What role do millennials and gen z donors play in your organization’s development plan? Many organizations overlook the importance of authentically engaging with and appreciating younger volunteers and donors, to their own detriment. If we ignore prospective, new, and young donors for the wealthiest person in the room, why would they want to engage with us when they’re ready to give? In this session, participants will explore how to cultivate new donors, especially those under the age of 30 through the following topics:  

• The mutual aid/grassroots mentality of millennial and gen z donors   
• The importance of early positive interactions with young donors  
• Rethinking the emphasis on gift and ask frequency   

Participants will challenge their perception of low dollar, new donors, better understand millennial and generation z mindsets as they relate to philanthropy and explore how young donors fit into their efforts to fund the future. 

Do you love the cultivation and stewardship part of development but get intimidated when making the ask? Even as a seasoned development professional, asking can still be intimidating. Money invokes emotion for all of us and this emotion can influence how we fund raise. Join Kari Anderson, Principle of Incite! Consulting to address the topic of money and identify how our views about money influence our fundraising strategies and tactics. We will work to remove our own biases and re-frame how we think about fundraising. When we recognize the people passion associated with fundraising, we are broadening our awareness of how people bring value to our work and expanding our opportunity for growth. You will walk away with tools to make the ask and knowledge that can be shared with your board and staff to help them remove the fear of fundraising and get comfortable making the ask, too. 

Has “start (or expand) your planned giving program” been on your to-do list for far too long? Ever feel overwhelmed when your finance committee drops acronyms like CLUTS and CRATS? With over $9 trillion expected to transfer between generations through inheritance over the next 10 years, the Chronicle of Philanthropy and Giving USA refer to the upcoming years as the “Golden Age” of fundraising. This session will break down how to move beyond the annual gift, how different giving vehicles work, and which donors you should be talking to about them. Participants will learn how to better position you and your organization to solicit and receive a donor’s charitable estate plan. 

This session will cover the basics of developing donor relationships that encourage retention and deeper engagement. With the national donor retention rate stuck at 44%, the traditional ways of thanking donors is not working for most nonprofits. Come to explore mission-oriented practices that have helped nonprofits exceed the national standard. Participants will identify gaps in donor stewardship, brainstorm mission-oriented donor stewardships approaches, and walk away with a calendar to implement their unique donor stewardship practices. 
 

Women control 51% of the personal wealth in the US. By 2025, 60% of billionaires are expected to be women, and currently 43% of the nation’s top wealth holders are women. If you aren’t focusing your fundraising efforts on women, you are missing out on a significant opportunity. Women are changing the dynamics of the traditional fundraising office, have you adapted your fundraising efforts accordingly? This session will provide the background to this change and give you the tools you need to make the most of opportunities to engage women donors. 

As fundraisers, we often wear many hats, which may include founder, marketer, copy editor, photographer, chair mover, envelope stuffer, and on and on. How do you do it all if you’re a one- or two-person show? And let’s be honest, even bigger shops struggle to meet all the demands placed on fundraisers, many of which pull us away from the critical work of raising money for our organizations. So how do you decide what to prioritize? What are the first steps to creating a strategic development plan with manageable, actionable activities to maximize your limited time? Who can you lean on to help you meet and surpass your goals? And how can you activate your volunteers in meaningful ways to support your work? Participants will learn how to engage their network including volunteers, peers, and fellow coworkers to support a total development plan that will allow them to achieve fundraising success.