Program
The conference is scheduled for June 20-22, 2022. Registration opens at 8:00 AM on June 20 and the conference will adjourn at Noon on June 22.
Day 1: Monday, June 20
8:00–9:00 AM
Conference Registration and Continental Breakfast
Welcome to San Francisco! Please stop by the registration desk starting at 8:00 a.m. to check in and pick up your conference materials. A light breakfast will be served.
9:00–9:30
Welcome and Orientation
Join chair Rebecca Tseng Smith to meet the faculty and learn how to get the most out of your time at the conference.
9:30–10:30
Exceptional Partnerships: A Conversation with John B. Ford
We will open the conference with a conversation with one of the field’s foremost leaders of development examining the role of the development officer. John Ford led Stanford University’s and University of California, San Francisco’s development organizations during some their most productive fundraising years and most importantly for the purposes of this conference, with their most inspired donors. Rebecca will ask John to reflect on his work with donors, university presidents and other academic leaders, as well as hiring coaching and leading teams of talented development officers.
Speakers: John B. Ford, Vice Chancellor Emeritus, University of California, San Francisco
and Rebecca Tseng Smith, Senior Executive Director of Development, University of California, San Diego
10:30–10:45
Coffee Break
10:45–Noon
What are Donors Telling Us?
We’ll discuss what today’s donors are telling us—in their own words and through their behavior—about how organizations and institutions need to adapt to a changing landscape. Increasingly, many donors will “develop” themselves. Are we willing, and able, to listen?
Speaker: Ron Schiller, Founding Partner, Aspen Leadership Group
Noon–1:15 PM
Lunch on your own
1:15–2:30
Finding the Potential in Your Portfolio, Part 1
How do we get better at creating and executing successful donor strategies? In this nuts-and-bolts two-part session, we’ll take a purposeful dive into your portfolio and give you some tools to advance your work (or that of your team) with top probable donors. As part of this session, we will focus on a handful of potential donors that you believe have the capacity to make transformative gifts to your organization. We’ll examine what you know and still need to know about these donors in ways that productively and powerfully increase your understanding of these top partners in your work. To make the most of this session, please have a few specific donors in mind when you attend – a few that you know well, and a few that would like to get to know better.
Speaker: Heather Coleman Trippel, Senior Associate Director, University Principal Gifts, Stanford University
2:30–2:45
Refreshment Break
2:45–3:30
Exceptional Partnerships: The Role of the Fundraising Professional
As fundraisers working with our institutions' most capable donors, we play a critical role. Our work with these important individuals requires skills and experience, but even more importantly, a deep understanding of what motivates someone to give the "gift of a lifetime" and what we can do to support this process. Rebecca describes this practice from a personal point of view.
Speaker: Rebecca Tseng Smith, Senior Executive Director of Development, University of California, San Diego
3:30–3:45
Stretch Break
3:45–4:45
Reflections on Life-Saving Philanthropy
Continuing our exploration of the many reasons people make generous gifts, Donna will reflect on the individuals who she has helped support organizations like St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Gary Sinise Foundation. As we have all observed, generous givers are led both by heart and mind and sometimes by a complicated blend of both. Donna's examples will explore the path she has followed to understand motivations that we sometimes learn only by walking alongside our prospective givers.
Speaker: Donna Palmer, Chief Philanthropy Officer, Gary Sinise Foundation
4:45–5:45
Networking Reception
Join conference speakers and your colleagues to network and unwind after the first day of the conference. Complimentary hors d'oeuvres and drink tickets will be provided.
5:45
Conference Adjourns for the Day
Dinner on your own
Day 2: Tuesday, June 21
7:30– 8:30 AM
Breakfast
8:30–9:30
Building the Capacity to Inspire Large Gifts
When Scott Mory assumed the leadership of Carnegie Mellon’s advancement office in 2015, he found an organization ready for a new beginning. Scott will describe how he and his team built the right organization and established credibility with volunteers, donors and academic partners, allowing them to achieve outstanding results. He will talk about key decisions, early wins, and lessons learned along the way.
