Here are NEAGC’s sessions for Thursday, March 19th.
All times are Eastern.
8:00-9:15 a.m. – Breakfast and Networking in the Callahan Dining Hall
A hot breakfast is available in the Callahan Dining Hall from 8-9:15 a.m. The Callahan Dining Hall is is in the Callahan Center building adjacent to the Gerrish/Judge Lobby.
9:15-10:30 a.m. – Breakout Sessions
A Giving Day Forum (Part 1)
Molly McGarry, St. Peter’s Prep and Kellie Sullivan, Boston University
Klebanoff Auditorium
A duo of giving day experts join forces for a catch-all giving day Q&A. Bring your successes, challenges, trends and ideas for the future as Molly and Kellie lead a giving day conversation.
A Healthcare Fundraising Forum: Patients, Physicians, Providers, Policies, and Pipelines
Vicky Cedeño, John Muir Health Foundation and Bob Burdenski
Gerrish Room 147/155
Healthcare institutions offer their own challenges (HIPAA) and opportunities (grateful patients, healthcare professionals, companies and the community) for annual giving fundraising. Join us for a special annual giving forum all about healthcare. Join us for a two-part forum that will share group information and discuss topics including:
◾ What does the prospect journey look like: from acquisition to renewal to major giving prospect?
◾ Using digital options to the fullest: emails, unique web landing page, ongoing impact updates;
◾ Tribute and 3rd-party giving-making the process easy and meaningful;
◾ What’s new in stewardship;
◾ Valuable vendors – Who are you using? Email vendors? Print? Business Associate Agreements?
◾ Giving initiatives: Doctor’s Day, Giving Day, Nurses Week? Do these help?
Penguin Networking: How to Get Students and Alumni Involved in Philanthropy
Erica Ribeiro, Cushing Academy and Holman Gao, Boost My School
Gerrish Room 161
How do you engage students, alumni, and parents with a small team? Cushing Academy is here to show you how you can expand the reach of your office by making school values and culture the heart and focus of your next giving initiative. Leaning into this year’s theme and core value, “who will you honor?”, Cushing exceeded their 600 supporter goal (644 supporters!) on their April Giving Day. This session is for advancement teams, both big and small, that want to increase participation on their giving day. You will learn how Cushing socialized philanthropy and got students, alumni, and parents engaged in giving with hand-delivered “who will you honor certificates,” a strategically-placed candy bar, and a video featuring Trout the Penguin. We will then discuss how Cushing plans to build on their success with a newly-launched Penguin Networking student club. By the end of this session, you will leave with a framework for connecting your school’s unique culture and values to your giving day strategy.
A Day in the Life with Bad Data
Cindy Novak, Accurate Append
Gerrish Room 159
Imagine launching the perfect campaign — only to hear crickets. Emails bounce, phones are disconnected, and direct mail goes nowhere. The culprit? Bad data. Did you know 42% of email addresses go inactive each year and 35 million phone numbers are reassigned annually? Outdated data can turn a winning strategy into a losing effort. Join us to discover how data appending and enrichment can transform outdated contact lists into powerful assets. Learn how to turn your data from a black hole into a goldmine — and make every campaign count. Data is the new superpower. Are you ready to harness it?
10:30-10:45 a.m. – Break
10:45-11:45 a.m. – Breakout Sessions
A Giving Day Forum (Part 2)
Gina Simonelli and Alicia Johnson, University of Rhode Island, with Nicole Caputo, Quinnipiac University
Klebanoff Auditorium
A second hour of giving day discussions featuring overviews of the URI and Quinnipiac giving days, as Gina, Alicia and Nicole provide their perspectives on giving days and facilitate additional discussion topics.
It’s All About the Why: Student Philanthropy in a Comprehensive Campaign
Marium Waqar, Rowan University
Gerrish Room 147/155
Rowan University launched a comprehensive campaign at which the Annual Giving Team developed a “Student Philanthropy Trail”- an immersive pop-up experience. Hikers had the opportunity to learn about Philanthropy 101 as well as the history of Rowan University. The transformative gift of Henry Rowan demonstrates the power of how a single philanthropic gift can plant the seed for a revolutionary environment. Join this session to embark on a five-step trail where you will change the way you view student philanthropy and learn how to incorporate techniques to have the students of today be the future donors of tomorrow.
