May 16, 2018- Super Session!!!

Thank you to our event sponsors! 

Co-Presenting Sponsors of May Super Session

Council  Sponsors

Morning Program: The Science and Art of Persuasion

Description: At its heart, fundraising is about persuading people to give away money. How the best fundraisers do it is an intangible art, but there is hard science behind the six universal principles of social influence that sway people: liking; authority; reciprocation; social proof; scarcity; and commitment and consistency. We will examine each of these, how we unknowingly use them, how we can use them more intentionally, and putting them to good use for the charities we care about. First, we’ll dive into social science experiments that underlie the six principles of social influence. Next, we’ll look at ways to apply those principles to your one-to-one interactions with prospects as well as marketing. Sometimes small changes in presentation or behavior can yield large changes – and larger gifts. Make sure you understand the subtle, unspoken language of social influence, and that you’re not accidentally “saying” the wrong thing to prospects.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the six social science principles of liking, social proof, reciprocity, authority, commitment and consistency, and scarcity

• Learn ways to use all of these principles in your fundraising practice with prospects and donors, marketing pieces, and volunteers

• Understand the unspoken and little-understood forces that motivate all of us

• Secure more gifts by understanding how to apply these principles to your daily work

Lunch Program: Asking for the Largest Gift of Your Career: A Bequest

Description: Did you know that most people give a larger total dollar amount to a particular charity through their estate than all their lifetime gifts to that charity combined? Asking for a bequest, by definition, will help you secure some of the largest gifts you’ll ever bring in for your organization. Are you doing this? Unless you’re a gift planning professional, the answer is usually ‘no’. Officers can be terrified of the bequest ask. Often, they fear that a bequest conversation means talking about death, dying, and cutting the kids out of an inheritance. Who wants to do that? This session will help you examine the roots of any hesitation around this very valuable conversation, reframe your understanding of the bequest ask, understand various ways to talk about the subject of bequests, and arm you with the kind of knowledge that will help you make the bequest discussion a positive, life-affirming experience for both you and your prospect. This session will present dozens of direct types of asks that you can take back to your shop and use with your prospects so you can not only be comfortable with the bequest discussion but possibly help you land some of the biggest gifts of your career.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand and overcome your fear of asking for a bequest

• Reframe the way you think about bequest conversations

• Find several ways of framing an ask for a bequest that feels comfortable to you so you can incorporate it in your own fundraising practice

Speaker: Anne T. Melvin, Director of Training and Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Bio: Anne Melvin has worked as both a volunteer and a professional in the field of development for over two decades. In recent years, Anne specialized in planned giving, negotiating and closing gifts for various schools at Harvard. As Deputy Director of Gift Planning at Harvard College, she directed the marketing portion of Harvard’s gift planning efforts for 12 years, revamping its approach to marketing and tripling its lead generation. She also worked with prospects, soliciting and closing gifts. For the past three years, Anne has directed the fundraiser training and overall development education program at Harvard’s central development office. Anne is a member of AFP, the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning (PPP), and the PPP Leadership Institute. She speaks around the country to professional development organizations and leads training at non-profits, specializing in donor motivation, gift planning, cultivating the donor, fundraiser training and gift solicitation and negotiation. Anne serves on the board of the Wellesley Education Foundation and volunteers her time consulting for a number of non-profits, as well as fundraising for her alma mater. Prior to joining Harvard, Anne practiced real estate law in the Boston area. She is a cum laude graduate of Williams College and holds a J.D. from the Boston University School of Law.

Members: $60.00

Non- Members: $80.00

This program has been approved for 1 CFRE Point

Each program (morning and afternoon) has been approved for 1 general CLE