The 2020 NEAGC

8:00-8:45am: Registration and Coffee 

8:45-9:15am: Welcome and Opening Remarks 

• Opening Remarks: Andy Bernstein, Director of Annual Giving, Quinnipiac University and President of the Northeast Annual Giving Association, Ltd.
• Welcome to Buffalo: Rodney M. Grabowski, Vice President for University Advancement, University at Buffalo
• Remarks from our Platinum Sponsors: MainSpring Media Communications and AGN, Resources for Advancement

9:15-10:30am: Keynote Address

Giving and Culture: A Conversation About Multicultural Advancement

Rachel Vassel, Assistant Vice President for Multicultural Advancement, Syracuse University

Don’t miss this conversation with Rachel Vassel, Assistant Vice President for Multicultural Advancement at Syracuse University, about targeted programs that drive Black and Latinx alumni engagement and giving.  Considering the growth of multicultural alumni, institutions are increasingly expected to offer targeted engagement events and culturally relevant giving opportunities that benefit their institutions, communities of color and underrepresented students.  For over 30 years, Syracuse University has had dedicated staff to specifically engage multicultural alumni. Rachel and her team have been successful at offering multicultural events and reunions, targeted communications and giving campaigns that have doubled Black and Latinx giving since 2017.

10:30-11:00am: Break and Visit Sponsors

11:00-12:00pm: Breakout Session 1

1A. Increasing Alumni Participation

Dan Allenby, Principal and Founder, AGN Resources

A growing number of advancement programs report that alumni participation is among their highest priorities. But limited resources, competing interests, and a twenty-year national decline in the percentage of alumni who donate to their alma maters annually offer many challenges for academic institutions who seek to buck the trend. Discover how you can boost alumni participation rates now – and over the long term – while building a stronger base of philanthropic support for your institution.

1B.  Creating Your Giving Day in a Small Shop

Brooke Mattingly, Director of The Baldwin Fund, The Baldwin School

Stacey Cole, Director of Annual Giving, Alvernia University

Learn how to create, build and implement a giving day for individuals working in small shops with limited resources. We’ll approach best practices, tips and tricks that we’ve found helpful both at the higher-ed and independent school level.  Our goal is for attendees to have a framework to customize for their organization so they can successfully launch their own giving day or continue to build on an existing day.

1C. Athletics Fundraising: Cultivating, Engaging, and Retaining Athletics-Specific Donors

Kylie Martin,  Director of Annual Giving for Leadership Gifts and Athletics, Springfield 

Come ready to discuss winning strategies and get tips on how to expand your institution’s athletics fundraising efforts. Discover best practices for working with campus leadership, athletic directors and coaches, the central fundraising office, and campus colleagues in order to develop stronger relationships and raise more money.

1D. Leadership Annual Giving; The in’s and out’s of scheduling the visit and making the ask.

Katie Homer, Director of Advancement, Office of Medical Advancement, University at Buffalo

Prospecting, discovery, the ask – oh my! Come learn the basics about leadership annual giving. We’ll walk through the process from the initial prospecting to the ask and what comes next. There will also be time for some Q&A, so be sure to bring your questions!

1E. The Game of (Donor) LIFE

Christina Nichols; CFRE, bCRE-PRO, VP of Client Development at Marketing Communication Resource, Inc.
Co-Presenter TBA

The donor journey can feel like the game of LIFE with unexpected highs and lows. In this interactive session, we’ll work through the “life” of our donors and present solutions to opportunities that impact the donor experience. Attendees will receive an “instruction manual” for the Game of (Donor) LIFE.

12:00-1:00pm: Lunch 

• Diane Thompson Award Presentation, Bob Burdenski, Principal, Robert Burdenski Annual Giving

1:00-2:00pm: Breakout Session 2

2A. Twenty Lightbulbs From the Past Twelve Months in Sixty Minutes: Favorite New Annual Giving Ideas of the Year

Bob Burdenski, Principal, Robert Burdenski Annual Giving

Long-time NEAGC friend, CASE Laureate and “Innovations in Annual Giving” author Bob Burdenski returns with a new batch of his favorite annual giving examples, strategies and solutions from the past year. From Schenectady to Singapore, see the institutions that pushed the envelope (and the email, the phone call, social media, and every other channel) in getting their story told and inspiring their prospects to give. Whether they were filling their pipeline or pursuing participation, see a rapid-fire rundown of who did something special this year.

