music downloads
Why sell music downloads? Why not just use the sweepstakes game cards?
There is a legal difference between a sweepstakes and a raffle. In a raffle, people pay money for a raffle ticket
that gives them a chance to win prizes. Only specific types of organizations can conduct a raffle and states
strictly regulate how the raffles can operate. A sweepstakes is not a raffle. A sweepstakes is a promotion that
provides extra incentive for people to buy a product or service that you are selling. The sweepstakes must have a
‘no purchase necessary’ method of entry. In a CharityMania fundraiser, the sweepstakes game cards are for promotion
only and are not sold directly. Every time someone buys a CharityMania Ticket, they purchase over $5 to $30 worth of
premium music downloads (depending on the price of the CharityMania ticket) from our CharityStudio. The sweepstakes game card is the promotion that provides a great
extra incentive for a person to support your cause.
Our Sweepstakes Game Cards work much like the game pieces in the Monopoly sweepstakes at McDonald’s. You can not
buy a Monopoly game piece directly. Instead, you purchase things like hamburgers and drinks and receive the game
pieces for free. The Monopoly game pieces are a promotion.
No purchase necessary sweepstakes:
All CharityMania sweepstakes are “no purchase necessary”. If someone wants a free sweepstakes game card, they can
come to your organization and fill out a request form (provided by CharityMania) to get a free Game Card. They
mail the completed request form to CharityMania along with a self-addressed stamped envelope and then we will mail
the person a game card. We do not mail them the access code that allows people to download the digital music
(because they are not paying). This process is very standard for all companies that conduct sweepstakes.
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