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Building Your Ideal Donor Profile

Do you know which donors are “right” for you? If not, you, your fundraising team, and your prospect researchers will waste a lot of scarce and precious time chasing the DOA’s – prospects who are “dead on arrival.” Avoid this problem by building your Ideal Donor Profile. The Ideal Donor Profile is a documented set of guidelines that go well beyond what you can find in a database. Our presenter, Ellen Bristol, will show you how to craft a profile that includes:  The Facts: statistics and demographics describing your ideal donor’s wealth capacity, giving capacity, and other database-able information.  The Values: insights into donor’s giving motivations.  The Danger Signs: characteristics you want to avoid. Comprehensive profiles like this save your fundraising team time and energy by helping them understand which donors justify further investment in cultivation and solicitation. These simple tools help your team avoid wasted effort, yet Ellen’s own Leaky Bucket research shows that as many as 84% of nonprofits fail to create them. During this 90-minute training program, Ellen will walk you through a series of exercises, providing templates and other resources to reinforce the learning. By the end of the program, you will have the skills you need to build your first draft profile – or improve the one you’ve already built. Building the Ideal Donor Profile is one of Ellen’s most popular training programs.

CFRE Continuing Education Webinars

Randall Hallett

Planned Giving in a Down Market: What to do!

We all see it every day…the “Dow Jones” is down another 2%. And over the past 6 months, down some 6,000 points or 15%+. In a nonprofit world where planned giving is more important than ever, how should we handle this scenario? What should we say? What should we do? This educational session is all about tactical messaging and knowing the right planned giving vehicles that can leverage the moment to your advantage. There are answers…tune in to hear some of them.

Randall Hallett

Fundraising in an Inflationary Period: What to do!

Inflation has not been an issue since the 1970’s and 1980’s…but it is today! What should fundraisers say and do to survive? What should organizations be ready for? What are the biggest challenges? And how should we communicate with our donors? this session is al about tactical/real life suggestions that can be executed today to make you and your nonprofit organization more strategic and less reactionary with inflationary issues.

Available Now

Fundraising Event Marketing Tips to Bridge the Generational Divide

We all know marketing and promotion are vital to the success of your fundraising events. But how do you reach the right donors on the right channels? Find out where 1,029 social donors of all ages told us they found out about their last social giving opportunity or event (there were a couple of interesting surprises!). We’ll share actionable tips and ideas to help you market your next event to a diverse audience of supporters! Join this session to learn: * Which marketing channels donors of various generations prefer * What event donors of all ages reported motivates them to give and how you can incorporate that into your marketing * Tips and ideas you can use right away to successfully market your next event to donors across all generations

Barbara O'Reilly & Cherian Koshy

Rethinking Fundraising: Why Nonprofits Are Holding Themselves Back from True Fundraising Success and How to Fix That

So often we focus our time learning fundraising tactics and fixes to help nonprofits raise more money. But, the reality is that real fundraising success only happens with the right mindset and the right culture for those tactics and strategies to work best. Fundraising success comes from a willingness to think “both/and” and courage to test, fail, and innovate. We’ve learned that fundraising has been forced to transform repeatedly these last two years. Success is no longer just defined by how much money our organizations can raise. But rather by how nimble and adaptable we can be. During this session we’ll examine where nonprofit leaders get stuck and hold themselves back from true fundraising growth. We’ll discuss how to define the culture of innovation your organization needs to embrace and how to craft a vision and strategic plan that supports intentional and scalable fundraising. You’ll learn how to connect the dots to how fundraising innovation disrupts the “way we’ve always done it” mindset. We’ll show you how to think through each step together and craft a plan that makes breakthrough inevitable. Learning Objectives: Identify how to define what your organization needs to scale and grow. Learn tips on setting your organization’s vision, asking the right questions for growth, and making a plan. Understand what fundraising innovation means and how you can apply it to your nonprofit.

Patton MacDowell

5 Ways to Advance Your Nonprofit Leadership in 2023

Looking for ideas to build your leaderships skills, as well as those of your team? Many nonprofit professionals don’t receive the coaching and professional development they need in order to advance toward their individual and organizational goals, so Patton McDowell will offer practical ideas and insight as he shares five strategies to help you advance along “Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership” next year. In fact, you’ll walk away with a personal leadership plan for the next five years.

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Giving USA 2022: Donor Advised Funds

Join Presenters: Ryan Woroniecki: Advisor, DonorSearch and Board Member, The Giving Institute. Lisa Stratton​: Senior Philanthropic Advisor, Arizona Community Foundation.Victoria Kelberer: Research and Strategy Group Manager, Vanguard Charitable. Karima Amlani: Vice President of Development, Senior Leadership,Community Foundation of Greater Flint

In 2016 National Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) including Vanguard Charitable managed $45 billion in assets, in 2020 that number more than doubled to over $100 billion. National, Single Issue, and Community Foundation managed DAFs are becoming the go-to generosity vehicle for the wealthy, and even some in the middle class, but there are still many questions about DAFs and DAF giving:
How do people give to and from DAFs
What kinds of organizations do DAF holders give to?
How much money actually leaves the DAF and goes to nonprofit organizations?
How, and how often, does a DAF sponsoring organization help DAF holders decide where to give?
This year, The Giving USA Report included a DAF Chapter with answers to many of these questions and more. Our panel discussion includes experts from DAF sponsoring organizations who will help synthesize this information and share their lived experiences over the past few years. If you want to understand the way some of your biggest donors and potential donors give, this session is for you.

