Message From Your Chair

Successful fundraising operations share many key traits, chief among them a robust and well-managed prospect pipeline. Development Researchers provide the vital services that ensure their organizations devote appropriate attention to the most essential prospective donors, and therefore secure the greatest support for their organizational missions.

The Conference for Development Researchers will examine the role of research and prospect management professionals from many perspectives. We'll discuss ways to strengthen that role, both in terms of skills sets applied and internal relationships developed. And we'll discuss ways to assess and communicate the value that researchers bring to the development process.

Conference Chair

Jon Thorsen
Director of Advancement Services
The Nature Conservancy

Jon Thorsen is director of advancement services at The Nature Conservancy, where he oversees the areas of Business Information & Analytics, Fundraising Systems, Prospect Development and Prospect Management. A former university librarian and instructor, he joined the development profession in 1987 and has led research and advancement services operations for Princeton University and the American Red Cross.

A former president of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement, Thorsen received the association's Distinguished Service Award in 1999. He currently serves as a consultant to the board of directors of the Association of Advancement Services Professionals and chair of that organization's Best Practices committee. He received AASP's Volunteer of the Year award in 2010.

Thorsen has given presentations on many facets of the development profession at conferences for AASP, APRA, ADRP, AFP, CASE and other organizations. His articles on the advancement services profession have appeared in numerous publications, and he has contributed to the books Constituent Relationship Management: The New Little Black Book of Politics and People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities.

Faculty

Karen L. Greene
Associate Vice President of Development Services
The Nature Conservancy

David M. Lawson
Co-founder
WorkingPhilanthropy.com

David M. Lawson is the Co-founder of WorkingPhilanthropy.com and a director of Affinaquest. He began his career as the editor of The Foundation 500. He founded The Information Prospector, a firm that profiled philanthropists, and introduced Securities Prospector, the first asset-based wealth screening service. In the early 1990s he was a senior consultant with Thomson Wealth ID where he created the first software program to manage screening results. In 1997 Lawson founded Prospect Information Network (P!N) which became the largest wealth screening service before being purchased by Kintera in 2004.

Lawson was a senior vice president with Kintera until March of 2008. Most recently he was the president, screening & analytics for DonorTrends, Inc. where he continues as a strategic partner. In 2001 he co-founded The WOW Institute, an experiential training organization for fundraisers and philanthropists.

He is a frequent speaker, contributor to trade publications and a contributing author to Major Donors: Finding Big Gifts in Your Database and Online and People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities. Lawson is an APRA Distinguished Service Award winner, a CASE Crystal Apple recipient and a member of APRA and AASP.

David E. Robertson, Jr.
Director of Operations Research
Syracuse University

David Robertson is director of operation research at Syracuse University, where he has been for seven years. His area of expertise is in data mining with a strong interest in forecasting and predictive modeling. He has presented at APRA and CASE conferences throughout the United States and Canada.

His research interest is philanthropy; specially looking at the philanthropic activities of disenfranchised or marginalized members of society. His research will bring to light the unrecognized, undocumented and informal contributions of these individuals.

David has a bachelor's degree and master's degree in business administration from Le Moyne College where he teaches as an adjunct professor. He is currently a doctoral student in the Social Science Ph.D. Program within the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

Deborah Reinhardt Youmans
Director of Advancement Research
Le Moyne College

Deborah Reinhardt Youmans brings expertise in fundraising research and data analytics, prospect management operations and volunteer management.

She has over 20 years of development experience and is currently director of advancement Research at Le Moyne College. She provides pro-bono consulting to nonprofit organizations and additional community small nonprofits. She is a member of the Association for Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA), serving as a board member of APRA International. She is a member of the Association for Fund Raising Professionals (AFP), serving as a board member of the AFP-Central New York Chapter, Partnership for Philanthropic Planning (PPP), Planned Giving Council of Upstate New York, APRA-Upstate New York, New England Development Research Association and a Professional Member of CASE.

Youmans has presented at numerous local, regional and national conferences for APRA, AFP, JAA and CASE, earning her repeated faculty stars from CASE. She is a graduate of Columbia College receiving dual bachelors in business administration and psychology, and earning her master's degree in business administration from Le Moyne College with concentrations in finance, human resources and marketing. She is among the 200+ individuals located internationally who are certified as an AFP Master Trainer.

Guest Speaker

Lori Hood Lawson
Co-Founder & CEO
WorkingPhilanthropy.com

Lori Hood Lawson utilizes her years of institutional development research experience to help organizations turn data into actionable fundraising intelligence. As co-founder and CEO of WorkingPhilanthropy.com, she helps to keep the nonprofit sector current in the latest issues and trends. She has also served as the group director of fundraising intelligence for DonorTrends, where she was instrumental in creating an exact match screening service for professional biographies and charitable contributions for the nonprofit community.

Prior to founding WorkingPhilanthropy.com, Lawson served as director of strategic solutions for Kintera P!N, where she managed a team of consultants, serving more than 300 nonprofit organizations in identification of prospective donors via wealth screening. While at Kintera, she also helped bring to market P!N's desktop product as a web-based solution. Before joining P!N, Lawson enjoyed the role of associate director of research for The Florida State University Foundation, where she received the Administrator of the Year Award and served on the New Employee Orientation Committee and The Committee for Acknowledgement and Recognition of Employee Excellence.

Lawson is a member of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement International (APRA) and has served on the board of the Florida chapter of APRA, most recently as president and director-at-large. She holds an master's degree from The Florida State University School of Information and a bachelor's degree from Emory University. She is a voracious reader, a frequent author of articles and blogs, and a speaker at industry conferences. You may follow her on Twitter @workinglori.