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Session 5B

Don't Get Blown Off Course: How to Navigate and Lead Through Times of Change

Charlotte Troyanowski and Rachel Donahue Loughran

Thursday, September 22
2:00 – 3:00 PM (MT) 

About the Session

To be a successful manager of a donor relations team you need to be a subject matter expert, a strategist, a coach, a negotiator, a communicator, a delegator, and a problem-solver. Your team relies on you to do more than set goals and metrics. You are responsible for keeping them and you heading in the right direction, regardless of the obstacles you face. It's not easy! Fortunately, you don't have to do it alone. In this session, we will discuss strategies that will help you to maintain your sanity while leading through change, practices that will help you support your team, and tips on how to build a support network from ADRP and beyond to help you navigate your way through changes yet to come. The past few years have presented all of us with numerous opportunities for us to flex our strengths as resilient, optimistic, strategic leaders. Among the challenges we will discuss in this session are scenarios you might have encountered already, as well as some situations you've yet to face:

  • Adapting to new management structures
  • Changing workplace environments
  • Merging with another institution
  • Staffing shortages and the need to depend on temporary/student help
  • Coping with the emotions following news of a layoff, resignation, or death of a colleague
  • Recognizing past exploitative framing of students' stories and applying a DEI lens to refine processes

Incorporating new technologies into the workflow. Change can be scary. Leading others when we are not sure of the way can be scarier still. But we in donor relations are nothing if not resilient. Let us find strength in our community and the hard-won lessons learned we've learned on our journeys.

Learning Objectives

  • Strategies that will help the audience stay centered while leading through change

  • Strategies to help the audience support their team and set them up for success during times of change

  • Strategies to help the audience create and strengthen a support network

Keywords: 

Leadership, Strategy, change; mindset; management; resilience

Who Should Attend?
   



 
 

Private College/University, Public College/University, Private Secondary School, Healthcare, Religious Organization, Arts Organization, Foundation, Environmental Organization, Advocacy Organization, Social Services, Other non-profit

Suitable for any size shop

Mid-career (8 - 12 years), Seasoned (13 - 17 years), Experienced (18 + years)

  
 
About the Speakers

Charlotte Troyanowski
Senior Director, Donor Relations
Northeastern University

Charlotte A. Troyanowski has been working in donor relations since 2001 and is currently the senior director of donor relations at Northeastern University, where she leads a team of six professionals charged with fund compliance, fund creation, fund stewardship, gift acknowledgment, unique gifts and recognition vehicles, long-term stewardship plans, cumulative giving recognition, data integrity, strategic spending recommendations, campaign preparation, policy creation, and best practices training for support staff.

Rachel Donahue Loughran
Senior Director of Stewardship and Donor Relations
Boston University

Rachel Donahue Loughran leads a team of 10 at Boston University to develop and implement engagement strategies for the University's generous donors. Their responsibilities include gift agreements, acknowledgments, donor recognition, fund management, and reporting, and individual stewardship strategies. Finding creative ways to demonstrate to donors the direct impact of their philanthropy is what she finds most exciting about the field of donor relations. Loughran has more than 25 years of experience working in philanthropy with professional and volunteer roles including prospect management and solicitation, events management, and volunteer engagement. She has experience in both small and large shops, having spent many years at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, the Alzheimer's Association, and Harvard University. Loughran consults with small non-profits on project management. When not working or parenting, Loughran can be found hiking the White and Green Mountains, working towards summiting all New England 67 four-thousand footers.