Here are the confirmed sessions to-date for this year’s 2025 MMOTM conference – check back for the latest session additions. We will have more than forty sessions! More information to follow about exact days and times for each session.
Opening Plenary Session:
Be Mindful: All The Sessions You Don’t Want To Miss…
Welcome, Introductions and Conference Highlights
Bob Burdenski, John Taylor and Other Greeters TBA
We’ll launch the 2025 “Meeting of the Minds” Conference with a festive welcome and a rapid-fire rundown of the favorite advancement services and annual giving conference sessions and speakers to follow. Often in sync, lovingly in conflict, and always working in support of philanthropic goals, annual giving and advancement services offices play a critical role in advancement success. Join us as we provide a preview of the great conference sessions to come, and hear a special welcome from our sponsors.
All About the Pipeline: A Leadership Annual Giving Forum, Part One
Ann Fisher, University of Michigan Medicine, Meredith Howell, UChicago Medicine Teresa Sutter, The Art Institute of Chicago
Part one of a two-part morning session all about leadership annual giving programs, with particular emphasis on membership organization pipelines, grateful patient and medical school pipelines, and face-to-face fundraising strategies.
All About the Pipeline: A Leadership Annual Giving Forum, Part Two
Hilda Rivera, Wheaton College, Ally Campbell, Washington University, and Kelly Brault, Oakland University
Part two of a two-part morning session all about leadership annual giving programs, with particular emphasis on alumni, class and reunion leadership giving strategies and leadership giving societies.
An Annual Giving Directors’ Forum
Jeff Neal, Loyola University Chicago, Shannon Dale, Grand Valley State University and Panel TBA
They lead annual giving at their institutions – what’s their current perspective? Is our work evolving from “participation” to “pipeline?” Is the “base of the pyramid” still important? Are there annual giving assumptions that have changed? And what’s stayed the same? Join a panel of annual giving directors and hear their perspectives about the continuing role of annual giving in institutional advancement.
The Annual Giving Lessons I Learned When I Left Education and Joined a Not-For-Profit
John Grice, Obama Foundation
Session description to follow.
Annual Giving Stewardship: Delivering Annual Giving Affection At Scale
Nicole Weir, Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association
Session description to follow.
The Best of Both Worlds: Properly Blending Direct Mail with Digital Campaigns
Theresa Aide and Kate Cominsky, CFRE, Suttle-Straus
Direct Mail is still the most effective tool for fundraising today, but when blended with a well-timed and coordinated digital campaign it becomes even better. Learn how 7 different techniques can be orchestrated together for a 30-day campaign where digital ads act as an accelerant to put “fuel on the fire” to get your donors to give more and give faster to achieve your goals in record time.
Celebrating and Promoting Donor Loyalty: The NU Loyal Program
Cori Myers, Northwestern University
Session description to follow.
Class and Reunion Fundraising
Ally Campbell, Washington University
This session will explore how Washington University School of Medicine leverages milestone reunions as strategic opportunities to engage alumni and inspire philanthropic support. Attendees will learn how we structure reunion campaigns to foster personal connection, celebrate shared legacy, and elevate giving outcomes. The presentation will highlight key elements such as volunteer engagement, personalized communications, multi-channel solicitation calendars, and campaign branding. Using data from recent reunion cycles, we’ll discuss lessons learned, successful strategies for participation and leadership giving, and how we align reunion giving with broader advancement goals. Participants will leave with actionable ideas to refresh or enhance their own reunion programs, whether working with medical alumni or other specialized constituencies.
A Community/Junior College Fundraising Forum
Jen Davis, Joliet Junior College
Session description to follow.
Digital Engagement Centers 2.0: The Successful Sequel
Alexis Allen, University of Louisville
Session description to follow.
Donor Decisions Explained: The Persuasion Science I Wish I’d Known Sooner
Liz Sullivan, Northwestern University
Session description to follow.
Donor Journeys : Green Lights, Cross Roads and Stop Signs
Rachel Spencer, VanillaSoft
An understanding of where a given prospect sits on their individual journey of awareness, interest and desire to take action, should be at the core of our outbound engagement strategies; as well as the way we think about sustainable pipeline development. From the Engagement Center, to DXO and Leadership Gift programs, we need to pay close attention to the various signs and signals of “readiness to progress” (or – perhaps – a lack thereof!!!) So, what signs should we look out for? And what should we do when we encounter them?!!
Email Fundraising, Communications and Digital Analytics Bootcamp
Beth Hatcher, Beth Interactive
How can you take your email communications to the next level? This interactive workshop is all about email fundraising and engagement best practices—and how to leverage post-campaign data to drive greater giving. We’ll walk through fundamental email marketing best practices, advanced analytics and A/B testing, as well as navigating the impact of AI and machine opens/clicks on email. We’ll also present case studies on how emails can drive a donor pipeline, target engaged prospects, and build major and planned giving portfolios. Finally, we’ll provide practical tools like an email send checklist and library of samples, so you can begin implementing new ideas right away. Participants can even get live feedback on their email campaigns—with guidance on copy, design and fundraising strategy—by sending their email samples to us in advance! Join us for this instructive bootcamp and walk away full of actionable, practical next steps to see real results with your next email campaign.
An Ethics in Advancement Forum – When “Yes or No” Isn’t So Simple
Ric Stewart, AORN and Bob Burdenski
Fundraisers can often find themselves in tricky (and murky) situations. What if a casino business wants to support your organization? What if a donor wants an explanation of your “prospect research?” What if a prospect in your portfolio takes a little too much of a liking to you? Or picks up your dinner check? Or leaves you something in their will, but not your institution? What about the fundraiser who switches organizations, and takes donors with them? Or what about those frequent flier miles you collect from your business trips? Join a discussion about the many ethical considerations in our work, and some (usually) effective ways to manage the murky in fundraising ethics.
