OPENING REMARKS/HOUSEKEEPING

Amy Bobrick (@AmyBMerkleRMG)

Vice President, Strategy Merkle RMG

TRENDS IN MIDLEVEL GIVING: A COMING OF AGE STORY

It's been 5 years and 6 mid-level giving summits (with 25 nonprofits participating!) since our panel first shared at ANA in 2016 and we're back to share all the latest trends -- and how this segment is becoming more important than ever for your organizations long-term success!

Valerie Vierengel

Enterprise Account Manager EveryAction

Limited Capacity
Join this invitation-only event where nonprofit fundraising executives openly discuss the latest trends, explore issues, and share insights that are being realized from organizations across the nonprofit community. This exclusive, nonprofits-only discussion will allow industry executives to network and idea-share with each other on a personal, intimate level.

 If you are interested in attending, please complete the form  for eligibility.

Facilitator: Steve Froehlich

Chief Revenue and Development Officer St. Jude Children's Research Hospital – ALSAC

MAXIMIZING SUSTAINER REVENUE THROUGH MACHINE LEARNING

Most organizations have invested heavily in building their sustainer programs over the last few years.  For many organizations, sustainer programs are a vital component of the organization’s annual revenue stream and most organizations have diversified their multichannel marketing efforts to ensure that the program is going to continue its growth trajectory.  Organizations often focus their attention to front-end marketing efforts to maximize responsiveness, but often aren’t fully leveraging technology to maximize Return On Investment (ROI) in that critical audience. But how efficient are sustainer programs in terms of back-end operations?  How often do sustainers lapse and why?  Our speakers will tackle two areas to improve ROI in your sustainer program: 1) advanced credit card processing techniques to maximize processing efficiency and 2) machine learning driven modeling to identify sustainer churn.  First, we will delve into credit card and EFT processing and help your organization get the most out of advanced Account Updating and machine learning driven Recycling techniques.  Then we will share how machine learning algorithms are helping organizations identify at-risk audiences with their sustainer base and the marketing techniques that our clients are using to drive positive outcomes and improve retention.

Cindy Hickman

Product Lead ROI Solutions

STORYTELLING FOR A 6-SECOND WORLD: MAKING FLEXIBLE CAMPAIGNS

We have more ways to reach our audience than ever before. But everyone is overwhelmed: our teams are churning out content for more channels than ever before, and audiences are drowning in the deluge. In this session, we’ll explore how the City of New York approached the challenge of educating millions of voters about a complex new system called Ranked Choice Voting by breaking the message up into digestible components and giving audiences lots of different ways to access the information, from YouTube clips to long-form print publications. We’ll cover the research and the simple “bite – snack – meal” framework that inspired our approach. Then we’ll show how we executed it across direct mail, email, social media, new digital tools, and a citywide advertising campaign. When we put power back in the hands of users, they’re able to go as deep as they want, when they want, on their preferred channel. Walk away with a new perspective, rooted in human-centered design, that easily scales across any size organization or campaign budget.

Whitney Quesenbery

Director Center for Civic Design

FUNDRAISING SUCCESS IN A TIME OF SCARCITY

Scarce talent to work in nonprofits, shrinking donor universe, inflation reducing the amount donors have available to give, shortages of paper and printing resources—but, there’s hope! You can thrive even now!

This session will bring together a panel of integrated marketers to discuss some of the most challenging and forward-thinking topics in nonprofit marketing today. Attendees will hear more about leveraging analytics to optimize fundraising, strategies to raise more online, how to manage teams and build capacity and how tomorrow's nonprofit leaders are thriving today.

Dan Clasgens

Director, Direct Marketing Disabled American Veterans

CLOSING REMARKS

Amy Bobrick (@AmyBMerkleRMG)

Vice President, Strategy Merkle RMG

Welcome and Welcome back the return of live events. Kick off your evening activities with a celebration for bringing our industry together again in-person! Mingle with old and new friends, colleagues, and peers. Grab refreshing drinks and appetizers. Enjoy a great opportunity to network and relax a with your fellow attendees.

