Learn effective donor strategies, portfolio management, and stewardship techniques for successfully moving donors through your pipeline.
Overview
To shift the mindset of a leadership annual donor into that of a major donor requires you to go beyond just knowing their capacity; you must also understand what the donor wants to see their gift accomplish, and how to align that specific desire with your institutional needs. This requires knowing how effective each component of your leadership giving program is and how to best manage and develop your leadership annual donors.
Join us in this interactive virtual training to learn portfolio management and stewardship techniques to successfully transition leadership donors into major gift prospects. In this program, you will:
- Assess your leadership giving portfolio by evaluating the effectiveness of your donor strategies
- Identify high impact stewardship to build an authentic relationship with your leadership donors
- Practice productive donor conversations and key talking points, so you’re prepared for your next upgrade ask
Who Should Attend
If you’re a leadership or major gift officer who wants to increase major gift prospects, this training is for you. Arrive prepared with questions specific to your stewardship strategy and your leadership donor portfolio. You will have the opportunity to ask questions and get feedback from our leadership expert throughout the program, as well as learn best practices from your fellow attendees.
The Academic Impressions Online Learning Experience
Intentionally Designed
Online Learning
Our virtual trainings go far beyond just replicating PowerPoint presentations online: these experiences are intentionally designed to give you the kind of robust and dynamic learning experience you’ve come to expect from Academic Impressions. These trainings provide you with an active learning environment and an online space where you can explore ideas, get inspired by what your peers are doing, and understand the range of possibilities around a certain topic. You will leave these sessions with practical solutions that you can take back to your team or task force.
What you will get:
- A dynamic, interactive, and high-touch virtual learning experience designed to engage and set you up for growth
- Seamless online face-time, networking, group work, and Q&A opportunities from the comfort of your own workspace
- Practical takeaways and hands-on knowledge
- Guidance from vetted subject matter experts
- Unlimited access to all recorded online sessions
AGENDA
11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Eastern
Knowing when a leadership annual donor is prepared for an upgrade requires time in stewarding effectively, educating your donor thoroughly, setting expectations, and knowing how to use your time and resources for maximum impact. You will learn how to assess and evaluate the tools and processes at your disposal to identify what improvements are required for stronger and more genuine donor relationships.
After identifying the vulnerabilities within your transition strategy, you will need to understand the steps you can take to address them. To help you make the best decisions moving forward, we will explore how to develop effective stewardship programs specifically focused on building your relationship with leadership donors. Additionally, we will examine the key components of effective donor impact reports and provide a stewardship survey example to help you develop an ideal stewardship plan for your leadership donors.
The donor conversation represents the culmination of your efforts. After identifying where and how you can make improvements to your upgrade strategy, you must understand the complexities and nuance of making effective solicitations. In small group breakouts, you will have the opportunity to apply key talking points to mock conversations that will help you develop specific language for your future solicitations.
SPEAKERS

Brian Daugherty
Senior Vice President and Chief Philanthropy & Communications Officer
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.