2B. Engaging Your Youngest Philanthropic Leaders Through Events

Lauren Buckheir, Assistant Director, Young Alumni Philanthropy, University of Pennsylvania

This fall, The Penn Fund’s Young Alumni and Student Philanthropy Team executed three Young Alumni Philanthropic Leadership events. The goal of these events is to steward and/or cultivate leadership donors. Thus far, our YAPL events have elevated the level of engagement of our youngest philanthropic leaders. Come ready to learn how Penn identified what meaningful events look like to their alumni and the ways in which events can be used to effectively boost engagement and giving. 

2C. Writing for Donors—it’s not what you’re selling. It’s what they’re buying that counts! Sarah Gnerre, VP of Philanthropy, Fundraising Performance Consultant, Five Maples

Matt Kennedy, Director of Annual Giving, New England College 

Using the documented body of knowledge, best practice, research and made-every-mistake-at-least-once experience, your presenters will illuminate your way toward compelling fundraising appeals donors want to read. There will be examples of well-aligned, donor-centric emails, donor impact reports and annual reports.

2D. Become a Donor Stewardship Samurai: Secret Weapons for Retention, Renewal, and Rising Returns

Pam Say, Vice President of Institutional Advancement, D’Youville College

While serving as Director of Constituent Relations and Donor Stewardship, Witter was tasked with writing a full-scale, annual stewardship campaign for her institution. She embarked on a learning journey, studying and analyzing the field, examining her organizations track record, and ultimately building a powerful operation with significant results. In year one, first-time donor retention increased from 15-28%; employee participation in giving increased from 38-56%; LYBUNT retention went from 59-67%; and 331 new members were inducted in the donor giving society. In this session, Witter reveals the goals for long-term stewardship, the reasons donors lapse, and the 6 Steps to Structuring a Super-Star Stewardship Program. They include communications, ethical management, recognition, inquiry, education, and events and initiatives. Whether you are new to the field or a tenured stewardship professional, you will discover great take-away’s to build or fine-tune your organization’s stewardship plan.

2E. Reunion Giving 101

Skylar Beaver, The Lawrenceville School, Director of The Lawrenceville Fund

Want to leverage your school’s class reunion program to increase giving and maximize

participation? Learn how to use milestone reunions to further engage current donors, attract news ones, and secure multi-year pledges for an ongoing giving cycle. In this session, we will discuss strategies used to broaden your donor base, challenge alumni in reunion years to increase their giving to meet ambitious goals, and to collaborate effectively with your Alumni Relations team so the reunion experience is well balanced, fun and successful. We will also discuss how to effectively work with large reunion committees to help each class meet the goals of a comprehensive reunion program—attendance, fundraising, and class gift participation.

2:15-3:15pm: Breakout Session 3

3A. Combining your Campaign Launch and Giving Day

Geoffrey Barlett, Assistant Vice President for Annual Giving, University at Buffalo

Nicole Shepherd, Assistant Vice President for Donor and Volunteer Relations, University at Buffalo

Jennifer Boscia Smith, Assistant Vice President for Donor and Alumni Communication, University at Buffalo

In April, 2018 the University at Buffalo launched the largest comprehensive fundraising campaign in university, and SUNY, history, the $650 million Boldly Buffalo: Our Place, Our Way, Our Future. The launch was an innovative take on a campaign launch, paired with Giving Day, to encourage alumni and friends to make their first gifts to the campaign. 

Overall, the success and innovation of the entire program allowed UB to:

1. capitalize on limited event and program budgets by focusing on key stakeholders at all levels of engagement

2. break down silos and work more collaboratively as an organization. 

3. adapt and align core message strategies for discrete audiences across the multi-event platform.

In this case study, the presenters who led the major initiatives will share how they balanced competing priorities and built an audience-centric program that helped to define the campaign priorities and engage audiences from across the campus community.