OPENING REMARKS & HOUSEKEEPING

Karen Barr

Managing Director, Supporter Acquisition & Retention Save the Children

WELCOME REMARKS

Bob Liodice

Chief Executive Officer ANA

KEYNOTE INTRO

Ashley Delamar

VP, Partnership & Growth One & All

"DREAMWALKING®" AND HOW IT HELPED HER BUILD AND SCALE THE SISTER ACCORD® FOUNDATION

As an advisor and executive coach to Fortune 500 companies and startups, Sonia Jackson Myles works with CEOs and their teams to create strong leaders, cultures and companies. Her well known leadership development programs have been used by many organizations including JP Morgan Chase, Duke Energy, Procter & Gamble, Fifth Third Bank and Disney. Sonia is also the Founder of The Sister Accord®️ Foundation, a 501 c3 organization, focused on educating girls and women, enlightening girls and women of the power of sisterhood, and eradicating bullying and violence against girls and women.

Hear from Sonia as she shares her inspiring journey from Corporate America to founding The Sister Accord®️ Foundation, and how she has grown it to the influential organization it is today. Sonia will also share excerpts from her “Dreamwalking®” program, including using tangible tools to drive creativity, innovation and excellence on your own terms. 

Sonia Jackson Myles

Founder & CEO The Accord Group LLC

BREAKOUT 1A: FROM $3 TO $10 MILLION IN 4 YEARS!

Audubon digital fundraising grew from $3 million to $10 million over four years. This session explains how we did it. The key to growth was innovation and diversification: from focusing on monthly giving to adding annual recurring giving, from adding PayPal and Apple Pay to optimizing the conversion of website visitor, to adding new digital ad channels. We will review the big strategies and talk about some of the tactical innovations that helped us succeed.

Steve Abrahamson

VP, Direct Response National Audubon Society

BREAKOUT 1B: EMBRACING AUTOMATION: A ROADMAP FOR ENGAGING DONOR JOURNEYS

The future has arrived.  Digital acceleration is happening at the speed of light and donor expectations are higher than ever.  Thankfully, nonprofit digital marketers have the power at their fingertips to deliver experiences and journeys that are tailor-made for donors to meet them where they’re at and keep them engaged.  And thanks to increasingly powerful marketing automation technology, this can now be done at scale.  But unleashing the power of new technology is not like flicking a light switch; maximizing the potential of the powerful new tools at our disposal requires forethought and planning.  In this 60-minute workshop, we’ll equip you with a proven roadmap for the implementation of a winning omnichannel marketing automation strategy based on recent work we’ve done with THD's forward-thinking client partners.

Eloise Caggiano

Vice President of Development, Marketing & Communications American Parkinson Disease Association

RESILIENCE IN A TIME OF TURBULENCE: A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

Jonathan Reckford, chief executive officer of Habitat for Humanity International, speaks candidly about the upheaval of the past two years and the strategies and tactics the nonprofit relied on to thrive during this period of uncertainty. Niely Shams, president of nonprofit solutions for Data Axle, talks to Reckford about how the organization shifted fundraising and marketing campaigns in the early days of COVID-19; diversity, equity, and inclusion; intersectionality in the industry; volunteer engagement; and the ‘lessons learned’ that will outlive the pandemic.

Jonathan Reckford

Chief Executive Officer Habitat for Humanity International

AWARDS CELEBRATION

Join us as we recognize the ANA NF Corporate Partner sponsors and celebrate the 2022 Rising Leader Award recipient Tyler Hall of Easterseals and 2022 Max Hart Nonprofit Achievement Award recipient Mike Vcelik of Boys Town. Learn more about the ANA Nonprofit awards program on our website, https://www.ana.net/content/show/id/nonprofit-awards. The luncheon immediately following is included for in-person conference attendees or attendance may be purchased à la carte.

Adrian White Slagle (@adrianwslagle)

Creator of Connections Full Hearts

PLANNED GIVING - WHAT'S YOUR PLAN?

For many nonprofits, stewarding a donor to the point of a planned gift is the holy grail. It’s often a challenge to identify leads, promote the program, and foster a relationship along the way. Many planned giving donors start as mail donors — is there a way to drive in more qualified planned giving prospects right at the first touch via direct mail acquisition? The answer is yes!

Planned Giving is a major source of revenue for nonprofits, with some organizations seeing up to 99% of the planned giving donors coming from direct mail. In this session, hear from experts in the industry on not only developing a successful planned giving program, but taking it to the next level. We’ll talk acquisition audience and package strategy to target donors with a higher propensity to become a planned giving donor and developing a journey to cultivate these donors and upgrade them to considering a planned gift. Leave our session feeling confident you and your team have a plan for planned giving.

