More than 100 total educational sessions* are waiting for you at AFP ICON 2022. Whether you want to master leadership, relationship building, securing the gift, trends and innovation, or all of the above, AFP has the latest and greatest information to unlock your fundraising potential.
Thank You To Our AFP ICON 2022 Education Track Sponsors!
Major Gifts are essential to fundraising and campaign success. In addition to securing new donors and annual gifts, a successful Annual Fund will upgrade donors and build donor loyalty--developing major and planned gift prospects. In this session we will discuss how the Annual Fund can help increase Major Gift results.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
The session will begin with an Annual Fund quiz.
Donor Management will contain an exercise for take-home portfolio management.
Donor Messaging will include examples of direct response language: Savior Complex vs donor partnership. (Audience participaton)
Donor Segmentation will include model report examples.
Want to hear about our worst mistakes with major donors and we how survived them? Pull up a chair, we’re spilling the beans! These mistakes could save you millions.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
This will be a panel presentation with Cherian Koshy, Rachel Muir and Tammy Zonker sharing their biggest mistakes soliciting gifts. Audience members will be invited to share their fundraising failures in this tell-all session.
Capital campaigns in the pandemic required a new focus on direct conversations with donors about gifts. You’ll discover how Angie Sledge, Chief Development Officer of Knoxville Habitat for Humanity, closed 6-figure gifts on Zoom, and how to apply these skills to close your own major gifts in the post-pandemic world.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
We'll set up audience members in 1-on-1 conversations to practice direct donor conversations together. The participants will get applied, practical training in conducting an Ask Conversation. Then we will have a group debrief sharing learnings. Should be a lot of fun!
Learn how to engage with Latinx Community, understand the background of a Latino community and make giving fun and close to your heart.
Education Track: Current and Prospective Donor Research
Audience:
Applied
Anecdotes, videos and personal experiences will make the presentation more engaging. They'll learn how fun and generous latinos could be if they speak to us the way we engage to a cause we care about.
Understand businesses are looking for more benefits than their name on an event program/swag. They are looking more strategic in the ways they give to maximize their ROI. Join us as we review basics of engaging businesses and review how one organization created a unique business group.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
Brainstorm some recognition and benefits for business donors.
Discuss what value add organizations can provide to businesses.
Identify ways to engage with the business community.
In the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, nonprofits dealt with massive disruptions to their fundraising. Nonprofits continually adjust to a changed philanthropic environment. But your nonprofit is more resilient than you’d think. By identifying donor behaviors within your database, fundraisers can better foster major donors, recurring donations, and legacy gifts.
Education Track: Current and Prospective Donor Research
Audience:
Applied
During his presentation, Nejeed will first ask the attendees to reflect on what they look for when identifying prospects, major donors, recurring donors, and legacy donors. They will also be asked how these processes have changed during the pandemic.
Last, attendees will be encouraged to share their thoughts and reflect.
What we are hearing: “Emerging Leaders are jack-of-all-trades, masters of none.” With a projected 10-year growth in the fundraising profession of 14%, emerging leaders need to strategically maximize their growth potential. Hear how four young, diverse professionals catapulted their careers by maximizing their professional experience to become leaders.
Education Track: Leadership and Management
Audience:
Applied
The presenters will use a variety of audience engagement techniques including an interactive affirmation exercise, live polling, using stock questions to promote audience participation, and taking questions from the audience.
You strategize on how to get the corporate foundation/sponsorship gift but did you know that the person making that decision is and can be your next major donor? Follow these steps and learn how to get BOTH and leave the corporate decision maker incredibly happy AND actually thank YOU!
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
I present 12 minutes of content, then ask open ended questions for the audience to respond. When LIVE I am on the floor moving around the room for superior eye contact and I ALWAYS use humor. I mastered the balance of content and ?s from the audience for total engagement.
Hit the jackpot with eye-candy fundraising campaigns you’ll want to steal! See best-of examples from budgets large & small. Get inspired with real world examples, great content, unique thinking, risk-taking and delightful design across donor thank you’s, emails, websites, online advertising, donation pages, videos—and anything else that increases donations!
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
These two dynamic speakers lit up the virtual stage in 2020 with their drool-worthy session “Timesaving Tools to Rock Every Fundraiser’s World” . These two are known for collecting the best of fundraising ideas, campaigns and tools and sharing them to the delight of audience members.
