Breathe new life into your annual giving program.
Many annual giving shops struggle with stagnant or underperforming annual giving programs - we’ve put together a program to help you breathe new life into your efforts. We invite you to join us for a three-day conference that will showcase the most successful tactics in annual giving and help you develop a comprehensive plan to improve your shop’s efforts.
Through a unique blend of learning and activity, our expert faculty will share key strategies that underpin the strongest annual giving programs and provide innovative solutions to your most difficult challenges. We’ll cover the most effective solicitations, channel integration, and segmentation. This conference will encourage you to group with like institutions to make the most of your sessions, and you will have the opportunity to browse the best solicitations submitted by our faculty and your peers.
Optional Workshop: Annual Giving Primer | January 16, 2019
We welcome newcomers to the field to join us as we walk through the fundamentals of a successful annual giving program, including a thorough overview of the standard solicitation channels.
Optional Workshop: Front-Line Fundraising for Leadership Annual Giving | January 18, 2019
Annual giving programs are seeing a greater reliance on relationship-based fundraising. This workshop will teach you the front-line skills necessary to ramp up your front-line effort, including:
- Planning calls based on prospect data, anchor appointments, and budget pressures
- Tips for securing an initial appointment, including moving through gatekeepers
- How to use the cultivation process to naturally build to the ask
- The pros and cons of using a proposal or white paper during your solicitation process
- Creating a conducive environment for a successful ask
- Role-playing difficult scenarios
Who Should Attend
This event is ideal for annual giving managers, directors, and their team members. This conference assumes a general level of annual giving knowledge. Newcomers to fundraising are encouraged to add the Annual Giving Primer workshop to their experience.
Agenda
Pre-Conference Workshop: Annual Giving Primer
Your registration for this workshop includes materials, access to the workshop, breakfast, and lunch on Wednesday.
We welcome newcomers to the field to join us as we walk through the fundamentals of a successful annual giving program, including a thorough overview of the standard solicitation channels.
Main Conference
Your registration for the main conference includes access to all sessions below and materials, access to the networking reception on Wednesday, breakfast and lunch on Thursday, and breakfast on Friday, as well as refreshments and snacks throughout the conference.
Setting the stage for the conference, this session will provide context for the annual giving landscape as it stands currently, including giving trends and donor behavior.
Now more than ever, shops rely on data analysis to benchmark, strategize, and move the needle. This session will take a deep dive into retention, reactivation, and acquisition rates, as well as give you a sense of how your shop compares against recent trends and reports.
Partnerships are crucial to your annual giving program’s success. In this session, we will learn about key connections your shop should form, how to create mutually beneficial collaborations, and how to leverage these partners to achieve your annual giving goals.
We will demonstrate how to make your annual giving program an intentional communication tool. Learn how to reinforce key messages, leverage your voice, and position your shop for future resources and support.
Most institutions are leveraging digital media for solicitations, but some of us are finding that the most innovative solicitations are not always those that inspire the most giving. We will cover the most productive digital strategies that bring in dollars and can be used for long-term engagement.
This session will cover best practices of crowdfunding and micro-campaigns and how to best integrate these modern fundraising tools into your overall strategy.
What strategies create maximum impact on giving days? Learn how to strategically plan a day that will account for all the necessary resources and essential partners. We’ll discuss how to harness urgency, apply innovative techniques, and follow best practices to unite and engage your donors in 24 hours of fast-paced and successful philanthropy.
Are you thinking about abandoning your phonathon? As contact rates continue to decline, we are striving to leverage our calling programs in more strategic ways. Are you adjusting your scripts by segment and planning your calls in tandem with solicitation schedules? Are you using your call space to build partnerships on campus? Join us for a facilitated discussion on the future of phonathons led by our expert faculty.
Before the conference, we’ll ask you to send us your best solicitations. During this session, you will be able to network and gather new ideas as you browse a gallery of your peers’ solicitations.
Measuring for success is an essential component within our industry. Capitalize on data driven strategy and learn how to incorporate key metrics that will afford opportunities for course corrections, strategic decision making, and influential reporting to leadership.
Stewarding annual fund donors is notoriously difficult but vital for retention of this population. We will show you how to use existing resources and opportunities to maximize your time and budget.
Using a provided template, you will now have time to put together your preliminary strategy to take action once returning to campus.
Post-Conference Workshop: Front-Line Fundraising for Leadership Annual Giving
Your registration for this workshop includes materials, access to this session, and lunch on Friday.