Cate Gavin

Associate Director, Integrated Account Management Assembly

HOW TEXTING & VOICE MESSAGING CHANGED THE GAME DURING COVID-19

During the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, nonprofits found themselves wondering how to communicate with donors who might be feeling very uncertain about their own situations.  A very successful recipe was found in the strategy of turning to the donors and focusing on them and their needs! This was accomplished through using alternative communication methods (Peer-to-Peer Texting, Donor Conference Calls, Broadcast Voice Messaging) that de-emphasized solicitation. However, to everyone’s surprise, revenue and return on investment were substantial.

This session will be filled with Case Studies that provide a road map for your nonprofit to increase revenue by focusing on your donors and their needs.

Justin Henry

Executive Vice President Synergy Direct Marketing Solutions

BREAKOUT 2A - DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION IN DIRECT RESPONSE

Old, young, Black, Hispanic, White, Gay, Straight, Pan and more – the people affected by our missions reflect the diversity of our country. So too do our donors, our volunteers, and our advocates. Yet too often, our fundraising messages don’t reflect that diversity. That is, until now! Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) initiatives are being embraced by HR departments from coast to coast, and now is the time for senior leaders in development and marketing to follow suit.

Join Fatima Villarreal & Harmonie Farrow from Children’s Health and Kelley Hecht Stewart & Kim Richardson from Pursuant for this not-to-be-missed session looking at Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) through the lens of sophisticated direct response fundraising programs. Together we’ll quantify the value of incorporating DE&I into your efforts and the Children’s Health team will share details from their journey that will leave you with practical next steps to apply across your team.

Kelley Stewart

Executive Vice President Pursuant

BREAKOUT 2B: WHAT’S IN YOUR TECH STACK?

As inventory becomes more scarce, nonprofit marketers and fundraisers must be even smarter about how they deploy dollars and measure media value. Marketers need to understand who they’re reaching, when they’re reaching them and have the tools to make sure their investment is allocated to the viewers and consumers they haven’t reached yet. The amount of data that needs to be synthesized and the compressed time available to conduct analysis in will require support from technology.

Media is an investment that drives value over time. If a marketer’s primary goal is to deliver impressions at the cheapest cost, they’re likely to deliver to the wrong audience and/or to repeat frequency against the easiest and cheapest audience as opposed to distributing dollars against the broadest swath of whom they’re trying to reach.  Marketers need tools and insight to understand distribution and not approach everyone as if they bring the same value - because they don’t.

Katie Valvo

Vice President, Strategy & Planning Epsilon

BREAKOUT 3A: THE MULTICHANNEL DONOR MYTH

Multichannel donors — the nirvana of the modern fundraising program according to many in our industry. Or has this ideal been misunderstood for a very long time? What if we told you multichannel donors aren’t more valuable simply because they’re multichannel? What if we could prove it? Join us in a webinar that pulls back the curtain on a seemingly well-established principle about nonprofit fundraising to understand what truly makes donors valuable.

Becky Graninger

Chief Development and Marketing Officer Feed the Children

BREAKOUT 4B: I'M NOT CRAZY- LAUNCHING/RELAUNCHING A FACE-TO-FACE PROGRAM DURING A PANDEMIC

Face-to-Face fundraising is not new to rounding out a nonprofit's fundraising mix and advancing their brand awareness. Many organizations depend on it to meet their development goals, and because it is a great way to connect with new donors and supporters through meaningful conversations. COVID-19 and the global shutdown of 2020 hit the channel hard when shelter at home orders took effect. When organizations and agency partners safely returned to the field in summer 2020, fundraising began to recover but with considerations that had not previously existed, including concerns around canvasser/donor safety and questions around brand protection. Together, charities and agency partners worked through and evolved their programs to meet the new challenges of rebuilding during COVID-19.

This session will feature those “real life” challenges including how several charities worked through rebuilding their programs while staying true to their brands.  With those new challenges now part of the realities of the channel, this session will compare F2F to other areas you could invest in, help charities consider how to think about starting a program, and what to consider before jumping into this “brave new world.”

Monica Muten

Director, Direct Response Marketing Special Olympics

NAVIGATING THE DIGITAL LANDSCAPE FOR OUTSIZED SUCCESS

Carl Fremont, CEO, Quigley and Hope Wohl, CEO, Breastcancer.org in a conversation moderated by Katie Kempner, creator of “Perspectives with Katie Kempner”, will share case studies, tangible tools, and invaluable lessons for all nonprofits on how to navigate the complicated digital landscape for connections, contributions, and outsized success.

