You’ve grown your legacy program, you have an impressive pipeline of donors interested and considering leaving a legacy gift to your wonderful organization and now comes the big moment: THE ASK!

There is a big misconception that soliciting for a legacy gift is the same as asking for a major gift. Nothing could be further from the truth. While there are some similarities, the approach and lead up is completely different.

This webinar will present the similarities and differences between a legacy and a major gift ask, what research tells us how donors make decisions and how you can harness all this information to craft a deeply personal and successful legacy ask.

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand how asking for a legacy differs from other fundraising asks
2. Learn about the research on how decisions are made
3. Feel confident in our ability to make a solid legacy ask

Contributors: 
Ligia Peña, CFRE, MInstF, AFP Master Trainer Ligia Peña’s career began in 2002 at the YMCA of Greater Montreal as the Director of Fundraising and Communications. Since then she has worked with many organizations in a senior-level capacity and has offered consulting services under her own banner. She is currently the Global Legacy Manager at Greenpeace International where she drives Greenpeace’s global legacy strategy and manages a community of practice of legacy managers in 14 countries. She’s a seasoned presenter internationally and she’s the author of the ‘Small Shop Fundraising’ chapter in the 2nd volume of Excellence in Fundraising in Canada. Ligia is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kent where she is researching the topic of national umbrella legacy marketing campaigns in the UK and Canada. When she’s not geeking out on legacy related things, she’s either knitting, cooking or planning her next trip. To follow her adventures, you can read her blog at www.globetrottingfundraiser.com or on Twitter @GlobetrottingFr or Instagram at @GlobetrottingFundraiser Email: ligia@globetrottingfundraiser.com LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/ligiapena

If you don’t regularly survey your target audiences, your fundraising efforts are merely educated guesses. And if your surveys aren’t carefully crafted, you’ll end up receiving misleading data.

But done well, surveys can empower you with real, actionable, and surprising insights into what your current and prospective donors do, think, and need. Smart surveys can turn your fundraising strategy into a fine-tuned, sophisticated engine of revenue.

In this session, we’ll examine all of the components of a great donor survey project—including how to build it, deploy it, and analyze the results. Perhaps more importantly, we’ll identify and help you sidestep the countless pitfalls that plague so many surveys.

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

• Identify the types of surveys—and when to use each
• Create a survey strategy that gets you the data you actually need
• Analyze the data objectively

Contributors: 

Rachel Clemens builds things. First, she built a career as a designer - working for some of the most recognizable names in advertising, including stints in London and Australia. Then, she built Creative Suitcase - her own strategic communications firm. Over the next 11 years, Creative Suitcase helped organizations like United Way, Habitat for Humanity, The University of Texas, and countless others, raise money and awareness to improve their communities. In 2016, Creative Suitcase merged with Mighty Citizen. As the Chief Marketing Officer, Rachel splits her days between promoting Mighty Citizen's marketing services and working directly with nonprofit clients on their branding, marketing, and campaigns. She is also a frequent speaker at local and national conferences and events.

Special events have long been synonymous with fundraising and as a result, every fundraiser has a story of cold food, missing golf balls, no-show volunteers, and the $200 pot of hotel coffee. We also know that fundraising events, on average, have one of the lower net profit factors and yet, they are often the go-to solution in a financial pinch. It is essential that every fundraiser understand the value special events can play within their organization, as well as the importance of setting appropriate financial, time management and resource expectations. In this session we will discuss this love-hate relationship, as well as review the cornerstone elements of successful events, including how to define success, knowing when to move on and setting pragmatic boundaries for the future.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Understand the core elements of successful non-profit special events:

   a. Why are we here?

      i. Event purpose – friendraising, fundraising, donor recognition, community awareness

      ii. Financial dependence – impact on the overall bottom line and role in the fund development plan

      iii. Definition of success grounded in realistic expectations and connection to purpose

   b. Resource allocation

      i. Time

      ii. Money

      iii. People

   c. Commitment to Excellence, Not Perfection

      i. The details that matter and the ones that don’t

      ii. Connection back to purpose

      iii. Leverage people resources to create authenticity

   d. Does It Stay or Does It Go?