3B. Turn off the TV – What to do With all These Channels

Jonathan Van Oss, Consulting and Analytics, Pledgemine 

Amy McCoy, Director of Annual Giving and Advancement Communications, Le Moyne College 

Most of us struggle with just trying to reach our donors with one channel.  Now there is “multichannel” and even “omnichannel” fundraising. It doesn’t need to be as intimidating as it seems, no matter how small or large your institution is.  Learn how you can reach your donors in the most effective way possible by “listening” to what they tell you through their own giving behavior. Also, learn how Le Moyne College (and other NEAGC institutions) are targeting, and connecting with their donors and prospects with segmented, strategic messaging and intentional timing using an omnichannel fundraising approach.

3C. Segmentation: A Master Class

Pam Say, Vice President of Institutional Advancement, D’Youville College

Segmentation is a method used in fundraising to speak to the donor as an individual with unique interests and preferences, despite most forms of communication for the annual fund going to large groups. This session provides an overview of segmentation for new and intermediate development professionals; offers insight on how to manage donor records to best analyze, categorize, and track communication; dives into the myriad ways one can segment – from common techniques to project-based segmentation; connects segmentation to messaging; and challenges long-held philosophies on the purpose and impact of segmentation, especially in annual funds. After presenting on her acclaimed book “Five Strategies to Increase Annual Fund Revenue” throughout the country, participants have asked for a “deeper dive” on each of the five strategies. As a result, Pam has begun to build out sessions that isolate the strategies and allow institutions – big or small – to learn the techniques that help her teams consistently grow unrestricted giving.

3D. Step Up Your Social Game

Stephanie Rasamny, President and Founder, MainSpring Media Communications

 Impressions, reach, engagements, retweets, InMail, gmail promos, retargets, keyword targets, pixels and tags – social media advertising can feel a bit like opening Pandora’s box for an annual giving shop tasked to raise immediate donors and dollars. In this session, we’ll discuss social media advertising that will work for you. Together we’ll review case studies of annual giving ad campaigns and their results. You will leave the session with valuable takeaways to step up your social game at your institution!

3E. Promoting and Investing in Life Balance

Dr. Summer Reiner, Full Professor in Counselor Education, The College at Brockport

Kerry Gotham, Director of Alumni Engagement, The College at Brockport

With a greater focus on assessment and rising expectations for return on investment in advancement, maintaining life balance can be challenging. Increased demands can lead to successful goal attainment, but may have negative outcomes for workers and the workplace environment. Maintaining a balance in one’s life may lead to increased performance and prevent adverse consequences associated with job demands. Learn strategies for improving your life balance and avoid burnout on your own professional journey. 

3:15-3:45pm: Break and Visit Sponsors

3:45-4:45pm: Breakout Session 4

4A. Maximizing the Annual Fund

Matthew Gorczyga, Assistant Director, Canisius Fund, Canisius College

Summer Handzlik, Director, Canisius Fund, Canisius College

This presentation focused on how to maximize individual channels (direct-mail, email, social media, phone program, etc.) in an effort to increase effectiveness while being efficient with costs to raise a dollar. Recently, the Canisius Fund implemented a strategy to use specific channels at specific times to certain donor segments that not only resulted in more donors supporting the annual fund and dollars raised for the annual fund, but in a way that kept the cost-to-raise-a-dollar at peak efficiency.

4B. Texting to Increase Donations

David Goodwin, Managing Member, TextAim

Sarah Pinto, Assistant Director of Annual Giving, Quinnipiac University

According the marketing experts at Campaign Monitor, email open rates average 20%. By contrast, SMS text message open rates demonstrate an average 98% open rate, making it one of the fastest growing tools in outreach across industries. Trends in fundraising are highlighting the personal connection that donors expect with an institution in order to make a gift. Personalized SMS text message communications open the door for organic conversations between the donor and your fundraising team, without the rush of a phone call or the brevity of an email. This presentation will demonstrate the current trends in text messaging as a marketing tool in fundraising, as well as what creates an effective text message outreach and how to craft a strategic text messaging plan that can be used across appeals – including engagement, solicitation, and stewardship.

