Nonprofit fundraisers discuss how to engage boards in relationship-based fundraising.

Rebuilding our communities post-crisis and addressing systemic issues will require sustained investment in nonprofits. Having rapidly innovated last year to survive, nonprofit leaders and fundraisers are redesigning their fundraising programs to generate sustainable revenue growth to enable their missions to thrive.

Like any major strategic initiative, fundraising depends critically on board leadership—as strategic leaders, personal investors, and ambassadors in the community.

Join us for a panel discussion to explore how nonprofit leaders and fundraisers can engage boards in what comes next:

• How do you create an exceptional experience for boards, as our most dedicated volunteers and donors?

• How do you engage boards in developing your fundraising strategy?

• How do you translate ideas into progress that is meaningful for both the board member and the organization?

• How do you avoid common pitfalls?

Panelists:

• Laura Safran, Aperio Philanthropy

• Colleen Crino, Creating IT Futures

• Janine Quijije, Communities in Schools

• Marianna Tu, America Needs You

This panel is offered in collaboration with the NYUSPS George H. Heyman, Jr. Program for Philanthropy and Fundraising.

This month’s book: The Likability Trap

Alicia Menedez has observed that women are stuck in an impossible bind: Be nice, but not too nice. Be successful, but not too successful. Just be likable—whatever that means?

At work, strong women are criticized for being cold, and warm women are seen as pushovers. In The Likability Trap, Menendez examines this fundamental paradox and empowers readers to let go of old rules and reimagine leadership rather than reinventing themselves.

What cultural patterns are holding us back? How can we value our unique talents and styles instead of muting them?

Join us for a fun, lively conversation with nonprofit leaders and fundraisers. We'll discuss what we've learned from the book and how we're applying it to our day-to-day lives.

Here's a link to order the book.

Note: This will be an interactive, small-group event. Don't have time to read the book? No worries! Join us anyway to share your experiences and learn from others.

Join the Aperio book club.

Have books piling up on your nightstand? Join the Aperio book club to start reading through them! Each month, we’ll meet (virtually) to discuss our book of the month and takeaways for our work and lives.

Nonprofit leaders discuss how to build forward-looking partnerships with donors

In 2020, nonprofits discovered new potential and purpose. This year, nonprofit leaders and fundraisers are asking: How do we advance what we learned? Visions are bold, and strategic plans are ambitious. Realizing them will require funding – and soon.

Fortunately, just as nonprofits are embarking on new strategic plans, funders are rethinking what it means to support the causes they care about. A decades-long trend toward rigorous, metrics-based decision-making was disrupted by crisis—which forced funders to adapt and act quickly—and social justice movements—which forced funders to begin to examine their role in systemic racism. Funders gave general operating support, simplified application processes, and made decisions more quickly, breathing new life into the organizations they supported.

Join us for a panel discussion to explore how nonprofit leaders and fundraisers can engage forward-looking individuals, foundations, and companies in what comes next:

• How do you identify prospective early funders in your vision?

• How do you engage those prospective funders in the process of developing your vision and co-creating solutions?

• How do you ensure the partnership you develop is a genuine win-win?

• How do you avoid common pitfalls?

Panelists:

• Tia Hodges, Citi Foundation (moderator)

• Heather Northrop, Child Mind Institute

• Leya Petrovani-Miller, Bowery Mission

• Nancy Sackson, San Francisco-Marin Food Bank

• Jen Szapiro, Audubon Society

This panel is offered in collaboration with the NYUSPS George H. Heyman, Jr. Program for Philanthropy and Fundraising.

Join the Aperio book club.

Have books piling up on your nightstand? Join the Aperio book club to start reading through them! Each month, we’ll meet (virtually) to discuss our book of the month and takeaways for our work and lives.

This month’s book: Good to Great

For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins...

Are there companies and organizations that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company or organization to go from good to great?

Join us for a fun, lively conversation about his findings outlined in Good to Great. We'll discuss what we've learned from the book and how we're applying it to our day-to-day lives.

Here's a link to order the book.

Note: This will be an interactive, small-group event. Don't have time to read the book? No worries! Join us anyway to share your experiences and learn from others.

Nonprofit visionaries discuss their tips for casting a bold vision for 2021 and beyond.

For nonprofits, 2020 was a year of discovering resilience—and a year for visionary leadership. Through their fearless adaptation and relationship building, nonprofit organizations demonstrated their ability to impact our lives and communities. We saw first-hand: Our potential is limitless.

In 2021, nonprofits have an opportunity to reimagine and redefine themselves.

Join us for a panel discussion of forward-thinking leaders to explore:

• How do you define a clear ‘north star’ for your mission and organization?

• How do you break down barriers to unlock bigger, bolder thinking?

• How do you engage your team and stakeholders?

• How do you inspire donors to invest in your future?

Moderator:

Bianca Derouene, President & Founder, Aperio Philanthropy

Panelists:

Leslie Gordon, President & CEO, Food Bank For New York City

Lisa Gurwitch, CEO, Delivering Good

Michele Hall-Duncan, CEO, enCourage Kids Foundation

Joe English, Founder and Executive Director, Hope in a Box

This panel is offered in collaboration with the NYUSPS George H. Heyman, Jr. Program for Philanthropy and Fundraising.

Join the Aperio book club.

Have books piling up on your nightstand? Join the Aperio book club to start reading through them! Each month, we’ll meet (virtually) to discuss our book of the month and takeaways for our work and lives.

