Track 2: Strategic Fundraising

Sponsored by North Park University Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management

Session 1: How to take the Fear out of Asking: A Training Workshop for Board and Staff (10:45 AM-12:00 PM)

A practical, interactive session for board members, agency executives and development professionals beginning with building the culture to attract major gifts in smaller or even one-person shops.  Highlights include arranging the appointment, handling objections and making  the ask without fear.  The session includes tips on structuring meaningful role-playing activities.

By the end of this session, participants will:

• Understand some basics for building a major gifts program.
• Know how to involve board members in the solicitation process.
• Be able to integrate a major gifts initiative into even the smallest development shop.
• Know, specifically, how to ask for large gifts.

Speakers:

Randi Frank, CFRE, Director of Development, Center for Enriched Living;

Sandy Macnab, CFRE, FAHP, President, Alexander Macnab & Co.

Session 2: Using, Managing and Training Volunteers in Your Planned Giving Program (1:15-2:30 PM)

Attendees will learn how to focus on using volunteers in three ways, and will address legal and ethical issues in their use.  By using examples from successful use of volunteers in planned giving programs, basic strategies to effectively use volunteers to advance a growing-to-mature planned giving effort.

By the end of the session the attendees will learn:

• How to use volunteers in cultivating and soliciting planned gifts;
• How to train volunteers to present seminars on planned giving;
• How to use allied professionals as volunteers to expand the planned giving program.  Each will emphasize addressing diverse audiences, and using diverse volunteers.

Speaker:

Robert M. Shafis, JD, CFRE, Director of Major Gift Planning, Museum of Science and Industry

Session 3: Preparing the Volunteer for Solicitation Success: The Skills, Attributes, and Tools Needed to Do the Job (2:45-4:00 PM)

The key to a flourishing development program at any non-profit is a strong partnership between the professional fundraiser and his/her volunteer.  Both need each other in order to accomplish the common goal of securing financial resources for their institution.  In this relationship, it is the professional who bears the responsibility of making sure that the volunteer partner is prepared, with the proper mindset, tools and information in order to be successful.  In this thought-provoking session, hear from both sides of the partnership, in which a professional fundraiser and his lay partner share the keys to their working relationship, with a special emphasis on what the professional can do to increase the likelihood of the volunteer’s success.

By the end of the session the attendees will:

• Gain a better understanding of the various roles, strengths and limitations of the professional and volunteer as they embark on a solicitation effort.
• Find out what the volunteer needs the most from the professional throughout the various phases of a solicitation, from preparation to execution to follow-up.
• Learn what the professional absolutely must do when preparing a volunteer…and the pitfalls to avoid.

Speakers:

Jim Rosenberg, Vice President, Financial Resource Development, Jewish United Fund / Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago;

Bill Silverstein, Co-owner, Beal Properties