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!
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.
The Indian community is one of the fastest growing diaspora groups in North America. Philanthropic giving has become a part of their settlement story. How can your organization build bridges with Indian immigrants? Two researchers and two fundraisers share their knowledge and experiences in engaging and stewarding this donor group.
Education Track: Current and Prospective Donor Research
Audience:
Introductory/Foundational
Audience members will be engaged through open dialogue about questions they have in regard to fundraising in the Indian community. Additionally, tools and case studies will be used to gauge the audience’s familiarity and their current engagement with the community in fundraising.
"Plan for today’s realities and tomorrow’s probabilities." -Simone Joyaux. Want to stay sane in the insane day-to-day fundraising world? No matter how small or large your organization is, you need a comprehensive, well-written fundraising plan. Learn to develop a strategic fund development planning process that is practical, productive, and meaningful.
Education Track: Leadership and Management
Audience:
Introductory/Foundational
Session participants will walk away with a step-by-step action plan of how they can create their own fund development plan through a clear, straightforward presentation. Time will also be allowed at the end for Q&A.
The case statement is a trusted capital campaign tool. As we evaluate fundraising practices through an antiracist and equity lens, the case statement offers an opportunity to challenge the status quo. The session explores how case statements often reinforce inequity, and how we can challenge ourselves to craft them differently.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Strategic
- Utilize poll and chat features to ask the audience questions and bring in their perspectives and experiences
- Two-speaker format
- Dedicated Q&A time
“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?
People are one of an organization’s greatest strengths and also a source of meaningful challenge. Many non-profit leaders struggle in building cohesive, capable and coordinated teams. In this session, we will review key human resources concepts, including lawful hiring, organization culture and its influence on on-boarding and retention.
Education Track: Leadership and Management
Audience:
Introductory/Foundational
Many participants attend human resources sessions with a litany of questions at the ready.
This session will focus on reviewing practical resources, while offering real-world examples
and ample, structured time to address as many participant inquiries as is feasible in the
timeframe allowed.
You have an appreciation for the value of having a diverse board and the return it can have on your organization, but you look around your community and you see nothing but homogeneity. Discover where to look for diverse board members how to engage them in an authentic way.
Education Track: Volunteer Involvement
Audience:
Strategic
This session will start with participants verbalizing what diversity looks like in their communities and expressing the challenges they face in reaching out to diverse populations. After learning strategies and techniques to build diverse boards, participants will dedicate time during the session to articulating an action plan.
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.
Eligible for 1.25 ACFRE credits in Leadership Build inclusive, equitable, and community-centered nonprofits that are responsive and reflective of the communities they serve. Going Beyond Change: Transforming Nonprofit Culture from Charity Mindset to Social Justice is a dynamic and timely presentation, providing approaches to engage diverse stakeholders, introduce social justice framework, and become more resilient.
Education Track: Leadership and Management
Audience:
Strategic
The audience will engage in open presentation discussion, small group problem-solving activities, and share examples with others. Active participation, sharing, and exchanging ideas are encouraged! The presentation will provide insight into key planning steps, provide templates and materials for attendees to take home and apply at work.
Consumer-focused innovations in ecommerce have transformed the for-profit industry, leaving nonprofits behind. In this joint session presented by Josh McLemore of American Heart Association and Nicolas Miller of Fundraise Up, we'll discuss how embracing aspects of for-profit ideology can help you achieve more good in the world.
Education Track: Current and Prospective Donor Research
Audience:
Strategic
Reach new donors, raise more, increase online giving, get more people to your events… If you’re trying to do any of that, you’ll need innovative ways to reach people. Learn how to: • Target donation page visitors who didn’t donate • Do more with your email lists • Find prospective supporters & more!
Education Track: Leadership and Management
Audience:
Introductory/Foundational
What is omnichannel fundraising anyway? If you've had this same thought, you're not alone. Luckily, you're in the right place to find out. We'll discuss what omnichannel fundraising is, why a consistent donor experience is so important, and how to unify all your fundraising channels with a personalized donation experience.
Education Track: Current and Prospective Donor Research
Audience:
Strategic
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.