4C. Facilitated Discussion: Student Philanthropy 

Facilitators:

Elaine Ezrapour, Director of the Fordham Fund, Fordham University 

Kathryn Mandalakis, Fordham Fund Officer, Fordham University 

4D. Testing Strategies: Big shop to your shop takeaways

Colin Hennessy, Executive Director of Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving, University of Chicago

Megan Rajski, Senior Associate Director of Donor Participation, University of Chicago

Executing on 16- 20 direct mail campaigns and 20+ email campaigns per fiscal year, the University of Chicago has unique opportunities to test with and thru direct and indirect strategies across several platforms. This presentation will focus on ideas and strategies that worked (and didn’t work!) and how these tests played into results. Featuring mail, email, social and digital strategies to help move the needle, this presentation aims at showing you how to play with testing at home, no matter the size of your shop.

4E. How to do More with Less: Growing Your Leadership Annual Giving Program

Erin Bory, Director, Volunteers and Engagement, George Eastman Circle, University of Rochester

Christine Lafountain `91, Executive Director, George Eastman Circle, University of Rochester

You will learn in this session how the University of Rochester is increasing its program results for leadership annual giving through a multi-channel approach, peer-to-peer volunteer outreach, targeted events and meaningful, affordable stewardship. These strategies are all scalable and can be implemented on any budget with lasting results.

4:45pm: NEAGC Day 1 Concludes

8:00-9:00am: Breakfast and Roundtable Discussions with individuals from similar institutions 

• Nonprofits
• Small Private Institutions
• Large Private Institutions 
• Small Public Institutions
• Large Public Institutions
• Independent/Boarding Schools

9:15-10:15am: Breakout Session 5

5A. Into the Crystal Ball: Where We’re Heading in Annual Giving

Moderator: Bob Burdenski

Geoffrey Barlett, Assistant Vice President for Annual Giving, University at Buffalo

Erin Martinovich, Executive Director, Annual Giving at the University of Rochester

Other Panelists TBA

What’s coming over the horizon for annual giving fundraising, and what do we need to be ready?  Data privacy, digital opportunities, changing giving methods, the quest for major gifts, business intelligence, and changing skill sets are all impacting the annual giving office.  What will the NEAGC program agenda look like in three years? Join a panel discussion on what’s next for our profession.

5B. Phonathon Modernization: Tales from the Midwest

Bob Amico, Director of Advancement Services, Carthage College

At Carthage College, a database migration forced us to evaluate and revamp our call center program. Rather than shut it down completely, we embraced the opportunity to capitalize on strengths we wanted to preserve. Learn about different ways student resources and talent can be repurposed at your organization while also reviewing positive integrations between old school phonathons and modern digital giving programs. Participants will enjoy a survey of metrics, best practices, and anecdotal case study that reveals a spectrum of opportunity between the extremes of “Shut it down!” and “We have to, because we always have.”

5C. Presentation Title: Engaging New Generations: Characteristics & Strategies to Prepare for What’s Next

Felicity Meu, Director, Partner Success, GiveCampus

Robert Meyer, Senior Director, Annual Giving, Thomas Jefferson University & Jefferson Health

Shelby Palmer, Director, Affinity Giving, Thomas Jefferson University & Jefferson Health

In recent years, Millennials–those born between 1981-1996–became the largest generation in the U.S. labor force and “Generation Z”–those born after 1996–began graduating from college.This generation’s “coming of age” has led to a widespread decline in alumni participation and few institutions have escaped these trends, giving rise to concerns about a potential “lost generation” of future major donors.

There is reason to be optimistic, however. People born after 1980 will be the beneficiaries of the largest transfer of wealth in human history. Their purchasing power, which already stands in the hundreds of billions of dollars, will steadily increase as more of them enter their peak earning years and according to numerous surveys and studies, between 80% and 90% of Millennials give to charitable organizations each year.

Felicity Meu will draw from her co-authored chapter “Engaging New Generations” in the forthcoming book “Advancing Higher Education” to review nine characteristics of Millennials and post-Millennials that drive much of their behavior. Shelby Palmer and Robert Meyer of Thomas Jefferson University will share their experience and getting millennials engaged, both as donors and peer-to-peer solicitors during their Ram’s Rise Up Athletics Challenge. The presenters will highlight actionable tactics to increase this population’s philanthropic engagement and illuminate the presentation with data drawn from the digital fundraising efforts of 700+ schools.

