Session Overview:

In this webinar, we will investigate how to bolster your fundraising plan during times of macroeconomic transitions and micro-staff transitions. We’ll analyze factors such as board composition, risk tolerance, existing relationships with funders, and staff tenure. Together we’ll establish guiding principles for how to position your organization to maximize fundraising during uncertainty. In this session, we will review 3 transition case studies and look at how fundraising and donors were impacted. Join us for an engaging, thought-provoking, hands-on session.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify how to identify and leverage your organizational fundraising culture.
• 4 strategies to position your fundraising plan to succeed during micro and macro transitions.
• A checklist for fundraising donor communications amidst change.
• Case study practice in discovering untapped donor solicitation opportunities.

In 2016, Stephanie Sample founded Fundraising for The Future to serve the nonprofit sector with grant writing, philanthropic advising, and social enterprise consulting. FFTF has raised millions of dollars for nonprofits of all sizes working to expand their impact in sectors including education, health and human services, arts and culture, environmental advocacy, animal welfare and more. FFTF has engaged with funders to identify grant-readiness in nonprofit organizations, to conduct sector wide focus groups to determine capacity needs, clarify scholarship processes, fundraise for foundations, and establish endowments. FFTF draws on innovative perspectives, future’s thinking and creative energy to personalize philanthropic advising, grant writing, and social enterprise services. Sample enjoys training nationwide on topics from fiscal sustainability to the impact of organizational culture on agency growth.

Session Overview:

Retaining donors is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones​.​ ​With new donor retention rates ​sitting around twenty percent,​ it​’s crucial to steward these donors. Join us to discover strategies and techniques to convert one-time donors into recurring supporters. ​A big part of ​building a successful Annual Giving ​effort involves focusing on stewardship​.​ ​While ​personalization is important, ​it cannot ​be​ at the expense of your mission. ​Attendees will gain the knowledge and tools needed to implement a tried-and-true stewardship program that engages donors throughout the year​ that cultivate a community of dedicated and long-term supporters for your organization.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding the importance of stewardship: Participants will learn why stewardship is important and how it can lead to long-term donor relationships and increased donor retention rates.
• Identifying first-time donors: Participants will learn how to identify first-time donors and how to differentiate them from other donors.
• Designing a stewardship plan: Participants will learn how to develop a stewardship plan specifically for first-time donors, including how to tailor messaging and communication channels.
• Implementing effective stewardship strategies: Participants will learn best practices for stewardship, including how to personalize thank you messages, provide impact reports, and create opportunities for engagement.
• Evaluating stewardship efforts: Participants will learn how to evaluate the effectiveness of their stewardship efforts and how to use data to continually improve their strategies.
• Creating a culture of stewardship: Participants will learn how to involve other team members in the stewardship process and how to make stewardship a priority throughout the organization. Overall, the objective of the webinar would be to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of how to effectively steward first-time donors, in order to build long-term relationships and increase donor retention rates.

Nick Sollog, Founder & CEO, has been a development professional for 20 years. In 2009 he formed The Sollog Group, a consulting firm dedicated to helping nonprofit organizations raise more money in less time. The group’s practice focuses on capital campaigns, annual giving, database administration, and prospect development.

Prior to consulting, Nick worked in the University of Richmond and the University of Lynchburg development offices. Born and raised in Richmond, VA, Nick graduated from the University of Lynchburg with a BA in International Relations. His advanced education includes certificates from the University of Richmond’s Institute of Philanthropy in Grant Writing & Management, Fundraising & Development, and Nonprofit Marketing. Nick is involved in the local community both personally and professionally. He is an active communicant and former Vestryman at Grace & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. Nick’s professional memberships include the VAFRE, AFP, AASP, & Apra.

Session Overview:

If we’re honest, most of us talk about fundraising as if we’re running after or chasing down new funding. We have to constantly find ways to identify and land new funders and donors. There can be so much effort, and friction involved in that version of fundraising that even thinking about it can be exhausting.

What if, instead, we thought of fundraising as the opposite of chasing? What if we got phone calls from new funders inviting us to apply, or emails from people in our network asking to connect us to people they know that want to know how they can support our work, or invitations to share our work at invitation-only funder convenings . . .

What if you could set up a fundraising system that drew funding to your organization rather than you always having to chase it?

Learning Objectives:

• A Framework for identifying and connecting with the right potential donors for your organization

Brooke Richie-Babbage is an organizational design and nonprofit growth strategist and advisor. She has spent the past 23 years working as a lawyer, nonprofit leader, professor, and social entrepreneur. She is the host of the Nonprofit Mastermind Podcast, the founder of the Next Level Nonprofit Growth Accelerator, and the founder and CEO of Bending Arc, a strategy & content firm through which she partners with nonprofit leaders and philanthropic institutions around the country to support the launching and scaling of high-impact nonprofits. As part of this work, Brooke serves as the Director of the Social Justice Accelerator at the Urban Justice Center and the NetLab Initiative at the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation.

She has been an active member and officer of multiple nonprofit boards of directors, and philanthropic and government advisory councils. Brooke received both her JD and MPP from Harvard and her BA from Yale. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two wonderful sons.