      i. Creating clear expectations around an event’s longevity

      ii. Creating a healthy special events culture

      iii. Understanding purpose and financial dependence

Contributors: 
Amy Wolfe, MPPA, CFRE

Amy Wolfe is a partner in Mujeres Poderosas, a collaboration of hard-working, determined and passionate women sharing their collective wisdom for the betterment of non-profit organizations. Her career includes tenure serving as President and CEO of AgSafe for over a decade, as Vice President of the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation, as an account executive for E&J Gallo Winery and as a legislative aide for the California State Assembly.

Ms. Wolfe is dedicated to her community serving on the Boards of Directors of the Modesto Rotary Club Foundation, The Salas Foundation and Protected Harvest, being an involved member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, various California county Farm Bureaus and a Girl Scout for 35 years.

Ms. Wolfe received her Master of Public Policy and Administration from CSU, Sacramento, her Bachelor of Science from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and is accredited as a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE).

Online grant proposals are here to stay. They are frustrating, exasperating and daunting. Still, we often must present our case for support in 2,000 characters (- 350 words or less). Writing tight or to the point while getting the attention of the grant reviewer has never been more crucial. Although brevity is key, grantmakers still want engaging narratives that state the issue or problem succinctly while providing evidence that your organization will achieve the proposed outcomes. Knowing what to say and how to say it in a short grant application is the focus of this session. The techniques discussed will help you craft successful paper and paperless proposal narratives.

Participants will:

• Learn techniques to present their case in as few words as possible.
• Identify key elements that will grab grant reviewers’ attention.
• Edit proposals for strong content.
• Appropriate for Applied Level

Presenter:

Diane Gedeon-Martin. For over 27 years, Diane has focused on grants, grant seeking, and fund development for non-profits. She launched her consulting firm, The Write Source in 1993 that today boasts a roster of nearly 270 nonprofit clients in 26 states and Washington, DC. Diane is a nationally recognized speaker and trainer. For 14 years she was an adjunct faculty member of The Fundraising School at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University where she also co-developed the curriculum for their Grant Proposals course. In 2010, she became an AFP Certified Master Trainer.

You've worked with teams that really clicked, and teams that seemed to fizzle. What made the difference? One factor may have been the mindsets of the people involved. In her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Stanford University professor, Dr. Carol Dweck, defines a growth mindset as a belief that talents can be developed through hard work, good strategies, and input from others. Those with fixed mindsets believe their talents cannot be changed. Teams that promote and foster a growth mindset tend to be more collaborative, empowered and committed--all factors we need in an effective development program. In this session, we'll review Dr. Dweck's research and other findings building upon her work, translate how a growth mindset can help build a more effective fundraising team, and provide real-world examples of how mindset can make the difference between a successful professional and a staff person on their way out.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Understand the markers of a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset
• Identify strategies to encourage growth mindsets in your team
• Identify ways to help fixed and growth mindset people work together

PRESENTER:
Alice L. Ferris, MBA, CFRE, ACFRE is the founder of GoalBusters, providing hands-on, comprehensive fundraising leadership for small to medium-sized philanthropic organizations. The GoalBusters team offers services in development and campaign assessment, strategic planning, campaign direction, board and team training, grant writing, and specialty services for public and community media. For the last 30 years, Alice has worked extensively in fundraising for public media, rural healthcare, education, and science organizations, among others. Alice thrives in finding creative solutions for the fundraising challenges of small organizations, as well as teaching and training about practical and realistic tactics. Alice is in the trenches for several organizations, serving, as counsel, as Director of Development for KAWC Colorado River Public Media in Yuma, Arizona, and Administrative Director for KGHR Navajo Public Radio. For her volunteer life, Alice serves on the Association of Fundraising Professionals Northern Arizona Chapter board, and on the advisory boards for the Bolz Center for Arts Administration Advisory Board at the Wisconsin School of Business and the University of Wisconsin Communication Arts Department. She is a three-time honoree as AFP-Northern Arizona Fundraising Professional of the Year, earned her CFRE in 1999 and her ACFRE in 2010. Alice is an experienced international speaker and AFP master trainer.

