Upholding Our Half: Making the Case for Women's Philanthropy

Faculty

Message From Your Chair

This day and a half interactive conference will help fundraisers in colleges, universities and independent schools more fully engage women in their fundraising strategies. Due to increases in women's wealth and entrepreneurship, as well as their participation rates in higher education, women are the key to the future of philanthropy. Sessions will focus on integrating women donors more fully within an existing fundraising strategy and institutional culture, building a formal women's philanthropy program on campus, as well as donor education and stewardship. Research findings from the Women's Philanthropy Institute will be shared.

Conference Chair

Trish Jackson
Vice President for Advancement
Smith College

Patricia "Trish" Jackson, vice president for advancement at Smith College since September 2005, has been in advancement for more than 25 years at several nationally ranked institutions of higher education. She began her career in California at Scripps College, her alma mater, in 1983, serving as the assistant director of annual giving.

In 1988, Jackson moved east to become director of major and leadership gifts at Mount Holyoke College during the institution's $139 million campaign. From 1991 to 1998, she served as director of development at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., where she coordinated the $65 million "Campaign for Wheaton." In 1998, she became the vice president for education at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) where she had responsibility for all CASE conferences and awards programs originating out of Washington, DC. Jackson next spent four years at Dartmouth College as associate vice president for individual and organizational giving.

Jackson is a committed volunteer for Scripps College having recently served as Alumna Trustee on the college's board. She has been active in CASE throughout her career; chairing District I from 2005-07 and the Summit for Advancement Leaders in 2008. She received the Carol and Stephen Hebert Award for outstanding service to District I in 2006. In addition, she serves as vice-chair of the Women's Philanthropy Institute Council headquartered at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

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Faculty

Sandy Levin
Associate Director, Women & Philanthropy
University of California, Los Angeles

Sandy Levin is the Associate Director of Women & Philanthropy at UCLA. She also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Los Angeles Pierce College. In 2008, Ms. Levin received the Distinguished Hillel Alumna of the Year award from Hillel 818 in Los Angeles.

Previously, Ms. Levin worked for the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles as the Director of the Young Leadership Division. Ms. Levin also worked for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Volunteer Services, where she managed 2000 volunteers. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Los Angeles.

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Debra Mesch
Director
Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University

Debra Mesch is director of the Women's Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. She is also professor of public and nonprofit management in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis as well as professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University.

She received both her master's degree in business administration and her doctorate in organizational behavior/human resource management from Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Mesch's primary focus at WPI is on expanding the research about women's philanthropy.

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Michele Minter
Vice President for Development
CollegeBoard

Michele Minter is vice president of development at the College Board, where she oversees fundraising focused on educational policy and college access. Until 2008, she served as director of development and campaign director at Princeton University.

She serves as an associate faculty member for the Women's Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy, and speaks regularly on topics pertaining to philanthropy, diverse donors and nonprofit governance for organizations such as the National Center on Black Philanthropy and the New York Times Knowledge Network. She is a featured author in the anthology The Transformative Power of Women's Philanthropy.

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Nancy Sacks
Executive Director
Women and Philanthropy Program, UCLA

Nancy Sacks is the executive director of the Women and Philanthropy Program at UCLA. She also serves as senior executive director for UCLA Medical Sciences Development and is responsible for overseeing all fundraising programs for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the Ronald Reagan-UCLA Medical Center, Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA and the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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Lisa Witter
Chief Operating Officer
Fenton Communications

Lisa Witter is the chief strategy officer of Fenton Communications, the largest public interest communications firm in the country. She heads the firm's practice in women's issues and global affairs for clients including the Women for Women International, American University in Cairo, MoveOn.org, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, David and Lucille Packard Foundation, American Medical Association, American Lung Association and many others. She is a co-founder of award-winning SheSource.org, an online brain trust of women experts to help close the gender gap among commentators in the news media. Witter is a blogger and political commentator and co-author of The She Spot: Why Women are the Market for Changing the World and How to Reach Them.

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Keynote Speakers

Patricia M. Annino
Partner
Prince Lobel Glovsky & Tye LLP

Patricia M. Annino chairs Prince Lobel Glovsky & Tye's Estate Planning and Probate Group. She is a nationally recognized authority on estate planning and taxation, with 20 years of experience serving the estate planning needs of families, individuals and owners of closely held businesses. In July 2009, Annino released her latest book, Cracking the $ Code: What Successful Men Know and You Don't (Yet). Her other published books include, Women in Family Business: What Keeps You up at Night?(2009) and Women & Money, A Practical Guide to Estate Planning (2004). She is a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors for Suffolk University Law School and a member of the Center for Women and Financial Independence at Smith College.

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Bruce Flessner
Founding Partner
Bentz Whaley Flessner

Bruce Flessner is a founding partner at Bentz Whaley Flessner. He has spent his entire working life in development. He began his career as the annual fund director at Kalamazoo College before becoming vice president of the University of Minnesota Foundation. He has worked with hundreds of colleges and universities across the country and around the world.

Flessner is a recognized expert on new wealth philanthropy and has been quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Star Tribune, Dallas Star, Detroit Free Press and many other major newspapers.

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Laurie Burns McRobbie
First Lady
Indiana University

Laurie Burns McRobbie brings a wealth of experience to her role as IU's first lady. During her more than 25 years as a technologist, she has served in numerous leadership positions, most recently as an executive director with Internet2, where she contributed substantially to building the Internet2 community and its governance.

Laurie received a bachelor's degree in history with high distinction from the University of Michigan in 1978, where she also helped to establish a major in women's studies. Later she co-chaired the university's Commission for Women and served on the President's Advisory Commission on Women's Issues.

Laurie serves on the boards of the IU Center on Philanthropy, the award-winning WonderLab science museum, the Society of Friends of Music, and Middle Way House, a domestic violence social services agency where she also chairs the New Wings Community Partnership, Middle Way's fundraising effort.

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Eugene R. Tempel
President
Indiana University Foundation

Eugene R. Tempel is a nationally recognized expert in the study and practice of philanthropy and nonprofit management. For several years, he has been named by The NonProfit Times to its list of the country's 50 most influential leaders in the nonprofit sector.

Prior to joining the foundation in 2008, Tempel served for 11 years as executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Prior to leading the Center on Philanthropy, he served IU as director of external affairs for the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington, vice president-Indianapolis for the IU Foundation, executive director of The Fund Raising School and vice chancellor for external affairs at IUPUI. He holds faculty appointments in higher education and philanthropic studies in the IU Schools of Education, Liberal Arts, and Public and Environmental Affairs.

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