seminars and presentations

Nonprofit organizations have amazing stories to share – stories of perseverance, fortitude, profound impact, and generosity. Stories are at the core of why nonprofit organizations exist. Scientific research confirms good storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to communicate, to engage stakeholders, and to influence behavior. It’s especially important for effective fundraising. But what makes a good story? With the right recipe, storytelling can be the secret sauce of your fundraising success. What ingredients engage the audience and have an impact? Some ingredients are essential. You just can’t make a good sauce (or gravy as some call it) without tomatoes. In this interactive session based on Lynn’s recently published book on Storytelling: The Secret Sauce of Fundraising Success, you’ll hear about what it takes to become a storytelling gourmet and refine your own storytelling recipes.

There have been many tax changes in the last few years—including a few enacted in response to the pandemic. How will your income tax return be impacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the SECURE Act, the CARES Act and the Consolidated Appropriations Act? What tax changes might we see as we look forward—and how might those changes affect you? This session will provide an overview – and is appropriate for donor, board members, and volunteer audiences.

Perhaps the biggest myth in gift planning: We must understand and promote sophisticated gift vehicles to be successful. Yet even at top fundraising organizations with mature gift planning programs, bequests represent most planned gifts – particularly when you include beneficiary designations, which have become just as (if not more) important. So, what prevents your organization from building a successful gift planning program? In this session, we’ll take a look at some of the myths and hurdles that might be holding you back – and the tools you can use to “bust” those myths, clear those hurdles, and bring on the gifts!

Real estate assets represent the largest portion of wealth in the United States – yet too many organizations are not equipped to cultivate and solicit gifts of real estate. This session will provide you with the tools and information necessary to secure a slice of that pie for your organization. We’ll look at conversation clues, due diligence, gift vehicles, policies, resources, and pitfalls.

A mega-gift is defined as a gift of “millions of dollars” to a charitable organization. Exactly HOW MANY millions is defined by each unique charity. Fundraisers and charities dream of closing these mega-gifts. We imagine the potential impact a mega-gift might have on our important charitable work because these mega-gifts can be transformative. They can change a charity’s programming and strategy. But how do mega-gifts happen? In almost every case, the charity has a deep and long relationship with the donor that has included extensive cultivation. What role does Gift Planning play in the cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of mega-gifts? And what are some of the pitfalls to watch out for (the uh-oh moments)? In this session, you will hear answers to these and other questions. The speakers will share their personal experiences with mega-gifts ranging from one million to more than a hundred million dollars - and offer suggestions for making that mega-gift dream a reality.

Why focus on gifts of retirement assets? The results for your organization and your donors can be simple, smart and significant. We encourage donors to have a Will, but the unfortunate truth is most won’t. Sadly, this is sometimes true even when a donor expressed a charitable bequest intention. A beneficiary designation gift is a SIMPLE solution to this problem. In addition, the tax advantages of gifts of retirement assets (during lifetime or at death) make these SMART gifts. Focusing on gifts of retirement assets can have SIGNIFICANT impact for your organization because retirement assets represent a very deep “pocket” for gifts. In this session, we’ll review the ways to gift retirement assets (outright and deferred), the tax advantages of these gifts, and the potential impact for your organization.

In this session, we will focus on strategies for effectively incorporating gift planning into your campaign - and more broadly into your development program. As we consider the ever growing size and frequency of campaigns, the case for gift planning has never been stronger. Campaigns increasingly require greater strategic planning, fiscal integrity, and performance metrics. What gifts count and how do you count them? How do you make gift planning more collaborative? Can gift planning generate current gifts? We will address these issues, talk about what worked for the University of Pennsylvania during two multi-billion-dollar campaigns, and highlight what might work for you and your organization.

In 2020, the pandemic brought face to face visits to a halt. We pivoted and moved to alternatives including virtual visits. It may be a while before we are able to visit with donors as we have in the past in a coffee shop, over lunch, or in a living room. Nevertheless, we must continue to engage donors and stakeholders. We will discuss the principles of successful visits—preparation, execution, and follow up. We will review these steps to maximize the success of our outreach,

You might think gift planning is just deferred gifts - gifts that are long term. While many planned gifts are indeed bequests and beneficiary designations (such as life insurance or retirement accounts) there are planned gifts that can have an immediate impact. This seminar covers some of these current gifts - including gifts of assets such as real estate, collectibles, and complex financial assets. We will also talk about Donor Advised Funds, Charitable Lead Trusts, and the Charitable IRA Rollover - gifts that have an impact now.