Volunteer committees are valuable assets for any organization but it takes a good leader to maximize the group's potential. This session focuses on how to identify and recruit Rock Star committees, run efficient and effective committee meetings, and make your volunteers feel valued.
Education Track: Volunteer Involvement
Audience:
Applied
Audience participation is key to making this session lively and engaging. I will create "committees" within the session participants and include role playing to accentuate the interpersonal dynamics found within committees. This is in conjunction with my PowerPoint presentation.
Nonprofits can no longer stay silent on the public policies that affect our missions and the communities/people we serve. This session will address the myths and fears that hold us back from engaging in advocacy. Advocacy can turn donors into powerful advocates for change while increasing giving and donor retention.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
A mixture of technical presentation (What you can/cannot do around advocacy) and panel discussion on how each presenter engaged their organizations and donors (individual, corporate & foundations) in advocacy.
To take on the biggest problems, all need to lead in an inclusive, diverse and equitable manner. This session will focus on the leadership skills you need for personal and professional success. These diverse leaders on the panel live their lives with IDEA everyday. Learn how you can as well!
Education Track: Leadership and Management
Audience:
Applied
This panel discussion by 5 leaders in our sector will be an engaging conversation with each other and the audience. Audience participation will be driven by the panelists probing questions to and from the audience.
If your organization has monthly donors, you will hear and see examples and best practices to make your monthly donor program even more powerful than ever before! If you’re looking to grow your monthly donor program through online and offline cultivation, engagement and retention, this session is for you.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
Engaging attendees’ inputs, there is strong involvement within the workshop format. Participants are encouraged to bring forth their own examples, questions and ideas. There will be exercises, question time, presentations and quizzes along with the participants’ experiences, all ready to test and implement in their organization immediately.
View your annual fund, major gift, and corporate sponsorship strategy as well as your organizations' stewardship and communication techniques through a community-centric lens. Attendees will identify ways to improve communication, stewardship, and fundraising strategies to further involve diverse community members and increase diverse supporters for your organization.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
Participants will break into groups to discuss various scenarios and suggest solutions, they will be asked questions and their responses will determine content in some instances
Members will have a chance to develop SMARTIE (Strategic, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound, Inclusive, Equitable) goals pertaining to their fundraising strategies.
Learn from international fundraisers the importance of reshaping the culture of philanthropy and human engagement. The culture of philanthropy has muted. Its key elements (inclusion, empowerment, transparency, collaboration, celebration) will be reviewed; how can we update them? The five sides of the “PENTAGON” of Human Engagement will be presented.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
Participants will know the results of a revealing survey applied to NGO´s stakeholders about the new human engagement.
International presenters with more than 50 years of experience will offer an enriched with examples conference.
The Key Elements of a Culture of Philanthropy (inclusion, empowerment, transparency, collaboration, celebration) will be reviewed.
As women play a larger role in their families' finances, fundraisers need new data on how couples make giving decisions. Women Give 2021 explores the question: "who decides?" This session will guide participants through the research and how to use it to prompt deep conversations and increased giving from donors.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
The presentation uses engaging visuals to bring data to life. Interactive polling, share with your neighbor, inspiring videos and guided group discussion will encourage the audience to grapple with how they see the research in their work and how they can incorporate the research to improve practice.
“Why should I give to you?” Your donors ask this question every time they consider giving. But most nonprofits are ill-equipped to answer it. In this session, you will discover how to use 4 tested and proven elements to explain why donors should give in each of your fundraising channels.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
This session has built in engagement activities including voting on which version of a landing page / ad / donation page will get more conversions, writing your own value proposition statement, and scoring your statement after being shown the 4 key elements.
For most nonprofit leaders, grants aren't any fun. The good news is there's a new and better way. In this interactive presentation, you will learn the root causes of grantwriting failure and take away the practical tools for making grants a significant (and yes, fun!) part of your funding model.
Education Track: Current and Prospective Donor Research
Audience:
Applied
I intend to divide the group into four subgroups by birthdays (Q1/Q2/Q3/Q4) and have a friendly competition in which groups help one "hot seat" member of their team to make a plan for winning more grants using the approach I teach in this program.
In this session, learn tips for creating videos that tell the story of your organization, inspire donors, and create deeper relationships. Watch recent videos from Cranbrook Institute of Science, Cranbrook Academy of Art, and more. Storytelling is at the heart of fundraising-tell YOUR story in a way that inspires!
