Past Events

The partnership between Board Members and the Development team is crucial to your team’s fundraising success. How can you empower your board members as active participants and passionate supporters in your organization's fundraising?

Join us for this highly interactive and participant-driven workshop! Burnout: it is a hot topic among fundraising professionals. What is it? And more importantly - what can we do about it? Facilitated by Claire Becker, a leadership coach with 15 years of experience as a coach, educator, professional development partner, in this session we will discuss how we can begin to make changes in our daily practice and sphere of influence to work…

Strong and effective communication skills are essential for successful fundraisers to build awareness, motivate donors, create connections, and stay top of mind. Join Cavendish Vernal for an introductory session on Relationship Talking, a development experience focused on presentation and meeting management strategies.

Your donor data plays a pivotal role in shaping your fundraising strategy. Your organization’s database can help you improve efficiency; personalize donor communications; and report on your fundraising success. Alternatively, a poorly managed or disorganized database can do the opposite: halting progress and harming donor relationships.

Join us for our annual AFP business meeting followed by our popular and engaging round table discussions on timely fundraising topics such as Events, Stewarding Donors, Major Gifts, Grant Research Resources, Mid-level Giving, Planned Giving, CFRE, and volunteering with AFPSEWI.

AI isn't just for sci-fi movies anymore; it's real, and it is here. If you can't decide whether AI is a cool futuristic tool or a robot plotting to take your job, take a breath. AI has potential, especially when it comes to grant writing and fundraising. Whether you're dipping your toes into the AI pool for the first time or a seasoned enthusiast, this session's got you covered. We'll dive into best practices, tips and tricks, and hands-on…

Unconscious Bias is a learned stereotype that is automatic, unintentional, deeply ingrained, universal, and able to influence behavior. Unconscious bias seeps into decisions that affect recruitment, retention, hiring, access to healthcare, housing, education, criminal justice, providing services, interpersonal interactions, and outcomes in ways that can disadvantage both individuals and groups of people. We all have some form of unconscious bias…

Giving USA released its annual report on philanthropy in June, publishing in-depth research on the who, what, and where of giving in 2022. To mark the release, Campbell & Company, in partnership with AFP Southeastern Wisconsin, is hosting Giving USA 2023 Southeastern Wisconsin. Together, we will discuss the biggest headlines of 2022, and the current environment, explore what past trends can—and cannot—tell us, and forecast what’s next for…

Please join us on Wednesday, July 26 from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM for a special AFP-SEWI education session hosted at Wellpoint Care Network Training Center.    Topic: Conversational Approach Training – Navigating Sticky Conversations

Spring is the perfect time to turn over a new leaf.  Join AFPSEWI for this free session for members and prospective members to network, learn about AFP, watch a webinar together and launch our 2023 Mentor-Mentee Program! 

Spend time with Stefanie Ahrens, Director of Corporate Engagement at Children's Wisconsin and Ann Stadler, Chief Marketing Officer at the University Wisconsin -Whitewater, as they share the ins and outs of producing winning sponsorships for your next event or program.  With more than 45 years of experience in developing, securing and funding sponsorships, these two will share the dos and don'ts of successful sponsorship.

Many organizations have strong programs and initiatives. The challenge most organizations face is demonstrating the value to their programs as well as their impact. This session will walk every organization through the 4 key steps every organization should take to start capturing and sharing the impact of their organization.

Ready to kickstart your fundraising efforts and/or career in 2023? Join us for these roundtable table discussions led by industry professionals to help you move forward in the new year.

The Wisconsin Philanthropy Network (WPN) is a professional membership association for Grantmakers from across the state.  Wisconsin’s premier resource in philanthropy committed to promoting effective philanthropy by providing networking opportunities, professional development, and customized research opportunities. Serving over 650 philanthropic professions representing 120 organizations the WPN mission is to support and promote effective…

Wherever you’re at with your CFRE journey, join us to learn more about what the CFRE signifies, why it matters to your work, and what you can do to achieve this honor.

This presentation will explore ways for your nonprofit to document complex gifts through gift agreements. Topics to be discussed include the basic elements of any gift agreement, planned gift agreements, agreements concerning naming recognition, and gift agreements for the donation of real and tangible property.

Join us at this session to learn how to best plan for your year-end appeal. First, Jayne Pfeifer with Thysse will give a ‘state of’ direct mail including considerations such as supply shortages and timelines, suggestions to save costs due to price increases overall, and postal promos and changes. Then Taylor Schult, Managing Director of Annual Giving and Advancement Services at Marquette University, will give an overview of MU’s year-end…

 Join our local discussion on the data and trends from Giving USA 2021: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2021 which was released as a national webinar on June 21.  National Webinar Viewing not required for local session participation.

A monthly giving program can give your nonprofit a reliable income stream from dedicated donors. Do you want to start up a monthly giving program or have you already tried and it just hasn’t gone anywhere? Join us for a panel discussion where panelists share the details on their program – best practices, what does/doesn’t work, what resources they use, and how they ‘sell’ the program to their donors. There will be opportunities for questions, so…

Campbell & Company is hosting Giving USA 2022: A Virtual Forum on Philanthropy, an online conversation that focuses on the nonprofit sector's current environment.

Logic Models are tools to help you explain complex systems in simplified terms. They are visual representations of the relationships between resources, activities and outcomes. Sound interesting? Helpful? Fun? (Not that grant proposals need to be more fun...!)   

Development plans – ugh, am I right? The prospect is daunting and who has the time? Join us for Tamara Pacada’s “Demystifying the Development Plan” to discuss the value of having a plan to help you focus your work and increase gift revenue success. Besides, it could save your job as you complete the tasks that you and your superiors (staff, board) agreed to whether or not the hoped-for outcome was accomplished. Tamara will provide a roadmap of…

David Malone, President of McDonald Schaefer and Kim Koch, Sr. Consultant will present on the topic of capital campaigns. Their fast-paced and insightful presentation will provide a well rounded understanding of capital campaigns.

The last two years have been unusual to say the least and have created an uncertain philanthropic environment. While many donors have risen to the challenge, while we may think we know our donors, do we really? How are they feeling about their giving plan for 2022? Join us for a panel discussion with three expert advisors to learn how they are advising their clients and what their clients are thinking.

 As the COVID-19 crisis continues to affect the nonprofit world, it’s necessary to revisit principles and best practices. Please join us Dec. 9 for roundtable sessions covering a myriad of topics in light of our current fundraising environment.  You will be able to choose from three sessions.