1:15 - 2:00 Major Gifts Trends and Overview
To help set the stage for all the material and discussions to follow, we’ll identify key trends, define our terms, and review the major gift process. Come ready to share what you are experiencing on the road and in the office.
2:00 - 3:15 Discovery Visits
Good discovery starts with two things: 1) identifying prospects by evaluating the spectrum of support and engagement they’ve shown to your organization or institution; and, 2) strategically reaching out to those that need to be nurtured and effectively “qualifying” future philanthropic potential. This session will help you think about how to evaluate your data to identify desirable prospects, and offer strategies to build your skills to have strategic conversations, and ask certain questions that compel you to do the most important thing in a meeting – listen. Effective discovery will help ensure that your portfolio delivers consistent and powerful results.
3:30 - 4:45 Big Ideas and Storytelling
The history of your organization is constructed through thousands of individual stories from alumni and friends, some of whose names adorn buildings or whose generosity have built endowments to ensure its future. Many of these stories began with a big idea that was achieved through sharing a transformational vision and subsequently engaging hearts and minds. This session explains how to discover a donor’s “philanthropy philosophy” through active listening and storytelling.
4:45 - 5:00 Reflections on the day
• Questions
• What worked for you?
5:00 - 6:00 Networking reception
6:00 Conference adjourns for the day
Dinner on your own
8:00 - 9:00 Continental Breakfast
Networking Roundtables for Gift Officers and for Managers
9:00 - 9:15 Welcome Back
• Review and recap the day before
• Agenda for the day
• Logistics
915 - 10:15 Stewardship, Engagement and Re-engagement
The road to a joyful, inspired, YES to a major gift is paved with strategic donor engagement and meaningful stewardship. In this session, we’ll share engagement and stewardship strategies, help you build out a suite of opportunities, and provide tips and tools that will help you garner substantial and sustainable support for your institution.
10:30 - Noon Strategy in Major Gift Fundraising
This interactive session is designed to provide managers and frontline fundraisers alike the strategic tools, skillset and mindset necessary to effectively engage donors and appropriately build the relationships that make them donors for life. Immerse yourself in fundraising case studies, strategies for making the right ask at the right time, and learning what to do when things go wrong. Hint: don’t panic!
12:00 - 1:15 Lunch on your own
1:15 - 2:15 Break Out Session One
Gift Officers: Life on the Road. Managing Your Time, Focus, Energy; portfolio management
Taking in the local cultural offerings, listening to the local public radio station, and taking a hike or a walk around town can be part of a good major gift road trip. Designing productive trips to cultivate relationships with donors and potential donors is enhanced when the gift officer is curious about the location, and is able to enrich the donor conversation with knowledge or questions about the place the donor calls home. When on the road, some gift officers limit donor visits to three, others reserve dinners to eat alone. This session will explore strategies that help you prioritize your outcomes while balancing your bandwidth to design fruitful (and fun) trips on the road.
Managers: Managing your Time as a Gift Officer while Juggling your Management Responsibilities
Develop strategies, make appointments, get out the door, engage, close, steward AND hire, coach, and manage your team. Whew! Join us for this hands-on, problem-solving, interactive session on how you can effectively manage your time, energy, resources, and responsibilities and still have a life. We’ll diagnose the problems, assess skills and circumstances, and develop sure-fire solutions that you can take home and apply immediately.
2:30 - 3:30 Break Out Session Two
Gift Officers: Working with Volunteers
Volunteers are the lifeblood of many fundraising programs – but are you deriving the maximum results from your volunteers while providing a high-touch personal experience that makes them feel valued and appreciated? If not, you’re missing a golden opportunity to ensure that your volunteers stay connected as engaged as lifelong stakeholders and partners. This fast-paced break out session will focus on best-practices for volunteer engagement that you can take home and put to work right away.
Managers: Managing Up -- Working with the Board, Dean, CEO
The art of influencing and persuading is a life skill. You call upon your influencing skills in almost every aspect of family, friend, community and work life. In the quest to persuade trustees and supervisors, however, this life skill is “a must have.” In this experiential session, we will explore, strengthen, enhance, or rev up the skills, motivation, and confidence you need to successfully manage up.
3:45 - 5:00 Break Out Session Three
Gift Officers: Habits of Highly Effective Gift Officers; Self-assessment and Personal Staff Development Plans
The mindset of a successful major gift officer is focused, strategic, and creative – always learning and building relationships—while maintaining a compassionate and understanding disposition. Fundraising is hard and sometimes humbling work that involves years of practice, learning from mistakes, and taking a disciplined approach. This session will explore tips and tools and a wide range of ideas to hone your personal skills and continue on your path to becoming the most successful gift officer possible.
Managers: Staff Development Plans; Strategic Management Conversations, Stay Conversations
Good employees are hard to find. Great employees are even harder to keep. The best fundraising teams are defined by a leader’s commitment to key strategies that are employee-centric and sincere. This session provides insights and examples on how to appropriately invest in your staff’s professional development, proactively prepare for leadership transitions, and effectively make the case for a long-term relationship with your organization.
5:15 - 5:30 Wrap for the day
5:30 Conference adjourns for the day
Dinner on your own
8:00 - 9:00 Continental Breakfast Roundtables for Gift officers and Managers
9:00 - 9:15 Welcome Back
• Review and recap the day before
• Agenda for the day
• Logistics
9:15 - 9:45 Donor Readiness
We are now right before solicitation. Throughout the conference we've been talking about getting your donor ready for solicitation. Every session was leading up to this. This half hour is about, "I'm ready to solicit but is my donor ready to say yes?"
10:00 - 11:45 The Artful Solicitation Conversation
You have done everything you can. You asked all the right questions and listened to understand. You engaged the donor in meaningful and productive ways. You shared institutional priorities and identified the RIGHT purpose for this donor or donor family. Now it is time to solicit. In this session we’ll secure the solicitation appointment. We’ll explore how planned giving opportunities solve donor issues, think through a layered ask, work on your request script, and practice having the artful conversation that will result in a joyful and generous YES.
11:45 - Noon Wrap up
• What are your takeaways
• What will you use when you get back to the office
