Concurrent Sessions 6

6A: Chipping Away at the Marble Wall: Novel Approaches for Donor Recognition

Conjure the image of a donor recognition wall in your mind's eye. Chances are there is a particular blueprint that we all have in mind. But what if a list of names on a wall were to be fundamentally re-conceptualized as an experiential installation that could inspire awe, spark hope, and enhance donor engagement in new and exciting ways? Join a designer specializing in bespoke art installations and a donor relations practitioner to learn how interdisciplinary collaboration can inspire innovative design and boundary-pushing materials and techniques in physical donor recognition. Discover strategies for thoughtfully incorporating diverse perspectives from the outset, ensuring an inclusive design that resonates with all. Gain insights on courting key stakeholders, securing their buy-in, and setting your bold, trailblazing concept on a path to success. Unlock the potential to redefine physical donor recognition as we know it, creating an unforgettable experience that celebrates your institution's supporters.

Academic Institutions, Social Service & Health Care Organizations, Arts Organization  ⬧  All Levels  ⬧  Any Size Shop

	Pandora Hess has worked across the full spectrum of donor experience and engagement initiatives within museum, academic, and healthcare settings. She currently serves on the Donor Experience and Engagement team at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The rest of the time, she travels, seeks out art, volunteers, and recently became a Master Urban Gardener.
	Ben Dudek is a designer with an architectural background whose work at Acrylicize—a global firm that creates bespoke art installations—spans conceptual design through fabrication; he has worked for studios in London, Los Angeles, and New York. He has a personal passion for immersive art and exploring nature.

6B: Show off that box of 64 Crayola's! Developing Visible Stewardship Reporting

Good donor relations teams produce a colorful array of stewardship touches for donors. And we likely record these on a comprehensive stewardship matrix – that complex spreadsheet which outlines stewardship touchpoints donors receive at various gift bands. The problem is a giant spreadsheet is difficult to maintain and gift officers don’t often have proper visibility to the details. This seminar will demonstrate how St. Thomas partnered with their systems team to make stewardship plans come alive through automated reporting from our CRM. Now, our fundraisers can easily run comprehensive stewardship reports for any donor in their portfolio. The reports contain core stewardship that is scheduled from the Donor Relations team as well as custom stewardship that is planned/delivered from the gift officer or partnering units. You’ll hear how we are leveraging these reports with gift officers and how they’re helping us forecast our work too!

All Audiences  ⬧  All Levels  ⬧  Any Size Shop

Carol Wilkie is director of donor relations for the University of St. Thomas. She has been at the University for 21 years and has operationalized and elevated the Donor Relations department during her tenure. Carol firmly believes that her Donor Relations team must be nimble to successfully support fundraising initiatives. She'll show specific examples of how her team has leveraged technology to support changing initiatives and increased fundraising expectations.

6C: From DIY to VIP: Building an Enterprise-Level Donor Engagement Program

In 2023, a large healthcare system's philanthropy team was at a crossroads. They were creating templated donor engagement materials for 80+ foundations that were not being widely used. So we asked the foundations why! Discover how we took the foundations' feedback and turned it into an entirely new model. We'll discuss how we secured leadership and local foundation buy-in through careful planning and transparency, and by leveraging both local customization and systemwide cost efficiencies. We'll share how we activated a customized pilot program where dozens of foundations each received their own on-brand, beautifully designed, multi-channel materials (in just five weeks!); as well as how we created a national benchmarking report and feedback loop to measure success and refine our process for the future. Learn how to bring together diverse groups as partners to build a strategy that strengthens relationships, improves confidence and delivers results on every level.

Academic Institutions, Social Service & Health Care Organizations  ⬧  Seasoned, Experienced  ⬧  Large Shop

Alex Kwak is the System Director for Engagement for Common Spirit Health's philanthropy team. He has nearly 20 years of experience in health care, higher education and human services development. Previously, Alex served as the Marketing Director for the University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences Development office. He provided strategic direction for marketing efforts and digital strategy in support of fundraising goals, and oversaw the annual giving program for alumni, friends, leadership volunteers and grateful patients. Prior to this role, Alex served as Director of Development at the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, and before that as Senior Director of Annual Giving and Gifts & Records Management at Rush University Medical Center. Alex holds a bachelor's degree in English from Vanderbilt University and a certificate in data analytics from the University of Chicago. Originally from New Mexico, he now lives in the Chicago area with his family.

Beth Hatcher is the Principal and CEO of Beth Interactive, a digital philanthropy and communications agency in Chicago. With 18 years of experience in online fundraising, healthcare marketing and digital technologies, she specializes in crafting customized communications strategies for healthcare foundations and non-profits, both within and outside of the digital sphere. A passionate storyteller, data nerd and accomplished presenter, Beth prides herself on bringing best practices to her non-profit clients nationwide with the goals of engaging donors and increasing giving through intelligent strategies, thoughtful execution and full-service support. Beth is proud to have presented at international conferences in recent years on "Digital Giving Trends: How Do You Stack Up?"; "Answers and Action: Donor Survey Insights (and What Came Next)"; "All About the Data: How to Drive Your Giving Pipeline"; "Email Marketing Best Practices and Other Nerdy Secrets"; "Better than a Gala: Reimagining the Giving Day"; and "What's Next in Digital Fundraising?".

6E: Donor Surveys are Amazing - Now What Do I Do with this Data?!

Good friends know how to address each other, their favorite food, and the best way to get a hold of them. Shouldn't we want to treat our donors the same way? Donor surveys are powerful tools to gather information and learn more about our donors. But what do you do once you've gathered that information, and more importantly, how do you get it into your database? Join Megan Rehberg of Knox College and Misty Sayre from the Air Force Museum Foundation as they walk you through the process they use to conduct their donor surveys. After attending this session, you will be positioned to make a case for a survey, successfully collaborate with your data team, and treat your donors as true friends and partners in this work.

