The Ask should be a creative experience and journey. We, as fundraisers, are representatives, advocates, researchers, storytellers, guides and connectors who navigate and help shape, mold a sandbox of options for a donor. Preparation and practice as a listener and creative partner, with your organization's priorities in mind, will allow you to a provide be a compass for a conversation about support. This also helps with an approachable and enjoyable solicitation experience. Participants will review the elements of an ask and explore an approach to acknowledge and build as a portion of fundraising through discussions and exercises.

Making it easier for donors to give may just be the most effective strategy in the savvy fundraiser’s toolkit—and we’ve got the conversion metrics (and science!) to prove it. In this session, we’ll show you how applying classic principles of persuasion science to your everyday fundraising challenges can dramatically improve donor engagement and move the needle on dollars raised. Using the Fogg Behavior Model as a framework for understanding donor motivation and ability, Birmingham-Southern College and GiveCampus will share how their partnership, and a few simple strategies, have achieved impressive real-world results.

Today donors want to give with a single click of a button. Annual Giving teams are working to meet donors where they are. As such gift processing teams find themselves supporting several giving avenues across various platforms including traditional donation pages, social media, gaming systems, and much more. Plus they must be able to accept the traditional gift and the new age gift, from checks to cryptocurrency. What impact does this have on a Gift Processing team? How can you support your giving teams and donors but still keep high rates of efficiency?