Speaker: Scott Mory, Vice President for University Advancement, Carnegie Mellon University
9:30–10:30
A Conversation with a Philanthropic Partner
Join in this conversation with a philanthropic partner about the importance of listening to donors and about co-creating a long-term partnership that is aligned with the donor’s values and aspirations.
Speakers: Heather Coleman Trippel, Senior Associate Director, University Principal Gifts, Stanford University and Tonia Karr, '92 alumna, Stanford University
10:30–10:45
Coffee Break
10:45 AM–12:15 PM
Finding the Potential in Your Portfolio, Part 2
Building on the work started earlier in the conference, we’ll continue to take a purposeful dive into your portfolio and give you some tools to advance your work (or that of your team) with top probable donors. Again, we will focus on a handful of potential donors that you believe have the capacity to make transformative gifts to your organization and examine what you know and still need to know about these donors in ways that productively and powerfully increase your understanding of these top partners in your work.
Speaker: Heather Coleman Trippel, Senior Associate Director, University Principal Gifts, Stanford University
12:15–1:30
Lunch on your own
1:30–2:30
Making Ultimate Gifts Possible
It’s often the case that reaching an individual’s philanthropic goals, especially when they involve a very generous gift, requires thoughtful gift planning. Tia will examine this process from the point of view of the needs of the giver and her or his family and the way that the structures of planned giving can support them. Experienced gift planners will gain new ideas, those less practiced in this area will build competency in these skills so necessary to our work.
Speaker: Tia Graham, Vice President, Individual Giving, PBS Foundation
2:30–2:45
Refreshment Break
2:45–3:45
CASE Principal Giving Study: Insights into Principal Gifts and their Impacts
Principal gifts can have important and transformational impacts on institutions and the constituents they serve. CASE, with generous support from Bank of America, studied 70 gifts identified by a broad cross section of U.S. colleges and universities as among the most important principal gifts received in recent years. To place the largest gifts in the context of institutions’ total annual fundraising, the study included an analysis of 555 institutions who participated in the CASE Voluntary Support of Education Survey (VSE) in each of the last 16 years. In this session, we will share the findings from this survey including the primary sources of the gifts, uses and purposes, the anticipated impacts, considerations extended to donors, donor characteristics, and the cultivation and stewardship that led to these gifts, and will also highlight relevant comparisons with the 2021 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy.
Speakers: Cara Giacomini, Vice President, Data, Research, and Technology, CASE and William Jarvis, Managing Director and Philanthropic Executive, Bank of America
3:45–4:00
Stretch Break
4:00–5:15
Raising Your Organization’s Largest Gifts
How does your institution cultivate inspiring gifts from a growing pool of prospective donors? Are you only focusing on wealth and inclination of prospective donors or are you looking to build relationships and explore the big ideas and partnerships? In this session, we’ll explore the frameworks of principal gift fundraising needed to make this shift in your focus.
Speaker: Ron Schiller, Founding Partner, Aspen Leadership Group
5:15
Conference Adjourns for the Day
Dinner on your own
Day 3: Wednesday, June 22
8:00 - 9:00 AM
Breakfast
9:00 - 9:45
Elective Session Workshops (choose one, sessions repeat at 10:00 AM)
- Listening Skills Required of the Fundraiser
Speaker: Rebecca Tseng Smith, Senior Executive Director of Development, University of California, San Diego - Strategic Portfolio Management
Speaker: Heather Coleman Trippel, Senior Associate Director, University Principal Gifts, Stanford University - Philanthropic Partnerships
Speaker: Ron Schiller, Founding Partner, Aspen Leadership Group
9:45 - 10:00
Coffee Break
10:00 - 10:45
Elective Session Workshops Repeat (choose one)
10:45 - 11:00
Stretch Break
11:00 AM – Noon
Key Elements to Take Away From this Conference
Conclude the conference with an interactive session where participants and faculty will highlight and summarize key elements of the conference.
Noon
Conference Adjourns