This month’s book: Connect

Connect was written by a team of marketing experts serving Fortune 500 brands to outlines the massive paradigm shift currently taking place within the marketing industry--and provide us the insight we need to stay on board.

How can we stay relevant? How can we connect with our audiences? How can we drive toward our organizations' strategic objectives?

Join us for a fun, lively conversation with nonprofit leaders and fundraisers. We'll discuss what we've learned from Connect and how we're applying it to our day-to-day lives.

Here's a link to order the book.

Note: This will be an interactive, small-group event. Don't have time to read the book? No worries! Join us anyway to share your experiences and learn from others.

Join the Aperio book club.

Have books piling up on your nightstand? Join the Aperio book club to start reading through them! Each month, we’ll meet (virtually) to discuss our book of the month and takeaways for our work and lives.

This month’s book: Dare to Lead

In her #1 NYT bestsellers, Brené Brown taught us what it means to dare greatly, rise strong and brave the wilderness. Now, based on new research conducted with leaders, change makers and culture shifters, she’s showing us how to put those ideas into practice so we can step up and lead.

How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders? And, how do you embed the value of courage in your culture?

Dare to Lead answers these questions and gives us actionable strategies and real examples from her new research-based, courage-building program.

Here's a link to order the book.

Note: RSVP to the event to add it to you calendar. Prior to the book club, you will receive an email from our team confirming the access information for your small group.

Join the Aperio book club.

Have books piling up on your nightstand? Join the Aperio book club to start reading through them! Each month, we’ll meet (virtually) to discuss our book of the month and takeaways for our work and lives.

Note: RSVP to the event to add it to you calendar. Prior to the book club, you will receive an email from our team confirming the access information for your small group.

This month’s book: What Your Donors Want and Why

The New York Times has called Tom Ahern "one of the country's most sought-after creators of fundraising messages." He's also a wildly popular trainer, introducing fundraisers around the world to the secrets of persuasion and donor-centricity.

What Your Donors Want...and Why! is his latest and most impassioned book. In its chapters, nonprofits learn how to treat donors as customers (and why that matters so much to income),how to organize communications around the prime metric of Lifetime Value (LTV), and how to answer the Big Three questions required in a high-performance case for support.

Here's a link to order the book.

Note: RSVP to the event to add it to you calendar. Prior to the book club, you will receive an email from our team confirming the access information for your small group.

Join the Aperio book club.

Have books piling up on your nightstand? Join the Aperio book club to start reading through them! Each month, we’ll meet (virtually) to discuss our book of the month and takeaways for our work and lives.

Note: RSVP to the event to add it to you calendar. Prior to the book club, you will receive an email from our team confirming the access information for your small group.

This Month’s Book: Uncharitable

Dan Pallotta is one of the boldest writers on the role of nonprofits in our society, arguing that the paradigm of how we think about charity is constraining revenue-generative and impact for nonprofits. His iconic 2013 TED Talk introduced his assessment of unequal economic rights for charities and their impact. 

In Uncharitable, he explains his how we got here, what it means, and what we can do about it. In our discussion, we’ll talk about how we see the effects of these trends in our organizations, how it constrains our own fundraising, and how we can lead a paradigm-shift from the ground up. 

In fundraising, summer is the season of organization. We step away from our busy day-to-day and prepare for the year ahead. This summer, a reset is especially important. We need to get focused and organized to prepare for an uncertain future. In this three-part series, we’ll walk you through what to do this summer—and, most importantly, how to do it.

Session 3: Create engagement plan

You’ve crafted your new case for support. You’ve organized your list. Now it’s time to bring them together into an engagement plan for the coming months.

In this session we’ll walk through:

• How to gather engagement ideas

• How to map out engagement plans by segment

• How to touch on all aspects of stewardship: thanking, demonstrating impact, and creating community

• How to integrate touchpoints with your moves management plans for top donors

This will be a 45-minute training with 45 minutes available for Q&A.

In fundraising, summer is the season of organization. We step away from our busy day-to-day and prepare for the year ahead. This summer, a reset is especially important. We need to get focused and organized to prepare for an uncertain future. In this three-part series, we’ll walk you through what to do this summer—and, most importantly, how to do it.

Session 2: Organize Your List

All fundraising starts with a list. When your list is organized, it becomes simple to provide your donors the best possible experience throughout the year—and inspire them to stay engaged and giving.

In this session we’ll walk through:

• How to get a basic understanding of your database

• How to create basic donor segments

• How to narrow down a shortlist of highest-potential donors

• Resources for intermediate & advanced programs

This will be a 45-minute training with 45 minutes available for Q&A.

Upcoming Session

• Session 3: Create your engagement plan

In fundraising, summer is the season of organization. We step away from our busy day-to-day and prepare for the year ahead. This summer, a reset is especially important. We need to get focused and organized to prepare for an uncertain future. In this three-part series, we’ll walk you through what to do this summer—and, most importantly, how to do it.

Session 1: Build your new case for support

As our country navigates crisis, people are looking for ways to help through their donations. For the foreseeable future, your organization will need to speak to your relevancy in this moment. Why is your mission right now? What are you contributing to the response? How will a donation make a difference?

In this session we’ll walk through:

• How to articulate your relevancy this year

• How to make your case clear and compelling

• How to align your team around a case

• How to translate your case to collateral and communications

This will be a 45-minute training with 45 minutes available for Q&A.

Upcoming Sessions

• Session 2: Organize your list

• Session 3: Create your engagement plan