All Audiences  ⬧  Early-career, Mid-career  ⬧  Small Shop, Medium Shop

Megan Rehberg has 20 years of experience in Development, working in higher education, arts and culture nonprofits, and religious institutions. She is the Associate Director of Leadership Annual Giving at Knox College. While at the Air Force Museum Foundation, she led the Annual Giving and Donor Relations teams, building a culture of appreciation and engagement for Foundation donors. This work was recognized by ADRP; her email series was the recipient of the 2020 International Stewardship Award in the Digital Communication category. A lawyer by training, when she's not working, you can find her on stage performing as a classically-trained soprano.

Misty Sayre has over 20 years experience in Development working in fundraising with more than 100 different organizations of all sizes and focused on data at The Dayton Society of Natural History, University of Dayton, and the Air Force Museum Foundation. Her unique experience as a fundraiser turned data guru gives her a vantage point that allows her to communicate effectively with all members of the Development team and target solutions that are a win for everyone. With experience in several types of nonprofit databases, Misty has a wide range of knowledge that will translate to every size and type of Development shop. She knows how to rock a platform, engage an audience, and share information that is accessible to all levels of experience.

6F: Getting to the Heart of the Matter: How to Find, Tell, and Leverage Stories of Impact

If you’re a donor communicator, your goal is simple: create messages that resonate with your audiences and inspire them to act. How do you achieve this? You let your stories do the talking by placing real people, real experiences, and, you guessed it, real impact, front and center. In this session, we’ll provide a framework for impact storytelling that you can replicate again and again, helping you identify, tell, and share the stories that illustrate the impact of your work and inspire your audiences to become even more invested in your vision for the future. What’s better? We’ll show you how to streamline your storytelling across channels, amplifying that carefully crafted impact all year long in your web, direct mail, email, and social media campaigns.

All Audiences  ⬧  All Levels  ⬧  Any Size Shop

After spending years as an in-house advancement writer in higher education, Meghan Goff launched Onword Communication in January 2020, ready to start a new chapter and embark on her best year yet (we all know how that went)! Today, she dedicates her time to helping nonprofit organizations uncover, share, and leverage human stories that drive engagement and inspire action among their donors and champions. As a writer, and a self-proclaimed deep feeler, Onword is the perfect blend of passion and purpose, providing the opportunity to use her love of storytelling to help even more organizations strengthen relationships and move their audiences to invest in meaningful change. As a pandemic-era entrepreneur, and mother of three young children, she knows that while things rarely go as planned, there's always a great story to tell!

Liz Blaszkiewicz has more than 10 years of social media strategy, digital fundraising, and content marketing experience across higher education, non-profit, and agency sectors. In her previous roles, Liz led social media and digital fundraising strategy for the University of Rochester's advancement team and spearheaded social strategy and activation for Fortune 500 companies including Ford Motor Company, Pfizer, DuPont, and McKesson. In addition, she has collaborated with annual giving teams at William's College, Wayne State University, and many Metro-Detroit area nonprofit organizations. A data die-hard, reflected in her MBA with a concentration in digital business analytics, Liz brings the perfect mix of strategy and science to social media storytelling and digital fundraising.

6G: Predictably Irrational: Utilizing Decision Science to Transform Donor Relations and Fundraising

Dive into the transformative world of decision science and behavioral economics with our interactive workshop! Uncover how these dynamic fields are reshaping supporter engagement and elevating fundraising strategies. Engage in hands-on exercises and practical examples to seamlessly integrate cutting-edge techniques into your fundraising efforts. Explore key concepts like Systems 1 and 2 Thinking, Visualization Techniques, Choice Architecture, and the Attraction and Compromise Effects. This session is designed for those ready to challenge the norms in donor relations, offering fresh perspectives on donor choice and loyalty. Embrace innovation, push beyond traditional boundaries, and learn to leverage behavioral science for measurable impact. Join us to redefine systems, explore new trends, and inspire a culture of failing forward in pursuit of groundbreaking success in fundraising. Transform your approach and discover unexpected ways to demonstrate impact.

All Audiences  ⬧  All Levels  ⬧  Any size shop

Mike Johnston, a fundraising veteran of over 34 years, has significantly impacted social impact and charitable organizations worldwide, including in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. Renowned for his expertise in fundraising innovation and the integration of digital technologies with traditional methods, Mike has driven deeper donor engagement and increased giving. In 1992, he founded Hewitt and Johnston Consultants, a global leader in fundraising consultancy. Mike is also a prolific author, with four influential books on digital fundraising and marketing strategies, and has contributed to numerous other publications. His leadership roles include being a founding board member and the first Education Committee chair of the e-Philanthropy Foundation, the inaugural chair of the global charity online lottery GlobeLot.com, and a founding chair of the Integrated Marketing Advisory Board. Currently, he serves on the board of The Resource Alliance, emphasizing his commitment to enhancing global fundraising capacity and innovation.

Thomas Kurmann is a dynamic executive, strategist, and humanitarian entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience leading philanthropic initiatives for global nonprofits. Track record of success, generating 50%-100% revenue growth, developing strategies, building resilient structures, and establishing partnerships to accelerate private and institutional donations. Recognized for the ability to build, coach, and guide cross-functional teams through radical change and champion diversity, equity, and inclusion. History of employing expertise in behavioral science, business intelligence, and design thinking to drive transformations, influence decisions, and promote innovation.