Responsive Nonprofit Summit: Where Fundraisers Belong

Kick off the morning by getting to know our sponsors and engaging with fellow attendees during our networking session.

Welcome back to Day 2 of the Responsive Nonprofit Summit!

• Stephen Boudreau, VP of Brand & Community, Virtuous
• Becky Endicott, Co-Founder, We Are For Good

Driving innovation at a nonprofit can often feel like a herculean task. As nonprofits grow, “institutional inertia” often sets in, and the status quo is protected as sacred. Processes begin to calcify, and risk-taking is discouraged. And, despite the increasing pace of change in the world around us, many nonprofits struggle to adapt quickly and maximize their impact.

Over the last 15 years, Gabe Cooper has had a front-row seat, observing thousands of nonprofit executives, fundraisers, and marketers as they navigate the challenges and triumphs associated with creating transformational change. He’s had the privilege of watching forward-thinking nonprofit leaders beat the odds and create outsized impact for their cause. And, after a decade and a half of seeing innovative nonprofits in action, he’s still blown away by leaders who are able to dream big and produce new forms of impact in their communities.

Gabe asks three questions about nonprofit innovations:

1. How are the very best nonprofits continuing to drive increased generosity and innovation to tackle the world’s toughest challenges?
2. Why are the top nonprofits succeeding where others fail?
3. What are the key inhibitors of innovation and change in the nonprofit space? And how can these inhibitors be overcome?
   
   

After years of listening and research, Gabe will share the eight core practices for responsive nonprofit innovation, and the tactical advice to begin implementing change.

Each of these eight practices represents a pressure-tested best practice for innovation. And while the practices themselves may seem relatively simple, they are not easy. Driving increased generosity, embracing innovation, and building healthy teams requires hard work. But it is possible! And this session will provide a roadmap for innovation within your organization.

• Gabe Cooper, CEO of Virtuous

How can we flip the downward trend of individual gifts into something good? We live in a subscription economy that’s projected to grow to $1.5 trillion by 2025!

In this session, you’ll walk away with 5 practical strategies to build a donor acquisition plan that generates passionate monthly donors. Say goodbye to low donor retention numbers and unpredictable revenue!

Takeaways:

• 5 steps to building a successful monthly donor program
• How to do a self-audit of your existing platform
• Unconventional donor acquisition and retention strategies to stand out!

• Dana Snyder, CEO and Founder, Positive Equation

Responsive nonprofits take innovative and holistic approaches to transforming our sector—and it starts with our people.

Nonprofit leaders are responsible for aligning the mission, engaging stakeholders, making ethical decisions, and fostering innovation—all while grappling to solve complex social issues.

The task is daunting, particularly for the heart-wired humans who work in social good. All too often, we neglect our personal needs for “the greater good,” not realizing that our lack of well-being makes us and our team less effective.

Tune into this panel of experts to get advice on combating burnout, recognizing signs of perfectionism, and how we can show up as our whole selves to our work to advance our missions.

• Diaris Alexander, Anti-Burnout Strategist & Impact Architect to mission-driven leaders
• Carolina Garcia Jayaram, CEO, The Elevate Prize Foundation
• Virginia Almendarez, Founder, Fund Strategy
• Jonah Nigh, Senior Vice President for Development and Alumni Engagement, The New School

One of the biggest barriers to shared donor insights and shared goals within a nonprofit is the lack of centralized data.

More often than not, the Fundraising, Marketing, Volunteer, and Program teams use completely different software and tools to track their data — and nonprofit leaders struggle to fully understand how constituents are interacting with different parts of the organization.

Are you ready to solve for the unintended consequences of process and data silos? Does your nonprofit struggle to see how internal data impacts other teams?

Introducing: Generosity Operations—the way innovative nonprofits are structuring their teams to achieve:

• A clear view of metrics to align teams around common goals
• Sharing insights that help optimize the donor journey
• A strategy for scaling innovation and learnings across your nonprofit

Jason VanLue, VP of Product, Virtuous

Join the Planned Giving evangelist as he smashes the insidious myths around Planned Giving. Like the one that says it’s a death conversation. And another, that Planned Giving will hurt your other fundraising.

Tony Martignetti is an attorney, but he doesn’t talk like one. In plain language—weaving in his stand-up comedy—he’ll leave you inspired and empowered to get going with Planned Giving.

• Tony Martignetti, Planned Giving Evangelist

See how Virtuous gives your team the tools to put Responsive Fundraising into action.

• Cath Kutys, Solutions Engineer, Virtuous

Donor retention tops the list of the most critical metrics for fundraisers to improve. Yet proven donor retention strategies continue to be elusive in the nonprofit sector.

In this data-driven & research-backed session, you’ll discover a hidden metric that has the potential to unlock drastically better donor retention rates—improving everything from donor acquisition performance to lifetime donor value.

Join this session based on first-hand research and real-world experimentation to discover this critical retention metric and proven tactics that can meaningfully improve your performance.

• Nathan Hill, VP of NextAfter Institute

Recurring giving isn’t just a fundraising strategy; it’s a catalyst for sustainable impact.