5D. Annual Giving 101- Tips for New Annual Giving Professionals

Justin Johnston, Vice President of Development and External Affairs, Genesee Community College

Skylar Beaver, Director of The Lawrenceville Fund, The Lawrenceville School

Other Panelists TBA

Just starting out in Annual Giving? Join this panel of current and past Annual Giving professionals as they share with you tips and tidbits that they wish they had known when they first began in the field. Each presenter will share some insights, then the panel will open for Q&A. A must-attend for any new Annual Giving professional.

5E. Engaging organizational leadership in your annual fund by merging metrics and mission

Stacey Grady, Director of Development, The Springbrook Foundation

Michelle Murdock, Development Assistant, The Springbrook Foundation 

This presentation will cover best practices in reporting on your annual fund metrics to your CEO, Board of Trustees, and other organizational leadership. We will begin with a brief overview of the history of Springbrook and the creation of The Springbrook Foundation. Then we will cover the nuts and bolts of Who, Why, What, and How, using The Springbrook Foundation as a case study. Who will define the stakeholders that need to see your AF reports. Why digs into understanding your audience’s needs and expectations, in addition to fulfilling basic governance requirements. What details the key points that should be communicated in AF reporting. These include not just what the report is comprised of (statistics), but how you’ve accomplished your goals (solicitations, events, etc.) and how they relate to your mission. We will present ideas on how to make your AF report visually accessible, as well as how to present accompanying contextual information. Successful annual fund reporting requires understanding your audience and the likelihood that you will need to help interpret your report for your stakeholders, who may not come from the fundraising world. Interpretation will maximize their mastery of the information presented, as well as your limited time together. Lastly, we will open the floor for a workshop where attendees can share victories and roadblocks in their journeys to successful AF reporting.

10:15-10:45am: Break and Visit Sponsors

10:45-11:45am: Breakout Session 6

6A. Take Your Giving Days To The Next Level

Stuart Seidel, Manager of Digital Marketing, Annual Giving, University at Albany

Lisa Gonzalez, Associate Director of Annual Giving, University at Albany 

Similar to breaking down silos and gaining support from campus we have figured out other ways to build on that and make our presence on campus and online a large one. We have had great student and faculty participation and have once again achieved our goals on our major giving day. Tabling, interacting with students, targeting faculty, utilizing social media for both internal and external audience are all key components to our success on our giving days. It may seem like a lot but it is possible to make your giving day seem huge when in fact it is just a small team leading the charge. If anything this presentation is a place to workshop and brainstorm and have an open dialogue about ideas that other places have had success with.

6B. The rise and (pit)falls of incentives: A facilitated discussion

Facilitators:

Colin Hennessy, Executive Director of Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving, University of Chicago

Megan Rajski, Senior Associate Director of Donor Participation, University of Chicago

6C. 

ThankView

6D. Annual Reporting; Are you set up for success?

Jason Pomeroy, Director of The Cortland Fund

You can talk to 100 different fundraisers and get 100 different answers on what an “Annual Gift” is. Unrestricted, temporarily restricted, large gifts, small gifts, planned gifts…whatever you include it should reflect your mission and accurately be able to demonstrate whether you are successful or not. Please feel free to bring your annual reporting to add to the conversation.

6E. Using Data to Win the Email Battle

Barb Byers, The University of Buffalo, Director Of Content Development at University at Buffalo Office of Donor and Alumni Communications

Tessa Burke, Imodules, Customer Success Manager

Are your communications hitting their mark or are you turning people off from receiving emails from your institution? Do you feel like a traffic cop in trying to manage all of the communications being sent? 

Hear about best practices for reviewing your email data on a regular basis and how you can use that data to change your email strategy for more successful outcomes. Find out how the University at Buffalo has benefited from an in-depth email analysis to make it easier to have data-oriented conversations about email marketing, its value, and opportunities to change strategy. You’ll also leave the session with more information on the type of communications that your constituents are looking for based on a 2019 Alumni Communications Survey.