Parents share their journey as fundraising professionals and lay out a path of how to navigate a career with bosses who are not empathetic, being a parent to children of all ages, traveling, long hours, etc.
Education Track: Leadership and Management
Audience:
Strategic
This is a diverse panel discussion of fundraising professionals at different stages of their
career.
Creating a framework to get more digital donors requires planning, but it’s easier than you may think. In this lively, energetic session, digital fundraising expert Julia Campbell and social media fundraising expert Josh Hirsch will show you how to convert - and keep - more digital donors.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Introductory/Foundational
Using Mentimeter we will live poll the audience to gauge knowledge level and using Kahoot we will have an interactive game with prizes.
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.
"Nothing about us without us" is a motto of the disability community In this session, you will learn from 4 fundraisers who have disabilities how to successfully fundraise, without falling into the trap of ableism or exploitation.
Education Track: Ethics, Accountability and Professionalism
Audience:
Introductory/Foundational
My co-presenters and I are all from the disability community and most are professional fundraisers. We want to have an open conversation about our experiences from both perspectives and show how you can and should be effective without ableism
The world of academia can seem intimidating but the research being conducted on philanthropy around the globe is fascinating and vital for fundraising programs. This session will present 10 academic papers and deconstruct their findings to highlight how the research results can be integrated into your charity’s fundraising practice.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Strategic
The session will involve presenting the 10 research papers and then participants will have group discussions on the particular themes and how they can integrate the learnings into their fundraising practice.
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!
When it comes to requests for major gifts or corporate partnerships, when and who you ask matters as much as what you say. As the world's largest professional network and a trusted source of news, LinkedIn is a valuable platform for conducting research before you make your big ask. Learn how to use the platform to track your prospects' professional activity—and spot key moments of opportunity.
Education Track: Current and Prospective Donor Research
There are several ways for you to tell and show your work to a prospect. Which ones you choose depend upon what you have learned about the prospect up to that point. This workshop will explore questioning techniques, the art of demonstration, and how donor participation can be effective cultivation tools. The way you steward donors after they make a gift is as important, or perhaps even more important, than the gift itself. The renewal rate of donors who give a second time after the first gift is 50 percent. Nonprofits who fail to practice stewardship are not sustainable.
Hidden in those lists of data in your CRM are real people – people with dreams and visions that they hope to see fulfilled through your mission. But, what if you can’t reach them? You might have the most compelling, perfect story in the world but if it’s not actually getting TO donors, your fundraising will suffer. This session dives into simple, non-techy ways to ensure you’ve got the best information possible, introduces you to straightforward fundraising intelligence and prospect development solutions you can implement right away, and helps you ensure you’re not losing revenue caused by data quality issues.
Donor Fatigue - we have heard the term as a vague part of the pandemic’s impact. But what is it? And why does it feel so relevant now? Let’s ignite some new energy into fundraising strategies to be more exciting, effective, and defeat the fatigue.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Strategic
Event.Gives makes event planning easy! Make more money at your event with our Event Planning and Fundraising Software. Eliminate check in/ check out lines! Our platform increases attendee/ donor engagement and makes it easier to give. Attendees can participate from any where!
Education Track: Volunteer Involvement
Audience:
Introductory/Foundational
Direct mail is all the same, right? It doesn’t have to be! There are simple but effective ways to increase awareness and response through direct mail – and we will share them with you! Discover the Top 10 Direct Mail Hacks for 2022 to make the most of your campaigns!
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Introductory/Foundational
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.
Are you interested in applying for the Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive certification? This session will explain the ACFRE process and provide an opportunity for you to ask questions of ACFRE Certification Board members.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Introductory/Foundational
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As the Impact Profession, fundraisers have the potential to be impactful allies and to build communities of solidarity in anti-racism. Fundraisers and faculty will share strategies and approaches on how they worked in solidarity with diverse constituencies to lead, support and be allies in the development of anti-racism initiatives.
Education Track: Ethics, Accountability and Professionalism
Audience:
Strategic
The presenters will engage the audience to share their experiences on the presented strategies and approaches related to allyship and anti-racism, in addition to Q&A.
