Conference Chair

Dan Allenby
Assistant Vice President for Annual Giving
Boston University

Dan Allenby is the assistant vice president for annual giving at Boston University and founder of The Annual Giving Network, an organization dedicated to helping annual giving professionals exchange ideas and advance their careers through research, events and social media.

He began his career in 1996 as the phonathon manager at American University before going on to lead marketing and annual giving programs at several different educational institutions including The National Geographic Society, Georgetown University and Tufts University. As a consultant, he has helped evaluate and improve annual giving programs at a number of nonprofit and educational institutions including The College of William & Mary, University of Notre Dame, University of Chicago, University of Toronto and Vanderbilt University. He is an active speaker and instructor and has served for several years as chair of CASE's Conference for Senior Annual Giving Professionals. In 2012, he led a national survey of more than 250 annual giving programs to identify industry trends and best practices.

Allenby received a bachelor's degree from James Madison University and a master's degree in business administration from Boston College. He blogs at AnnualGiving.com.

Faculty & Staff

Paul Barry
President
Perrone Group

Paul Barry is a nationally recognized authority on successful direct marketing strategies for annual giving programs. He and his team work with a national roster of colleges and universities to enhance retention rates, increase participation and improve targeted constituent involvement.

Barry is a frequent speaker on the subject of integrated direct marketing, most recently at the Northeast Annual Giving Conference and the CASE District IV Conference in Ft. Worth, Texas. He has presented more than one hundred workshops designed to enhance the performance of direct mail programs. He is a member of CASE, the Association of Fund Raising Professionals and the New England Direct Marketing Association.

Keturi Beatty
Director of Stewardship and Planned Giving
Hockaday School

Keturi Beatty is the director of stewardship and planned giving at The Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas. During her seven year tenure at Hockaday, Beatty has also served as the director of annual giving, admissions officer, teacher, and residence house director. In addition to her work at Hockaday, she taught communication courses at the University of North Texas, and worked on the advancement team at The Lamplighter School in Dallas.

Beatty holds a bachelor's degree in communication studies and Spanish from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and a master's degree in communication studies from the University of North Texas.

Joshua M. Birkholz
Principal
Bentz Whaley Flessner

Joshua M. Birkholz is a principal at the international fundraising consulting firm, Bentz Whaley Flessner, where he oversees all specialty consulting services. His team includes experts in development operations, prospect development, social media, constituent engagement and analytics. He is founder of the BWF analytics division, DonorCast.

He has built analytics programs and ushered organizational change for leading nonprofits in higher education, health care, the arts, advocacy and social service sectors throughout the United States and beyond. He is widely regarded as a leading innovator in 21st century development strategies. He is the author of Fundraising Analytics: Using Data to Guide Strategy.

Birkholz earned his bachelor's degree from Concordia University-St. Paul and his master's degree in nonprofits arts and cultural management from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.

Nate Jones
Director of Annual Giving
Georgia Tech Alumni Association

Nate Jones is the director of annual giving at the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, overseeing all aspects of Georgia Tech's centralized unrestricted academic annual fund, including direct mail, marketing, stewardship, leadership giving, phonathon, matching gifts and more.

He has been with Georgia Tech since 2000, during which time Tech has consistently ranked at or near the top of all public universities in rate of alumni participation.

Kim Julian
Executive Director of Annual Giving
Emory University

Kim Julian is the executive director of annual giving at Emory University. She oversees the central annual giving program and works closely with development officers across the university to develop strategies to support targeted fundraising initiatives in Emory's schools and units. She has been in development and alumni relations at Emory since August 2004; she served as associate director of development and alumni relations for Emory's School of Nursing for two years before joining the Office of Annual Giving in 2006. She was named executive director of annual giving in July 2010.

Prior to her time at Emory, Julian worked for the High Museum of Art at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta and was responsible for membership acquisition, renewal and upgrade campaigns. She also managed special projects targeting current members for additional support during the museum's capital campaign.

She is vice chair of the Annual Giving Directors Consortium and a member of Emory's Advisory Council on Community and Diversity. She received her bachelor's degree in English and theater arts from Furman University and graduated from Emory's Evening MBA Program in May 2011.

Charlie Melichar
Associate Vice Chancellor for Development and Alumni Relations Communications
Vanderbilt University

Charlie Melichar is the associate vice chancellor for development and alumni relations communications at Vanderbilt University, a position he has held since 2010.

He is former vice president for public relations and communications at Colgate University and director of media relations at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

Jim Shea
Vice President, Fundraising and Business Development
Georgia Tech Alumni Association