Conference Overview

Day 1: March 25, 2025
 

The Four Pillars of Donor Communications

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One of the most crucial keys to retaining donors is creating an effective donor communications program that resonates and engages your audience. So how do we go about creating dynamic donor communications? How do we create messages that truly resonate? How do we write with both persuasion and gratitude at the same time? How do we meet demands for print, video, and social content that answers everyone’s needs? And where do we start?

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This full day deep dive into donor communications will teach you:
 

• How to effectively tell your story using the Four Pillars of Donor Communications — Information, Persuasion, Gratitude, and Impact

• How to create communications donors want to consume and share

• How to remove the institutional voice and replace it with a donor-focused, cause-driven voice

• When to use certain types of communications over others

• How to collaborate with organizational communications professionals 

• How to advocate for change and attain buy-in from internal constituencies

• How to eliminate communications that aren't working

• Simple changes to transform a mediocre communication into a great one

• Tests you can run to evaluate effectiveness of your current communications

• How to make the donor the hero of your work

• And much more! 
   

We'll inspire you with samples of top-tier communications, teach you the same proven strategies we’ve shared with clients all over the world, and equip you with the tools you need to create and implement a winning donor communications strategy at your nonprofit.

Day 2: March 26, 2025

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Morning Workshop — Strategic Fund Management: Compliance, Utilization and Stewardship 

The second half of the day is our fund management workshop. We'll focus on the principles of fund compliance, financial utilization, and stewardship. Getting the gift in the door is only half of our job in fundraising. From gift agreements through reporting impact, our jobs in donor relations begin with the long-term process of ensuring the funds are spent to maximum capacity in accordance with donor intent, and reported on to the donors. This dedicated workshop will focus on setting the stage with effective and sustainable gift agreements, fund audits and compliance best practices, donor-centered stewardship activities, and much more. We'll explore this complex issue while identifying key partners and data needs. This half-day workshop is for both new and experienced development professionals seeking a deeper understanding of fund management and the role donor relations plays in this crucial space.

During this half-day workshop, you will learn: 

• How to craft effective and sustainable gift agreements

• Fund audit and compliance best practices

• Collaboration with institutional partners on fund management

• Donor-centered stewardship activities

• Reporting strategies and best practices
   

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Afternoon Workshop — Data-Driven Decision-Making in Donor Relations 
 

Are you making decisions in your donor relations shop based on what front-line fundraisers tell you the donors “say”? Are you continuing activities where you question the ROI of your efforts? Is your suggestion box full? Do you ever wish you had proof that it’s time to let go of a project, task, or event? Do you wonder what happened to your strategy? Is your leadership asking you for proof you need more staff or resources? Have you gathered lots of benchmarking data but don’t know how to use it?

This half-day workshop will teach you practical insights that will empower you to harness the right information for data-driven decision-making in donor relations. Whether you're a seasoned fundraising professional or new to the field, this workshop will equip you with the tools to make informed choices, leading you to stronger donor relationships, increased loyalty, and greater overall fundraising success. 

During this half-day workshop, you will learn: 

• How to implement a data-driven culture in your shop

• Strategies for making a compelling case for changes in staff, workload, and resources

• Evidence-based practices for leveraging empirical data over anecdotes

• Which critical data points should guide your decision-making

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Day 3: March 27, 2025

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Increasing Donor Retention Through Behavior-Based Donor Relations 

Let’s face it—"the way we’ve always done it" is fading into the background as new efforts emerge. But some shops are still stuck in traditional thanking methods, usually based on gift amounts, to define their communication and recognition efforts. It’s 7 times cheaper to retain the donors you have than to acquire new ones. The reality that we have finite resources—both with our staff and budgets—and we must strategize ways to satiate many donors with different interests and needs. By developing a program based on donor behaviors, in lieu of arbitrary giving amounts, we can ensure we are communicating gratitude and impact to our donors at all levels of giving.

During this half-day workshop, you will learn:

• How to identify priority donor behaviors you need to reinforce

• How to craft personal communications for these groups

• Strategy development to increase donor retention

• Why behavior-based practices are in alignment with core principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion

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CFRE Eligibility: This conference has been approved for 12.5 CFRE points in Category 1.B – Education of the CFRE International application for initial certification and/or recertification. ​