A Parent and Family Fundraising Forum: Strategies, Successes, and Shared Challenges
Katie Grant, The Peddie School
Gerrish Room 161
Parent and family philanthropy plays a vital role in strengthening schools and advancing institutional priorities—but building meaningful, lasting engagement with this important community requires thoughtful strategy and collaboration. Participants will share successes, challenges, and emerging ideas across key areas such as participation vs. dollars, volunteer leadership, major gift cultivation, events, stewardship, and engaging families beyond graduation. Come prepared to contribute, listen, and leave with new ideas, fresh perspectives, and actionable approaches to strengthen parent and family philanthropy at your institution.
Pipeline… What Now?
Rachel Spencer, Vanillasoft
Gerrish Room 159
If you’ve ever nodded along in a meeting about pipeline “development”, “sustainability”, or “vitality”, secretly wondering what on earth it means and what exactly it’s got to do with you — this is a must-attend session. We’ll peel back the jargon and get to the heart of what keeps “The Pipe” flowing. From first-gifts to major-gifts, Engagement Centers to Leadership Giving, we’ll unpack how you can make a positive impact on donor pipeline (without a PhD in ‘Buzzword Studies’).
Noon-1:15 p.m. – Lunch in the Callahan Dining Hall
1:15-2:15 p.m. – Breakout Sessions
A Digital Fundraising Forum
Meg Cummins, Bryant University, Catie Hsieh, MIT, and Francisco Paguero, Boston University
Klebanoff Auditorium
There’s more to digital fundraising than your giving day! Join a terrific team of hosts for a chat about all things digital fundraising. What’s actually working right now—and why? From email and social media to giving days, automation, personalization, and donor journeys, participants will explore practical strategies that drive engagement and inspire giving across online platforms. Come ready to discuss lessons learned, compare tools and tactics, and exchange ideas you can immediately apply to strengthen your digital fundraising results.
A Small Shop Forum
Christopher Chambers, SUNY Canton
Gerrish Room 147/155
Are you a one-person annual giving shop? Are you <1? Join Chis and Ellen for a little therapy and a lot of shared ideas on how to leverage your work, scale the solutions, work with third-party resources and accomplish annual giving goals when the “team” is you.
An Independent Schools Forum (Part 1)
Molly McGarry, St. Peter’s Prep, Michael Ganchegui, The Kent School, Holman Gao, Boost My School
Gerrish Room 161
Join us for a forum session devoted to independent schools. Bring your questions, answers, challenges and solutions to this open discussion session.
Personalization at Scale:
How Advancement Teams Meet Donor Expectations Without Adding Work
Diana Poole and Bill Cote, Evertrue
Gerrish Room 159
Personalization is no longer optional, it’s the expectation. Donors want outreach that reflects who they are, what they care about, and their capacity to give. The challenge for advancement teams is delivering that level of relevance at scale without increasing workload or operational complexity. In this session, we’ll explore how advancement teams are connecting donor intelligence with personalized outreach across channels, including direct mail and video, to create experiences that feel one-to-one while remaining efficient. Learn how philanthropic and capacity insights can drive smarter segmentation, how personalized messaging can be automated without feeling generic, and how intentional data flow between systems allows teams to meet modern donor expectations without burning out staff. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for turning insight into action — aligning data, messaging, and execution to deliver personalization at scale.
2:15-2:45 p.m. – Break – Ice Cream Social Sponsored by VanillaSoft
2:45-3:45 p.m. – Breakout Sessions
Micro-Philanthropy and Crowdfunding: HCC’s “Your Gift, Your Choice” Campaign
Julie Phillips, Holyoke Community College
Klebanoff Auditorium
Join Julie for an overview of HCC’s micro-philanthropy campaign. Holyoke Community College’s “Your Gift. Your Choice.” was designed to engage constituents who were not responding to traditional appeals focused on large, centralized funding priorities. By offering 9–12 tangible projects at $5,000 or less—such as microscopes, loaner MacBooks, and smart pens—HCC created accessible, mission-driven entry points for support. This approach successfully reactivated long-lapsed donors, attracted future and first-time donors, and revealed previously untapped supporters with significant capacity who were inspired by specific projects. In addition to strengthening donor engagement, the campaign built meaningful momentum internally, earning strong buy-in and credibility with faculty and staff while serving as an effective internal PR initiative.