Kenna Barrett

Persuasive Conversations for Introverts

The art and science of persuasion is an essential skill in the fundraiser’s toolkit. Yet few fundraisers receive training on what sets a persuasive ask apart from a lackluster one. In this webinar, fundraising guide and rhetoric expert Kenna Barrett breaks down the essential elements of persuading your audience into action, whether that be taking a meeting, joining a committee, or making a donation. We will also look at thought patterns that can hold us back unless addressed. Participants will have a few minutes to practice their pitches independently and (if they wish) to share their reflections via the chat feature.

Karen Houghton

4 Ways to Build a Financially Sustainable Nonprofit

Financial resilience leads to better outcomes for the people you serve. If your organization ceases to exist, who will do the work? If you launch a new program but can’t sustain it after 6 months. Did you do more harm than good? We can’t just raise money, we also have to manage it. Join us for an overview on achieving financial sustainability in an approachable and easy to understand format. Topics include best practices for reserve funds, demystifying endowments, understanding and reducing investment fees, and accepting stock and crypto donations.

Amy Eisenstein

How to Plan an Effective Capital Campaign Using New Tools and Technology

If there is a capital campaign in your future, this session is for you! A capital campaign is likely the largest amount your organization has ever tried to raise… often even 10 times more than you currently raise. The good news is that you don’t have to do it alone! There are tools, technology, and virtual resources to help you on your path. Learn how to prepare for a campaign and create a campaign plan using the latest tools to ensure your campaign is a success. You will: Learn the critical stages and timeline of a campaign; Identify new resources available to help make your campaign effective and affordable; and, Leave feeling confident and empowered about planning a successful campaign.

Emily Marcason-Tolmie

Prospect Research 101 The Nuts and Bolts

New to prospect research? Learn the deeper meanings of professional research methodologies and why employing prospect research in your shop will pay off. Topics discussed will be discovering prospects, assessing capacity, and how to present what you’ve uncovered to fundraisers. Think of this as your Introduction to Prospect Research 101 course.

Emily Heck

Using a Marketing Approach to Giving Days

With the rise of digital fundraising, giving days have become a necessary addition to annual fundraising plans for nonprofits and education organizations. However, giving days typically contradict the old school giving strategies many organizations and fundraising professionals know and trust. Using a marketing approach to your online giving day can increase the awareness and engagement of your donors not only on the day, but long term. This session will share how to integrate a marketing approach to online giving days and ideas you can use for your next online giving campaign.

Bathsheba Philpott

Entrepreneurial Approaches to CFR Fundraising Success

This session will explore tactics and strategies to expand the base of donor support with a focus on companies and foundations. The session’s presenter will discuss approaches to help facilitate successful cultivation and solicitation strategies to expand fundraising success with corporate and foundation prospects and donors. Key topics will include making the right connection, understanding your audience, concept and proposal development and strategic stewardship.

Gail Perry and Dr. Kathryn Gamble

Close More Major Gifts: Use Wealth Screening to Focus on the Right Potential Donors

Discover how to find your hidden High Opportunity Donors within your screening data. We’ll show you how the screening helps you save time, focus on the right people, and close more major gifts. Remember, data is only useful if you understand how to utilize it to shape strategy! You’ll discover how to: Reach your fundraising potential by building a Major Gift Plan; Create a prioritized workable list of suspects and prospects based on your screening; Craft a Fundraising by the Numbers system to manage your major gift fundraising process; Approach promising “cold prospects” who are identified in your screening report.

Gasby Brown

Think Like A Nonprofit, Act Like A Business

What can nonprofits learn from business practices? M. Gasby Brown will present an overview of her upcoming book, Think Like a Nonprofit, Act Like a Business. Highlights will include the importance of strategic planning, board engagement, donor relations, as well as the need for a concise mission and vision statement, and much more. This session will provide nonprofit leaders with tools to reflect on their current operating model and make adjustments for maximum impact. Participants should have their current mission and vision statements handy for reference.

Dr. Kenna Barrett

"Making the Ask" for Introverts: Master the Art and Science of Successful Asking

Introverts can, and should, be front-line fundraisers. But how can introverts master the high-touch nature of individual philanthropy? Using empirical research and personal anecdotes, Dr. Kenna Barrett debunks myths about fundraisers, reverse-engineers the “ask” conversation, shows why small talk makes a big difference, and teaches you to prepare for unexpected responses. Join us for insights useful to introverts, extroverts, and everyone in between!

Russell James, J.D., Ph.D., CFP®

Socratic Fundraising: Using questions to advance the donor's journey

Fundraising often focuses on making “the ask.” But appreciative inquiry uses questions throughout the relationship to help the donor discover their own reasons for making a transformational donation. Professor James starts with the “why” from research, theory, and experience and then moves to the “how” of exactly what questions to ask, in what order, and for what purpose. You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of major gift decision processes and plenty of real-world “magic” questions to try out right away.