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
The audience will be asked to compare and contrast several sample videos and discuss the pros/cons of each. What worked? What didn’t? Why not? Was the message clear? What would you do differently to improve some of the videos?
Learn how to unite your fundraising data, processes and technology together to drive successful fundraising programs. With a well-crafted data pipeline model that addresses your team's unique program needs and capitalizes on your software tools, your fundraising shop can begin tracking and leveraging program data to raise more money.
Education Track: Current and Prospective Donor Research
Audience:
Applied
We will incorporate role play where participants will “interview their neighbor” or serve as a “mock panel” as we support the concept that building effective data pipeline models requires teamwork, collaboration and communication. We will also ask open-ended questions encouraging participants to contribute content to the discussion.
Institutions frequently do not understand the real value of sponsorships and, therefore, price them inaccurately. This session will present a valuation model that identifies the levers driving price and value. We will also examine how to build partnerships versus transactions and the growing impact of corporate social responsibility platforms– “philanthroships”.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
To build a connection with the audience and offer memorable content, I employ six strategies: plan the presentation from the audience’s perspective, use storytelling, be interactive (accept questions throughout), poll the audience/use live quizzes, employ an easy-to-follow structure/less is more in slides, and move off the stage when feasible
By participating in this session, you will know the key learnings from the coronavirus pandemic for high value giving and understand how to build deeper relationships with major donors, philanthropists and foundations from now on. The speakers will launch you to innovate at a pace never imagined.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
The speakers will guide the audience through the major donor market, explain the issues, and illustrate techniques that will help all participants make the most of major donors. Beside that, they will propose an exercise: the participants will discuss a challenge and how new learnings will be helpful.
It’s time our sector puts diversity, equity and inclusion first in our work in the field of philanthropy. But how? In this session, you will learn the importance of starting with your donor data. See how you can mine, screen, analyze and interpret donor data to help diversify your fundraising.
Education Track: Current and Prospective Donor Research
Audience:
Applied
This session will walk through a real-world example, answering questions live along the way. The presenters will also engage the audience through real-time polling using the digital tool Mentimeter. All audience members will be encouraged to live tweet throughout the session and engage in conversation there as well.
Need to run an effective capital or other fundraising campaign? The who, what, where, when, and how of planning a fundraising campaign can be daunting, but participants in this session will create a personalized work plan to kick start their campaign planning the right way.
Education Track: Leadership and Management
Audience:
Applied
The speakers will provide a worksheet to complete during the session, allowing the participants to think critically and immediately apply the information learned. This worksheet will go with the participants as a starting workplan for their campaign.
Saying thank you is both an art and science. Join us as we explore best practices and trends in acknowledgement writing, digital vs. mail delivery, and personalization vs. customization of content. We will assist you in building a program that is meaningful for your donors and still efficient fo
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
We will use real life samples as well as ask for samples and ideas from those in attendance. We will help solve problems and create the best acknowledgements possible!
MacKenzie Scott’s donations brought new attention to the power and potential of “no strings attached” funding. Unrestricted donations can provide nonprofits with flexibility and security, yet the majority of contributions are restricted. Participants in this interactive session will build knowledge and develop skills for fundraising major unrestricted gifts.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
This interactive session will include small and large group discussions. Participants will practice the case for support for unrestricted gifts in writing and through a donor role play activity. The facilitators will draw on research about unrestricted gifts as well as participants’ experiences to shape the conversation.
Diversifying your donor pool can feel overwhelming. You know it is more important than ever to be inclusive, but it seems like everyone is paying attention to the same individuals right now. Together we will tackle this task in smaller pieces so you leave with a plan you can implement.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
Attendees will break out into groups and will receive a comprehensive description of an organization’s donors. They will identify a way to segment the donors to work on a diversification plan. In their groups they will come up with ways to engage the segment to increase diversity in their supporters.
With $17 trillion under management for ESG and social impact, how can nonprofits tap this ever-expanding pool of funding and capital from next gen philanthropists and social investors to scale up mission, programs and new initiatives.
Education Track: Leadership and Management
Audience:
Applied
Case studies will engage the audience in practical applications for their organizations. Audience questions will be encouraged throughout the presentation to foster interactive dialogue and to ensure content is focused on the audience's knowledge base of subject matter and their understanding of practical applications for their organizations.