Quigley is the largest WBENC, based in L.A. and New York, certified female-owned advertising agency in the country. The agency counts JP Morgan Chase, Procter & Gamble, Operation Smile, Mercy Ships, Earthjustice, Sigura Water, and NBC Universal among its roster of blue-chip clients. Leading nonprofit, Breastcancer.org is dedicated to helping everyone make sense of the complex medical and personal information about breast health and breast cancer, so they can make the best decisions for their lives.

Join these leading thought-leader panelists as they discuss how to navigate the digital landscape successfully.

Hope Wohl

CEO Breastcancer.org

Karen Barr

Managing Director, Supporter Acquisition & Retention Save the Children

Take advantage of being there in-person! Because it’s not just what you know; it’s who you know. In addition to a strong education content that provides the knowledge you need to advance you and your organization to the next step; this event is an opportunity to meet people who can help you get there. Expand your professional network by joining us for drinks and appetizers with prominent industry leaders and peers and continue your discussions started in the session rooms. What a great way to finish the day!

OPENING REMARKS AND HOUSKEEPING

Amy Bobrick (@AmyBMerkleRMG)

Vice President, Strategy Merkle RMG

ANA NONPROFIT POLICY UPDATE: ISSUES AND CONCERNS LOOMING IN 2022

Join us to learn about the latest issues of concern on Capitol Hill and in the states that impact nonprofit organizations. This brief overview session will highlight key issues like the United States Postal Service pricing and delivery changes, data privacy restrictions, tax giving incentives and other restrictions that will require changes to your policies and practices. Get updated & Get involved!

Senny Boone

SVP, Nonprofit Federation ANA

WHY ARE PEOPLE TURNING TO BUSINESS INSTEAD OF NONPROFITS TO BE THEIR PRIMARY PARTNERS IN CREATING POSITIVE CHANGE?

NGOs were once the most trust social institution ahead of government, media, and business. But, over the past several years, they have lost their number one ranking to business. In theory, times of distress, trauma, and high levels of need, such what we are in the midst of today, should be moments for NGO’s to shine, to emerge as heroes. Instead, people have turned to business, an institution more in the anti-hero than hero mold to fix our problems.

This presentation will discuss how NGO’s should understand and confront their new trust status and go about rehabilitating their public image while pushing forward in new ways with their missions to effect positive change in the world.

David M. Bersoff

Head of Global Thought Leadership Research Edelman Data and Intelligence (DxI)

THE FUTURE OF FUNDRAISING IS CONSUMER-DRIVEN

Consumer focused innovations have transformed the for-profit industry. If the nonprofit sector wants to avoid being left behind, organizations need to prioritize the online donation experience.

Learning Outcomes / Takeaways:

•  How donor behavior mirrors consumer behavior
• Why donation experiences must be human-centered in their design..and why they haven't been
• Where legacy technology is falling short in modern philanthropy
• Where emerging trends and technologies find their place in the nonprofit sector
• How to center your future fundraising on a consumer-driven model

Nic Miller

Head of Research & Development Fundraise Up

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE TESTING ON DIGITAL STEROIDS

Digital is a fast, cheap, and easy way to test. But, how to make it purposeful and strategic?

Start with theory on the psychology of giving and be prepared to question best practice. If you aren't unsure and even a tad uncomfortable with the test it probably isn't worth doing.

Catholic Relief Services has been using behavioral science to guide their testing for years. They've learned a lot, including the best way to target and message based on the innate traits of Identity and Personality to get out of a one size fits all world.  They've also upset the apple cart of best practice more than a time or two.

They are willing to share all of it in a fast & furious session full of take-away ideas and big picture thinking. The Kiki and Larissa show is not to be missed.

Kiki Koutmeridou (@KikiKoutmeridou)

Chief Behavioral Scientist DonorVoice

THE POWER OF INTEGRATION TO CAPTURE AND RETAIN NEW DONORS

Mobile devices are core to communication in today’s world and reaching your donors relies on an effective mobile communications strategy. On a typical day, your audience interacts with the mission through email, television advertisement, social media, or outdoor display advertising. Consistency and integration of your messaging and creative across all touch points lifts mission awareness and response. At Shriners Hospitals for Children, we’re implementing multi-channel donor journeys at every opportunity from a direct mail welcome series that includes mail, phone, and digital touches to sustainer reactivation utilizing connected TV, display remarketing, phone and email. The kids are the stars and their voices are the key to unlocking donor’s passion for the mission and generating the revenue to provide the much needed critical care.