Smart tech is becoming embedded in nonprofit work freeing up staff to focus on building stronger relationships with donors. Learn what’s needed to reinvent work and achieve transformative impact with an ethical and human-centered approach to adopting smart tech.
This session will walk through the insights that data can reveal about donors and how that can unlock new strategies to engage with your best supporters and build your community. We will show how gift and donor data can transform your understanding of segments of your supporters, and alter your fundraising and communications strategy. The experts at DonorPerfect will use real examples to illustrate how data leads to insights, which leads into strategy and action.
Education Track: Current and Prospective Donor Research
At a time when some donors may have grown numb to crisis communications, thought leadership can be a critical tool for cutting through the noise. As a professional platform where vulnerability and personal stories are not only encouraged but embraced, LinkedIn is a uniquely fertile space for nonprofit leaders and professionals to engage in and drive impact conversations that generate real results. In this session, you'll learn how to develop a sustainable thought leadership strategy for the platform that helps you reengage your audience—and gain a new one.
Education Track: Leadership and Management
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
From corporate philanthropy officers to foundation staff, the people you need to reach are on LinkedIn—but if your LinkedIn profile doesn't immediately earn their attention and trust, your messages may be left on "read." Learn how to give your profile a makeover that helps you increase your response rate and make more of the connections that matter.
Generic messages don't win hearts. Discover tips and best practices for writing InMails (direct messages on LinkedIn) that your prospects can't ignore—helping you boost your response rate, get more meetings with decision makers, and, ultimately, bring in more money for your organization.
Social enterprise is not new idea. But it might offer your organization a new way to test new ideas, get closer to your benefactors, create greater impact, and generate income in the process. After launching spring of 2021 Do Good has raised and done more then we could have imagined!
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Strategic
Quick quizzes, a tips and tricks sheet and a facts sheet - no matter the location of the fundraiser this content will be relevant as we wont focus on the legal elements more on the fundamentals
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.
Does it matter what values your letters incorporate? Does the gender of your donor affect what resonates? This presentation will help you understand how personal values and gendered preferences affect the effectiveness of appeals. This session reports on research funded by AFP’s Bill Levis Research Fund.
Education Track: Securing the Gift
Audience:
Strategic
Presenters will use Poll Everywhere technology to incorporate real time surveys, for example, polling about gender identification and personal values of audience members. After presenting the research findings, we will ask participants how they can incorporate the knowledge into practice. Answers can be displayed as word clouds using Mentimeter technology.
A trio of Jewish, Muslim and Christian fundraisers explain what you need to know about religious donors. Bring your questions, there are no dumb ones! A safe space to talk about faith and money is a gift we offer to the fundraising community.
Education Track: Ethics, Accountability and Professionalism
Audience:
Introductory/Foundational
We start with a fun quiz to get to know the group. Ann might bring kosher snacks. Three very different speakers, all comfortable talking about faith to people from beyond their own communities. 20 minutes for questions because people have LOTS of questions.
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
If you want your donors to give more, you have to turn them into investors in—and not merely supporters of—your mission. In this session, we’ll examine how to find, tell, and share your organization’s stories. Showcase your impact in humble and grand ways with a special focus on online communication.
Education Track: Current and Prospective Donor Research
Audience:
Strategic
We’ll engage participants with quick polls throughout the session and by offering a Q&A session at the end of the presentation. Participants should feel that they are being taught, are able to bounce ideas off their neighbors, and that they are given ample opportunity to engage the speakers through Q&A.
Are Major Gifts only for big institutions? Take the next step into fundraising. Starting a Major Giving program. This training is a highly practical, step by step way to build a small, starter Major GIving program with limited resources and staff.
Education Track: Relationship Building
Audience:
Introductory/Foundational
Survey and Q&A
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.
If you’re transitioning, whether planned or unexpected, now or in the future, you’ll want to hear this. This session will kick-start your process of mentally preparing to move on, provide guidance on choosing your next role, and share strategies for marketing yourself successfully. You’ll come away empowered to move forward.
Education Track: Leadership and Management
Audience:
Strategic
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