Charity scandals make sensational global headlines. A misstep in your community – or across the continent can cast a pall on the entire sector. AFP’s Code of Ethical Principles*, adopted in 1964, states “AFP members both individual and business aspire to foster cultural diversity and pluralistic values and treat all people with dignity and respect.” What does this actually mean in practice TODAY and how is it an ethical issue? Join our diverse panel of experts as they discuss how this principle is, and should be, applied in fundraising and philanthropy today and what does this have to do with ethics.

Participants will learn:

What are the baselines or universal principles that must be observed by every ethical fundraising professional in any organization regardless of culture or community?

How do we identify, assess and address cultural variables that may benefit from or require alternative approaches and solutions, but still remain within the baseline of ethical fundraising practices?

As either an internal or external member of a diverse how do we navigate and address circumstances or situations which may arise, while maintaining our commitment to ethical practice and sensitivity to racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, LGBTQ, religious, ability and other differences?

What sort of a commitment to diversity and inclusion is expected of a fundraising professional?

This webinar supported through the Claudia A. Looney Fund for Ethics in Fundraising

Robbe Healey

Roberta (Robbe) A. Healey, MBA, NHA, ACFRE, Founding Member of Aurora Philanthropic Consulting, has practiced philanthropic fundraising and non-profit organization management for more than forty years. She is an accomplished fund raising generalist with successful track record of establishing and strengthening development offices. More than 150 organizations have benefitted from her fundraising, strategic planning, board development and training services. She Chaired the Board of Directors of the Association of Fundraising Professionals International (AFP) 2009-10 and completed twelve years of Board service in December 2012. She is Immediate Past Chair of the AFP International Ethics Committee. The Greater Philadelphia Chapter/AFP named her the 2001 Fundraising Executive of the Year and AFP International awarded her the 2013 Barbara Marion Award for Outstanding Leadership. She served as a founding member of the LeadingAge Philanthropy Network and Co-chair of the LeadingAge Philanthropy Cabinet.

She earned a BS in Education from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts and an MBA from Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania where she is a member of the adjunct graduate Master of Public Administration faculty. She was the 75th individual to achieve the ACFRE, Advanced Certified Fund Raising Executive credential and holds a Pennsylvania Nursing Home Administrators License (NHA). Healey is a sought after international speaker and presenter, who earned the AFP Master Teacher designation in 2000, the first year it was awarded, and has been designated a Faculty Star by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). A Rotarian, she served as 2013-14 President of the Rotary Club of Greater West Chester Sunrise in West Chester, PA. She chairs the Westminster Presbyterian Church Endowment Fund Board and is a member of the Greater West Chester Sunrise Rotary Foundation Board.

Amir Pasic

Amir Pasic is the Eugene R. Tempel Dean of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.  Prior to joining the school, Pasic was vice president of international operations at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).  Previously, Pasic was associate dean for development and strategic planning at the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). 

Yulanda Davis-Quarrie

Yulanda N. Davis-Quarrie, M.S., CFRE, brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in the field of philanthropy. She currently serves as the Director of Institutional Advancement for Ramona Convent Secondary School, in Alhambra, California, a non-profit community-based Catholic private all girl’s college preparatory high school. She is responsible for the philanthropic and alumnae efforts at the school.  A Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) since 1990, Ms. Davis-Quarrie has secured more than $80 million in philanthropic dollars for various nonprofit organizations in Southern California, including Orthopaedic Hospital in Los Angeles, The Claremont Graduate School, St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, The Wellness Community in Santa Monica, Citrus Valley Health Partners in West Covina, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital Foundation, Beverly Hospital and St. Lucy’s Priory High School.  She is actively involved with the Association of Fund Raising Professionals(AFP), where she a member of the Greater Los Angeles Chapter and serves on AFP international association’s ethics and investment committees.