Kristin Mansolillo

Senior Account Director, Integrated Services Edge Direct

WALMART GRANT COLLABORATION TO ADDRESS SYSTEMIC ISSUES

Foundation giving can make up ~20% of a nonprofit's fundraising, and is projected to rise as more social responsibility is being asked of corporations.  The Walmart Foundation, one of the largest charitable foundations in the world, focuses their philanthropic support across creating opportunities, advancing sustainability, and strengthening communities, while committed to keeping diversity, equity and inclusion at the heart of their efforts. The Walmart Foundation is increasingly looking to employ a collaborative and entrepreneurial mentality of combining forces to enact real change in their grant-awarding process -- which is what donors will be looking for in the future as well. Operation Homefront and Hire Heroes both work to help military families, and have some overlapping parts of their missions to serve military veterans and their families via stable financial footing and job security. When Operation Homefront and Hire Heroes applied for a Walmart Foundation grant, they were asked to join together to help overcome military veteran unemployment and financial instability in rural archetype areas, coupled with a diverse and inclusive programmatic delivery, to affect real change at the underlying issues of financial instability for these communities.  However, as the two charities discovered, collaborative grant-making is difficult for a variety of differences - missions, board of directors, technical/enterprise infrastructures, working with a new agency - all while making sure the terms of the grant are still being fulfilled by each party.  Come find out how these organizations collaborated to overcome these obstacles in this new fundraising paradigm; create a non-fundraising target audience; and design multi-channel creative to help achieve measurable change within these disadvantaged communities.

Margi Kirst (@margikirst)

Chief Development Officer Operation Homefront

10 TAKEAWAYS FROM 2021: FROM APPLE UPDATES TO EMERGENCY RESPONSE

A lot has changed over the past year: dramatic breakthroughs in the fight against COVID-19, a new administration in Washington, and – thankfully – an end to disinfecting our groceries. There’s been a lot of disruption in the digital fundraising world, too, from Apple’s privacy updates and changing consumer spending habits to back-to-back rapid response moments requiring immediate action.

In this session, you’ll hear from experts at MissionWired about some of the biggest lessons we learned in a year unlike any other – including critical takeaways from end-of-year campaigns by organizations like Save the Children, the USO, Sandy Hook Promise, and Americares.

Maureen McNally

Executive Vice President MissionWired

BIG FACTS, SMALL ACTS: HOW A GUERILLA CAMPAIGN ACTIVATED A COMMUNITY

Disheartened by the disproportionate impact the pandemic was having on communities of color and alarmed by the spread of misinformation, Sherri Daye Scott set out to protect Black and Brown communities by sharing real facts and changing the perception of mask-wearing.  With an initial investment of just her $600 stimulus check, she founded Big Facts, Small Acts (BFSA), working with artists to “deface” their own murals by adding removable vinyl masks and messages of survival to iconic images including those of Martin Luther King Jr., Colin Kaepernick and Bob Marley. Leading ad agency, Chemistry, created a fully integrated campaign to amplify the messaging.

The effort was hugely successful in inner cities, garnered widespread press attention, and won a number of awards including being named one of Fast Company’s “World Changing Ideas” and winning the Grand Prize in the Small Budget category of the ANA’s Multicultural Excellence Awards.

Join Sherri Daye Scott and Chris Breen, Chief Creative Officer, Chemistry, as they discuss the inspiration behind the campaign, how they generated national media attention, and how small projects like this can spark necessary cultural conversations and affect change.

Sherri Daye Scott

Founder, Big Facts Small Acts & Everybody Eats Media SVP of Marketing & Communications at Public Broadcasting Atlanta

CLOSING REMARKS: CONFERENCE WRAP-UP

This fast-paced “wrap-up” session will cover the key moments of the Winter Conference! The conference chairs will highlight takeaways from the multitude of sessions as well as notable discussions that arose over the conference. Pulling the very best from across the presentations! It will be a fun way to celebrate and will arm you with the new strategies, ideas and approaches you need to elevate your organizations fundraising and marketing campaigns!

Amy Bobrick (@AmyBMerkleRMG)

Vice President, Strategy Merkle RMG