Join Anthony Alonso, President of Catapult Fundraising, to learn how to make your annual fund THRIVE! Anthony will share ideas that can be used for both stewardship AND solicitation. Leave this session with new ideas to implement for immediate results!
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
The presenter will answer questions from the audience throughout the presentation. He will solicit the audience for their input and ask them to share their own experiences on the subject matter.
As Black or Brown fundraisers we are often raising funds from donors that don't look like us. Join a lively discussion about race, ethnicity and fundraising in today's racially-charged society.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
Co-presenters will invite fellow Black fundraisers to a panel discussion and also provide a Q&A session.
How diverse are your digital fundraising efforts? Data has shown a huge increase in online giving as well as the importance of an excellent user experience to secure the gift and retain donors. Learn how to build a data-driven strategy for coordinating and optimizing your digital donation efforts.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
Polling will be used as well as peer-to-peer learning models, specifically Learning Circles. Circle topics are suggested by participants and decided in real-time, and participants self-select the circle in which they want to participate to explore a particular aspect of digital fundraising with their peers.
Hyper-connectivity, micro-consumption, fractured attention, and fierce competition are namesakes in our connected economy. This is now compounded due to the upheaval 2020 — from the pandemic and social justice to climate — left behind with no clear end in sight.
Education Track: Leadership and Management
Audience:
Applied
Busy development teams often struggle to get their campaign emails sent on-time, much less planning for acquisition and retention. Learn how a utilizing a growth funnel framework with defined activities on a comprehensive user journey can help improve your results, grow your file, and make your campaigns truly flourish.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
Attendees will pair up and participate in a “build-a-campaign" activity in which they select one of their own campaigns, or practice with a pre-selected campaign, and identify the activities along each growth funnel level to create a comprehensive user journey and an overall integrated campaign strategy.
A healthy donor pipeline is the lifeblood of every organization. Learn moves management best practices to strengthen your donor base and bring home gift agreement language to increase unrestricted giving. This interactive session will help you deepen donor engagement and find new ways to grow revenue.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
The session has three sections: a presentation to set it up, reflection time, small group sharing, and a larger open share
Presentation of topic 1 (5 min), Attendees write how they would implement (3 min), Share in small groups (10 min) *Repeat for topics 2/3, Close with open share time
Time is money and most prospects don't have more than 30 minutes to spend on you. You will learn the fundamentals of productive, efficient qualification visits . You'll observe a qualification visit and be able to offer an assessment. Session handout will include sample questions to ask prospects.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
I will recruit two people from the audience to participate in a qualification visit (one as the prospect and one as the fundraiser). The audience will observe the "visit" and then offer feedback and their assessment of the prospect's viability.
Join Beth Ann and Gail to discover living and giving trends and how your fundraising team can gain insights from data and experiences to supercharge your major gift, capital campaign and transformational giving. Moving from "old rules" to new, authentic and inclusive approaches are pathways for fundraising success.
Education Track: Current and Prospective Donor Research
Audience:
Applied
We plan to engage audience members in a few polls and questions. We will "hot seat" 1 - 3 members to help move the thinking around approaches and conversations, to break away from dominant culture thinking and assumptions that many of us were trained to use.
Growing up isn't easy. Changes. Transitions. It's awkward--even painful. Nonprofit organizations also grow and change. That, too, can be frustrating. We'll help you understand the predictable phases of moving from an "organizing board" to a "governing board" to an "institutional board" and help you successfully navigate through these challenging waters.
Education Track: Volunteer Involvement
Audience:
Applied
I believe in a mixture of audience participation, direct presentation, and interactive discussion. Also an actor and musician, my sessions begin when the first person walks in with a unique conversation to make the group comfortable with sharing. I'm never behind a podium; I'm always in the crowd.
From Amazon, to Disney, Shake Shack, to Crumbl Cookies, today’s consumers want ease, immediacy, and self-curated experiences. And guess what? Today’s consumers are also your mission supporters. During the pandemic, expectations changed, as more people experienced life (and giving) online and via an app 24/7. As a result, the need for “frictionless” philanthropy is here. Donors expect and want simple, on demand, and choose your own adventure giving. From fundraising events to online campaigns, generosity joins forces with easy-to-use technology to create flexible options for your supporters. Is your cause ready for the future? In this session, we’ll explore new automated strategies to make ease a focal point of your fundraising experiences, create personalized interactions, and showcase how “chose your own” giving options can be part of your donor journey. Whether it’s through automated text communication, QR codes, or self-service fundraising – this session will help you map out giving experiences that make donors happy, optimize engagement, and drive higher impact.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
Raising unrestricted dollars can be daunting. Imagine if you could execute a campaign to support your organizations greatest needs in perpetuity. The session will offer one example of how you can engage your community through unique giving channels and emotional marketing to forever support what your organization needs most.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
Offering marketing examples, real donor examples, video, gift options ( such as planned giving options and review of donor advised fund agreements and how they can be used to an organization's advantage).