Annual giving programs are seeing a greater reliance on relationship-based fundraising. This workshop will teach you the front-line skills necessary to ramp up your front-line effort, including:
- Planning calls based on prospect data, anchor appointments, and budget pressures
- Tips for securing an initial appointment, including moving through gatekeepers
- How to use the cultivation process to naturally build to the ask
- The pros and cons of using a proposal or white paper during your solicitation process
- Creating a conducive environment for a successful ask
- Role-playing difficult scenarios
Speakers
Brian Daugherty
Senior Vice President and Chief Philanthropy Officer, San Diego Humane Society
With more than twenty years of experience in development with a focus on annual giving and major gifts, Brian has worked for a variety of organizations in the nonprofit arena, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, the University of Baltimore, the University of California, San Diego San Diego State University and the University of San Diego. His experience includes extensive work on telemarketing campaigns, direct mail, board management, volunteer solicitations, e-philanthropy, and personal solicitations. Brian has used his extensive experience in statistical data analysis and strategic planning to be an integral team member of capital campaigns ranging in scope from $16 million to $1 billion. A contributor to Currents magazine, he has been a frequent presenter for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Annual Giving Professionals Network (AGPN).
Dan Frezza
Associate Vice President for Lifetime Philanthropic Engagement & Annual at William & Mary
In his current role, Dan Frezza oversees the strategic leadership and execution of a comprehensive annual giving approach that includes fundraising priorities for 13 school and units. William & Mary boasts the highest undergraduate alumni participation rate among the public ivy universities and also leads all top 50 nationally ranked USNWR public universities. Under his leadership, Dan has successfully positioned annual giving and participation as key campaign goals in a $1 billion comprehensive campaign. During his five year tenure William & Mary has grown from 23% participation in 2012 to 29.9% in 2017.
Dan has more than 14 years of higher education experience, ranging from student affairs, alumni engagement and annual giving. He received his bachelor’s degree in communications and marketing from Western Carolina University and his master’s degree in higher education administration from North Carolina State University.
Molly Robbins
Director, Institutional Advancement, Gladwyne Montessori School
Molly oversees the design and execution of a comprehensive annual giving strategy. She has over a decade of experience working with leadership giving programs, Telefund, volunteer programs, direct marketing, social media, and events. In addition to her work in the office, she also launched the Philadelphia Annual Giving Workshop Series through a CASE Venture Capital Grant. She holds a Masters in Organizational Leadership and Development from Saint Joseph’s University and a Bachelors in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh.
Melissa Rowan
Assistant Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, Iowa State University
Melissa oversees an annual giving operation that raises more than $5 million on an annual basis. She also serves as the development liaison for Reiman Gardens, the University’s botanical gardens; the Iowa State Center, the university’s performing arts center; and the university’s honors program.
Additionally, she staffs Iowa State’s nationally recognized women and philanthropy program. Melissa also works as a consultant for Campbell & Co., Melissa provides annual giving and membership council for higher education, service based, and cultural institutions. In this role, she seeks to help the programs she is working with enhance their fundraising capabilities with traditional annual giving strategies and cutting edge ideas. Melissa has participated as a conference chair and faculty member at several CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) and other higher education annual giving conferences in addition to speaking at national conferences for organizations such as the League of American Orchestras and Volunteers of America.
Melissa graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor's degree in history and Florida State University with a master’s degree in public administration with an emphasis in nonprofit management.
Full Conference Experience
$2,095 through Jan 4$2,195Maximize your learning experience with a ticket to the main conference and both workshops.
- 1-2 registrations: full price
- 3-4 registrations: 15% off each conference registration
- 5-7 registrations: 20% off each conference registration
- 8 + registrations: 25% off each conference registration
Pre-Conference Workshop Only
$395 through Jan 4$495Learn the fundamentals of a successful annual giving program.
Main Conference Only
$1,495 through Jan 4$1,595Strategically plan for your annual giving program.
Post-Conference Workshop Only
$395 through Jan 4$495Learn the front-line skills necessary to ramp up your front-line effort.
Can't Attend? Buy the Conference Binder
$295Purchase the conference binder, which includes all presentation slides, worksheets, action plans, and additional resources.
Note: Conference attendees do not need to purchase materials separately.
Questions About the Event?
Whitney Egstad
Program Manager, Academic Impressions
