Wisconsin Fundraising Professionals Conference 

Hosted by AFP Greater Madison and AFP Southeastern Wisconsin

Join us. Sharpen your development skills at a statewide, daylong   professional development program featuring governance management, executive leadership and donor retention strategies.

Conference Session Details 

AFP Planning to Keep Your Donors Workshop (available both Sessions)

The AFP Planning to Keep Your Donors Workshop is based on data collected via the Fundraising Effectiveness Project. Its purpose is to show development professionals the value of tracking overall gains and losses in gifts and donors – then how to use that information to develop cultivation strategies to improve donor retention.

The focus of this workshop is on developing a donor retention plan based on what research indicates really works. 
Topics covered include:
• Why organizations lose donors and money
• How keeping donors increases fundraising success
• Determining the effectiveness of fundraising efforts
• Developing a successful donor retention plan
• A tool you can use even if you don’t have access to donor software

The workshop curriculum is presented through lecture, a fictional case study based on real data, and the encouragement of participant dialogue. Printed participant manuals will be provided on site and serve as a valuable conference take away.

Good Governance and Why it Matters (Session 1)

What is good governance? And why does this matter anyway? That guy has served on soooo many boards. That woman has lots of money. But do either of them know what good governance is? Do you know what good governance is? It’s way past time to be afraid of inadequate governance. Too many scandals in both nonprofit and for-profit corporations. Tarnished image. Fragile credibility. Dismay on the part of donors. Greater vigilance (and new rules) on the part of governments. You need a governance expert steering your governance ship! Governance expertise helps you recruit the right board members, and fire the lousy ones. Governance expertise helps you make the right decisions the right way. Good governance helps you raise more money. Learn the body of knowledge and best practice. Then you can make improvements back home.

Understanding Donor-Centricity Principles (Session 1)

"Why should I give you my hard-earned money?" Answer this question well, and you'll never be short of funds. Answer it poorly, and fundraising becomes an uphill battle. Most nonprofits suffer from what the best-selling business book, Made to Stick, rightly calls the "curse of knowledge." This shortcoming - and a common lack of donor-centricity - seriously undermine the effectiveness of many (maybe even most) donor communications ... from the humble elevator speech (an overrated exercise) to direct mail appeals to websites to stewardship materials like "gratitude reports" all the way up to capital campaign case statements.  Learn what neuroscience has to say about the right way to talk to donors.

Executive Leadership Conversation (Session 2)

What keeps you awake at night? The good, the bad, and the ugly...What’s happening? What does the future hold? What keeps you awake at night? The times they are a-changin’. So sang Bob Dylan back in 1963. And those words still resonate today – whether in politics and society, or fundraising and the nonprofit sector. So what do advanced executives do? What cage-rattling questions (CRQs) do leaders ask? How do leaders use conversation as a core business practice? What resources do leaders read and follow? How do leaders fight the fact deniers and ill-informed bossy pants? How do we take risks, challenge assumptions – theirs and our own – to make change? Join this conversation. A conversation of risk-taking and courage. A conversation of challenges and discomfort and disagreement.

Applying Donor-Centricity Principles (Session 2)

You've heard the news: donor-centricity -- an approach psychologist Jen Shang has dubbed "loverizing" -- is a street paved with gold. It raises lots more money and retains donors longer.  But you're in the trenches. You need practical advice and models, not just concepts. What -- exactly -- makes a direct mail appeal irresistibly "donor-centered"? How do you "loverize" your website or newsletter? Learn the nuts and bolts in this heavily illustrated workshop from copywriting master, Tom Ahern. Angel Aloma, ED of Food for the Poor, a charity that raises a billion dollars annually, recently wrote Tom to say: "I want to reiterate that much of what we are doing now in regards to donor centricity was inspired by your wonderful presentation.... I am convinced that the reason why we have grown in the last years of tough economic conditions in the country is because of that wonderful switch that you inspired [in our communications]."

Nationally Acclaimed Presenters Include:

Tom Ahern, Ahern Donor Communications                                                                                       Donor-Centricity Principles

Tom Ahern is often called one of the world’s leading experts on donor communications. 

He is the author of five well-received books on the topic, with another in the pipeline. Each year, he delivers dozens of workshops to fundraisers internationally, speaking recently at conferences in New Zealand, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Australia, and Italy as well as across North America. 

He is an award-winning copywriter and journalist. His recent clients for cases, direct mail, newsletters and training include the Animal Rescue League of Boston, Bow Valley College (Calgary), Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Catholic Relief Services, Houston Grand Opera, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, National Parks Conservation Association, Pathways to Education Canada, Planned Parenthood affiliates, Princeton University, Save the Children, Sharp HealthCare and other major hospital systems, SOS Children's Villages, Texas Parks & Recreation Foundation, the United Way of Anchorage, University of Chicago, Volunteers of America ... as well as many smaller and local nonprofits.

He also works with Prof. Adrian Sargeant and psychologist Jen Shang, developing model direct-mail fundraising communications for PBS TV.

Simone Joyaux, ACFRE, Joyaux Associates                                                                                   Governance & Executive Leadership

Simone P. Joyaux, ACFRE is described as “one of the most thoughtful, inspirational, and provocative  leaders in the philanthropic sector.” A consultant specializing in fund development, strategic planning,  and board development, Simone guides organizations and professionals through consulting and  coaching, teaching and writing. She speaks worldwide and teaches in the philanthropy graduate  program at Saint Mary’s University, MN.

Her books Keep Your Donors and Strategic Fund Development are standards. Her newest, Firing Lousy Board Members, receives rave reviews. She’s contributed to three other books, writes a web column for t he Nonprofit Quarterly, and blogs as Simone Uncensored.

Joyaux founded the Women’s Fund of RI and serves regularly on boards, including former chair of CFRE International. She and her partner have bequeathed their entire estate to charity.

Melissa Brown, Melissa S. Brown & Associates, LLC                                                                 Planning to Keep Your Donors

Melissa Brown advises nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and internationally, offering presentations, surveys and studies, program evaluation, and project management. She worked nearly 20 years at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University (now the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy), including 10 years as managing editor of Giving USA, the yearbook of philanthropy published by Giving USA Foundation.

Ms. Brown has researched and written about household and individual giving, with an emphasis on gender and generational differences, beginning with her first article on the subject in 2006. Her work has been featured in Advancing Philanthropy, Nonprofit Quarterly, The NonProfit Times, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy, among many publications.

She is an acclaimed presenter on topics related to charitable giving in the United States. She is a trained facilitator for the Association of Fundraising Professionals for the workshop “Planning to Keep Your Donors” and a faculty member of The Fund Raising School, a program of the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy with responsibility in 2014 for the courses about preparing grant proposals and annual fund sustainability.