Speaking

Calling all nonprofit leaders who want to raise a $1M or more: In this powerful keynote, Amy Eisenstein will challenge the assumptions that keep nonprofits small and reveal the mindset shift that changes everything about fundraising. Join Amy to learn the fastest path to transformational fundraising. (Hint: it’s not events, emails, or celebrities.)

A year from now, the difference between organizations that thrive and those that struggle will not be the economy. It will be the courage to think bigger, to ask bigger, and to believe that transformational gifts are not reserved for other nonprofits — they are available to you.

This presentation tells the story of a capital campaign that, by conventional fundraising standards, should not have succeeded, and yet it did. It’s the story of an organization with limited capacity, modest visibility, and organizational constraints – with no Annual Gift program – which should have prevented any conversations about capital campaigns. Yet through diligent strategy and relationship building a foundation for a successful campaign emerged.

Through real campaign examples this session illustrates how preplanning, strategic stakeholder alignment, and a guided feasibility study laid the foundation for success. Through real world examples participants will explore how preparation steps such as clarifying the case for support, educating board members, and conducting a nontraditional feasibility study helped to bolster the campaign.

While this presentation does tell the story of fundraising strategies, it more importantly emphasizes what happened to build the infrastructure before the campaign launched. It demonstrates how thoughtful preparation can transform community doubt into confidence, stabilize reputation, and against the odds produce a remarkable outcome.

This session is ideal for those who are anticipating a capital campaign, in the midst of one, or who have never conducted a campaign, especially fundraising professionals in small development shops who are navigating ambitious goals, for a capital campaign or any type of campaign, with limited resources.

Learning objectives:

• learn how to prepare their organizations for a capital campaign by examining real-world readiness decisions and early-stage choices.
• learn how to assess the role of feasibility studies in evaluating donor capacity, organizational readiness, and setting
• learn how to mobilize foundation and volunteer relationships to advance a capital campaign in the absence of formal campaign committees

If you’re planning a capital campaign, your board members are likely to be anxious. All board members want to know the answers to a few key questions. And when they have the answers to their questions, they’re more likely to support your campaign.

In this session, we’ll give you simple and effective ways to get your board members ready for a campaign.

Learning objectives:

• How to train your board about capital campaign fundraising
• How to set a board giving goal for your campaign
• How to define appropriate roles for board members in the capital campaign

In the world of fundraising, myths often shroud the truth, creating unnecessary barriers and misconceptions.

Capital campaigns are no exception.

In this session, we’ll sift through the most interesting insights gleaned from our annual State of Capital Campaigns Benchmark Report. You’ll come away with benchmarks with which to compare your organization.

Learning objectives:

• What are the primary drivers of capital campaigns?
• Are capital campaigns typically successful?
• How is the annual fund impacted both during and after a capital campaign?
• Does conducting a feasibility study matter?
• How diverse are campaign committees?