A Crowdsourced Collection of Current AI Ideas for Annual Giving
Bob Burdenski with Kathy Howrigan with Francisco Paguero, Boston University
Gerrish Room 147/155
You’re not only the audience, you’re the contributors at this live group inventory of who’s using what AI applications (and how) in their annual giving fundraising today. With the help of Mentimeter, we’ll collect. collate and discuss uses of AI, and provide you with a takeaway document full of current time- and resource-saving ways your colleagues are using AI in their fundraising.
An Independent Schools Forum (Part 2)
Katie Grant, The Peddie School, Traci Karro, The Pennington School
Gerrish Room 161
Join us for a forum session devoted to independent schools. Bring your questions, answers, challenges and solutions to this open discussion session.
Principles of Ethically Influencing Annual Giving
Clark Gafke, LEAD Philanthropy
Gerrish Room 159
Discover the science behind donor motivation in this engaging and insightful session! Principles of Ethically Influencing Annual Giving will equip you with eight proven principles—Authority, Consistency, Contrast, Liking, Reciprocity, Scarcity, Social Proof, and Unity—that inspire donors to make meaningful gifts to their university. Rooted in the groundbreaking research of the Cialdini Institute, these principles provide a framework for authentic and ethical donor engagement. Clark Gafke, a Cialdini Certified Professional and Ethical Influence Practitioner, will guide you through the subtle yet powerful elements of everyday communication that drive generosity. With practical examples and actionable takeaways, this session will empower you to build stronger connections with donors and achieve sustainable results in annual giving. Whether you’re a seasoned fundraiser or new to the field, this session will improve the way you approach donor engagement!
3:45-4:00 p.m. – Break – Ice Cream Social Sponsored by VanillaSoft
4:00-5:00 p.m. – Breakout Sessions
From Launch to Leverage: Advancing Your Crowdfunding Program in Year Two
Shannon Wood, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth with Julie Philips, Holyoke Community College
Klebanoff Auditorium
After launching a successful Student Organization Crowdfunding Campaign with 43 groups participating in 2025, UMass Dartmouth entered year two with a question: now what? In this follow-up session, Shannon Craig, Director of Annual Giving, shares how the campaign evolved from a promising pilot into a more strategic, scalable, and sustainable program with a new online giving vendor and a more than 2x increase in dollars and donors. Attendees will learn how to build on early momentum by refining processes, deepening campus partnerships, and leveraging data, feedback, and lessons learned from year one. Shannon will explore what worked, what didn’t, and what changed in year two—covering topics such as strengthening student leadership and buy-in, improving communication and training, expanding participation and fundraising outcomes, and using crowdfunding as a gateway to long-term donor engagement.
Generative AI for Annual Giving: Where Do I Begin?
Franciso Paguero, Boston University
Gerrish Room 147/155
This session will explore how generative AI can be thoughtfully and responsibly applied within higher education fundraising. Rather than focusing on prompt tricks or technical complexity, the presentation reframes AI as a supportive tool, while fundraisers remain the strategic decision-makers. Grounded in practical frameworks for problem formulation and risk assessment, attendees will learn how to identify bottlenecks in their own work, evaluate appropriate use cases, and start small using institutionally approved tools. Participants will leave empowered with a clear, responsible approach to integrating generative AI into their daily fundraising operations.
Trendy with a Chance of Impact: Data-Driven Trends Shaping the Future of Giving—and What They Mean for You
Wally Fisher, GiveCampus
Gerrish Room 161
Discover the key annual giving trends shaping advancement strategy and execution–and how they apply to your institution. This session will share insights from a meta analysis of philanthropy research, GiveCampus data, and real-world examples. You’ll leave with actionable tools and data to evaluate your performance, understand how peers are adapting, and identify opportunities for meaningful impact.
In this session, you’ll
● Understand the most significant trends currently influencing advancement strategy, execution, and annual giving performance.
● Connect these trends to your institution’s specific goals and challenges.
● Gain insight from aggregated data, including patterns emerging from annual giving programs.
● See real-world examples of how peers are responding to these trends—at both macro and programmatic levels.
● Identify where your institution can take action to drive measurable impact across your advancement efforts.
Independent Schools Drinks Reception
(Sponsored by Boost My School)
Doc’s at Wylie Center
Join independent school colleagues for some networking and complimentary drinks and nibbles after a day’s worth of sessions.