12:00-1:00pm: Breakout Session 7

7A. Giving Day- Planning for a Successful 24-Hours

Summer Handzlik, Director, Canisius Fund, Canisius College

Amy Irwin, Associate Director, Higher Education and K-12 Schools, GiveGab

A 24-hour online fundraising campaign – commonly referred to as Giving Day – can be a powerful tool to increase donors and dollars at your organization, engage younger donors, build the major gift pipeline, and so much more. The key to any successful Giving Day is planning, planning, and more planning. This presentation will walk through the different stages of planning – from communication timelines, recruiting ambassadors, securing challenges, day-of events, day-of emails, and more. Participants will walk away with a Giving Day Playbook – a guide for planning and executing a successful Giving Day.

7B.  Athletics Crowdfunding: Finding the Best Way to Work with Coaches to Raise Money 

Caroline Golja, Advancement Officer, Saint Joseph’s College of Maine

Connor Forde, Director of Partnerships, BoostMySchool 

With the emergence of crowdfunding tools, individual athletics teams are able to fundraise more easily independent of their school’s advancement team. However, a lack of a unified process can make it difficult for an advancement plan and carry out everything from solicitation to stewardship. Come listen to why Saint Joseph’s College of Maine transitioned their athletics team fundraising from separate platforms to using a centralized crowdfunding platform. Walk away understanding the pros/cons of each solution for advancement and athletics, and why Saint Joseph’s has moved all teams onto a centralized platform.

7C. Conquering Phonathon Struggles

Angie Myers, Director of Annual Giving, Pennsylvania College of Technology & 2020 Diane Thompson Award Recipient

It’s no secret that in the world of higher-ed Phonathon programs continue to struggle and many institutions worry that phone calls might not be the best outreach for them.

Join me in this session to take a deeper drive into the world of Phonathon and learn how you can still make a phone call from a student caller be of value to your alumni and your institution. We will be looking into specific areas of data analysis, forecasting, segmentation setup, discussing effective caller training, overall quality control plus understanding what your program can produce.

7D. Rags to “Richies”: Leveraging Campus Celebrity in Fundraising

Jason Strohl, Associate Director, Direct Messaging, Annual Giving Office, Temple University 

In September of 2019 Temple launched a multichannel campaign with the goal of raising 5k for the campus food bank. In order to help us achieve this goal, we enlisted the help of Richie, a campus icon and owner of a popular lunch spot (Richies) who was also celebrating the 50th anniversary of his restaurant. Through unique engagement tools, such as two video spots, a memory matching game via Drimify, a “What Richies Menu Item are you” buzzfeed style quiz, and a stewardship video through Thankview, and a whole lot of social, we doubled the goal to $10k. This presentation’s focus should be on how finding unorthodox methods of engaging alumni, students and friends can lead to  greater fundraising participation.

7E. When You Can’t Do Worse: Reviewing an Entire Campaign with Little Means

Émilie Lamoureux, École de technologie supérieure

The presentation will focus on how the École de technologie supérieure has significantly increased the results of its alumni campaign by revamping it completely without drastically increasing its budget. Using the team’s talent and leveraging already owned technology and free or inexpensive new ones, ÉTS created a distinctive branding for its campaign by giving it an impactful slogan and finding students, professors, entrepreneurs and alumni ready to participate and give back to their alma mater. Thus, ÉTS traditional phonathon was accompanied by moving emails with both written and filmed testimonials, which helped to increase the number of donors and, as a result, the total amount of money raised. You can do the same. Key takeaway: Don’t be afraid to shake things up, trying simple new things can only improve your results. There is much more you can do yourself than you think.

1:00-1:30pm: Lunch 

1:30-2:45pm: Keynote Address

Building Philanthropic Partnerships that Lead to Transformational Giving

Ron Schiller, Founding Partner and Senior Consultant, Aspen Leadership Group

Each organization has donors with the potential to make that organization a priority in their giving–they will see that organization as a principal partner in their philanthropy, helping them achieve an impact on society that is important and meaningful to them. With deep belief and sustained confidence in that organization, some of these donors will make that organization the beneficiary of the largest gifts they will make in their lifetimes, and some of these gifts will be transformational for the organization. Examining what transformational donors say about their own giving, we will discuss how we can position our organizations, beginning with a donor’s first gifts, to build effective philanthropic partnerships that lead to the largest gifts of a lifetime.

2:45-3:00pm: Closing Remarks and Prize/Giveaway Announcement