Using research discussed in Malcom Gladwell’s Talking To Strangers and Kate Murphy’s You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters, this session will highlight what is known about effective communication skills and discuss how to apply that information to cultivation, solicitation and stewardship within the donor pipeline.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
There are multiple opportunities during the presentation for audience interaction and participation. We will perform at least two different activities to drive home the session in the session.
Unfortunately, fundraisers often don't receive the professional development they need to advance towards their leadership goals. Join us for this dynamic workshop to learn five practical strategies to advance along “Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership” – you’ll walk away with a personal strategic leadership plan for the next five years!
Education Track: Leadership and Management
Audience:
Applied
Co-presenter Dr. Lea Williams wrote her Doctoral Dissertation on meeting effectiveness, so we are confident we can lead a dynamic workshop. Our session will incorporate two pair/small-group discussions to promote audience engagement and maximize participants’ ability to receive feedback on their personal strategic leadership plans.
You'll leave this session with a complete plan for the next year of your legacy fundraising program, along with insights on how to speak to donors about leaving a gift in their Will, and a bequest inspiration booklet which we will help you create.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
We will engage with the audience through questions and polls to help identify the key issues in legacy marketing; we will work in small groups to create our Bequest Inspiration Booklet; and we will welcome questions and anecdotes throughout.
What happens if you had the resources and insights to truly know what donors will do and be able to allocate your investments to the most effective fundraising strategies possible. This session will provide just what you need for the future of generosity in our world.
Education Track: Current and Prospective Donor Research
Audience:
Applied
Audience members will be provided with collateral to help guide them through to immediately apply a future proof framework to their own work immediately. It is also heavily encouraged to have small group breakout discussions around the core lessons of the session so they can use them immediately.
Virtual events can be extremely effective and great sources of donations, but many nonprofits don't know how to do them effectively. In this webinar, you'll learn how to build community with connection-based activities that let your supporters get to know each other by donating to your cause. You'll come away with actionable ideas to improve your organization's fundraising results by adding radical interactivity to virtual events.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
Joslyn Art Museum was prepared to launch a $135M capital campaign and had every major gift ask strategized the week COVID shut down the U.S. Learn how staff creatively altered each cultivation and stewardship activity into virtual engagements and left donors feeling more connected than ever before.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
Presenters will engage the audience with questions/quick surveys to better understand what types of cultivation/stewardship activities the audience is using throughout the session. Time will also be allotted for participants to share their successful strategies utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learn which email, website and social media data points your organization should track and analyze. Why? So you can: - Build more relationships with donors, supporters and followers. - Upgrade your fundraising and marketing efforts. - Raise more money. - Service more people. - Have greater impact in your community.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Applied
I will use numerous examples to help the audience understand which data points they need to track to build more relationships and raise more money.
Attendees will receive a "data tracking" checklist so when they go back to work, they can begin analyzing the most valuable online data they possess.
Are you an ED dreaming of a sabbatical from your Board? Are you a Board Chair overwhelmed in your role, wondering what you signed up for? Never fear, this interactive session will focus on five key ingredients to build a partnership that moves you from burned out to revitalized!
Education Track: Volunteer Involvement
Audience:
Applied
I am a big believer in-- and implementer of-- interactive activities that engage all personality types. I use pair/share, introspective work, and larger group discussion. For this workshop I will use pair/share for the opening and closing, small group scenario discussion, and individual reflection.
This workshop focuses on getting the most out of your organization's special events. It reviews the true purpose and ideal revenue model for events and how to make them even more worthwhile by converting event attendees to annual donors.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Applied
This session will incorporate the following interactive elements:
1) An opportunity to engage with fellow participants in the beginning of the session through an audience engagement activity that reinforces session material;
2) An opportunity to change the course of the presentation through several pre-designed check points;
3) Post session Q&A.