In this dynamic conversation, our panelists—seasoned leaders in the nonprofit and fundraising fields—will share actionable insights, best practices, and innovative approaches to cultivate and maintain a successful recurring giving program.

From leveraging storytelling to nurturing donor relationships, we’ll explore the essential elements that drive donor retention and engagement.

• Miry Whitehill, Founder and Executive Director, Miry’s List
• Vik Harrison, co-creator of charity: water, nonprofit coach, and founder of Mission Critical
• Nhu Te, Founder & Content Strategist, NTB Content
• Kyle Roosen, Sr. Marketing & Communications Director, Tim Tebow Foundation

Human-centered design helps organizations co-create solutions shoulder-to-shoulder with their community by asking questions to unearth the community’s true needs and desires. And, importantly, it helps nonprofit leaders see past the obvious symptoms of the problem and instead focus on upstream systemic solutions.

For nonprofits, human-centered design represents a more empathetic approach to fundraising and program design. in today’s rapidly evolving world it has become a cornerstone of successful innovation for many leading nonprofits.

Learn how innovative nonprofits are adopting human-centered design and how you can start today to create a donor-centric framework to grow giving.

• Jason VanLue, VP of Product, Virtuous
• Josh Gunkel, Technical Account Manager, Virtuous

Fundraisers have started to recognize the opportunity multicultural donors represent. But most struggle with questions such as: where do I start? Would my cause resonate with these donors? What type of appeals are most engaging? How do we budget and estimate ROI?

In this session, we will answer these and other similar concerns to provide you with clarity and confidence. We will present real examples of organizations that have started on a path to building a multicultural donor base.

• Ivan Leon, Chief Strategst, Kerux Group Inc.

See how Virtuous’ holistic platform allows your team to work together in one system.

• Ashley Keene, Solutions Engineer, Virtuous

Nonprofits are amazing and full of servant leaders. These nonprofiteers deliver life-changing programs, research, and more to impact and uplift communities. In this social impact work, we tend to serve others before ourselves. The result? Our personal health and the health of our organizations suffer.

The dialogue around health has been shifting. Yet the myriad global experiences since 2020 have demonstrated the health necessary to truly change the world. Nonprofiteers are taking stock of what they value most. Recent research shows three-fourths will be looking for new work this year.

This real, honest, timely conversation will deconstruct the misconceptions of servant-leadership. Together we will explore practical ways to dive into servant-leader healing: for ourselves, our organizations, and, when necessary, our relationship with supporters.

• Evan Wildstein, Director of Community Philanthropy (CDO), Every Texan

It’s time to invest + fuel + activate around cause areas through the power of media.

Influence is currency. Connection is currency. Activation is currency.

Embrace the tension and release control of your message.

Tune into this panel of experts to learn how to leverage modern media to scale your impact.

• Jeff Rosenblum, Cofounder of Questus
• Neda Azarfar, Founder, Nazar Works
• Dr. Bertrhude Albert, CEO – P4H Global
• Kelly Lyndgaard, Founder and CEO, Unshattered

Traditionally, nonprofits have leveraged direct response fundraising tactics that send the same email or mail piece to every donor at the same time. This one-to-many approach to fundraising can feel incredibly impersonal (everyone gets the same thing!), but these campaigns are also largely based on the nonprofit’s timing and not the donor’s timing.

On the other hand, dynamic campaigns are based on each individual’s behavior and timing. Instead of receiving an email or letter at exactly the same time as everyone else—donors receive individualized campaigns based on their own behavior, persona, or intent. Not surprisingly, this personalized approach consistently leads to higher retention, engagement, and average gifts.

Join this session to unlock the keys to how dynamic campaigns drive donor engagement and are turning the tide on donor retention.

• Barbara O’Reilly, Founder and Principal, Windmill Hill Consulting
• Samantha Mellen, Development Director, A Kids Place Tampa Bay
• Colin Kooyer, Database Administrator, Mel Trotter Ministries

85% of volulnteers will go on to donate to the nonprofits they give their time to. Your committed team of volunteers are some of your organization’s greatest advocates and supporters. While they donate their time and skills to your cause, they can also make generous monetary donations as well.

However, it can be a balancing act to ensure you aren’t asking too much of your supporters. Since volunteers already invest in your nonprofit, turning volunteers into donors is a natural next step.

Fostering meaningful engagement with existing volunteers through good management, communications, and activities will deepen commitment to your cause. This increases the likelihood of converting them into donors along the way.

That said, investing in an exceptional volunteer engagement strategy will set your organization up for long-term success.

In this session, we’ll discuss the powerful strategies you can adopt to help turn your volunteers into donors.

• Megs Yunn, Founder/Executive Director of Beverly’s Birthdays / Beverly’s Babies
• Paige Chenault, Founder, The Birthday Party Project

• Lisbeth Fernandez, Solutions Engineer, Virtuous

Meet us at the Main Stage for the Day 2 Closing, where we’ll unearth the biggest takeaways from the day and give you a sneak peek into the agenda for the final day of the Responsive Nonprofit Summit.

That’s a wrap on Day 2 of the Responsive Nonprofit Summit. Tune into this backstage conversation as we share the biggest moments and top takeaways learned throughout the day.