A Faculty and Staff Fundraising Forum
Kelly Brault, Oakland University, Jen Davis, Joliet Junior College
Your own employees can be a valuable constituent group for your fundraising, and a big challenge, too. Join Kelly and Jen for an introduction into their highly-successful faculty and staff giving programs, and an open discussion about ways to engage your own internal audiences.
Favorites From the 26th Annual Giving Idea Exchange
Bob Burdenski
For 26 years, Bob Burdenski has hosted an annual exchange where hundreds of institutions share thousands of annual giving innovations, ideas and success stories. Awesome appeals, terrific technologies, dynamic discoveries and marvelous messages. It was a great year of pushing the envelope in direct mail, digital and beyond. Come and see 3-time CASE Innovations in Annual Giving author Bob Burdenski dump out his bag of BOB (Best of the Bunch) favorites for some of the clever fundraising ideas of the year.
Getting (it) Out of Your System: Lessons Learned in Systems Selection
Christina Pulawski, Zuri Group
With technology ecosystems becoming more complex, it’s important to have the right ingredients in place – and it seems every day, there’s a new tool introduced in the marketplace. You could be selecting or replacing the CRM at the core, doing a “bake-off” between two possible communications tools to integrate, or branching out into a whole new line of business: there is no “best” tool in any category, it’s what’s “best for you,” considering your needs, culture and users. In this session, we’ll share the elements of a disciplined approach and how they’ve been applied at different organizations.
Gift and Pledge Administration – A Panel Discussion
Moderator and Panelists TBD
This “audience participation” session will attempt to answer fundamental gift processing and entry questions that have raised concerns for decades! We will begin by asking the audience to list the gift processing issues rearing their ugly heads in day-to-day gift processing. The panel will try to suggest solutions to those problems and reflect on national best practices. The panel will also come prepared to discuss various topics, including gift dates, receipt requirements, gift processing metrics, copying/scanning requirements, and recurring giving issues. You are encouraged to email your discussion topics beforehand if you prefer to be anonymous!
Giving Days, Part 1:
Working with Volunteers, Affinity Challenges and the “Mature” Giving Day
Emily Vente, Wabash College and Nicole Weir, University of Wisconsin
Part one of a two-part morning session all about giving days, with particular emphasis on Wabash College’s work with volunteers and affinity challenges. All giving day discussion topics are welcome.
Giving Days, Part 2:
Multiple Giving Days, Giving Tuesday, Faculty and Staff Success,
and Custom-Designed Platforms
Paige Gustafson, Albion College
Part two of a two-part morning session all about giving days. Paige will share the success story of Albion College’s giving day, including the use of three giving days throughout the year (Giving Tuesday, Founders Day, and an athletics giving day), Albion’s strong faculty and staff giving day fundraising, and their use of a custom-designed giving day platform. All giving day discussion topics are welcome.
Giving THROUGH: Cause-Based Fundraising in Annual Giving
Danielle Hupp, Kent State University
Today’s annual giving landscape is evolving rapidly. As generational shifts, digital engagement, and changing donor expectations reshape how people give, annual giving professionals must rethink traditional appeals and strategies. This session will explore how cause-based fundraising offers a powerful framework for engaging modern donors, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, who prioritize impact, transparency, and alignment with personal values. Attendees will learn how to infuse annual giving campaigns with compelling storytelling, leverage donor segmentation and behavioral data, and integrate cross-channel tactics to inspire gifts through their institution, not just to it. Whether you’re running giving days, digital campaigns, or direct mail, you’ll leave with practical tools to reframe your annual giving efforts around causes that resonate—and build stronger, longer-lasting donor relationships as a result.
A Healthcare Annual Giving Forum (In Two Parts)
Patients, Physicians, Providers, Policies, and Pipelines
Meredith Howell, UChicago Medicine, Ann Fisher, Michigan Medicine, Ally Campbell, WashU Medicine, and Ric Stewart, AORN
Healthcare institutions offer their own challenges (HIPAA) and opportunities (grateful patients, healthcare professionals, companies and the community) for annual giving fundraising. Join us for a special annual giving forum all about healthcare. Join us for a two-part forum that will share group information and discuss topics including:
What does the prospect journey look like: from acquisition to renewal to major giving prospect? Using digital options to the fullest: emails, unique web landing page, ongoing impact updates; Tribute and 3rd-party giving-making the process easy and meaningful; What’s new in stewardship; Valuable vendors – Who are you using? Email vendors? Print? Business Associate Agreements? Giving initiatives: Doctor’s Day, Giving Day, Nurses Week? Do these help?
Increasing ROI Through Data Modeling, Direct Mail, & Digital Marketing
Ryan Talbert & Allison Shore, Excalibur Direct Marketing
This interactive discussion will focus on developing a deeper understanding of your data to help impact your annual giving campaigns. It will include a review of the benefits of data modeling, and how to directly target your most likely donor matches from your current lists.
An Independent Schools Fundraising Forum
Lauren Gulley, Hathaway Brown School (OH) and Co-Moderators TBA
Join us for a forum session devoted to independent schools. Bring your questions, answers, challenges and solutions to this open discussion session.
Innovative Practices in Prospect Research & Management
Andrew Gutierrez, Cleveland Clinic and Peter Kotowski, University of Denver
In this session, we’ll explore creative and cost-effective approaches to prospect research and prospect management tailored specifically for smaller fundraising shops. With limited staff, budgets, and tools, smaller organizations often face unique challenges in identifying, tracking, and prioritizing potential donors. This presentation will share practical solutions—including free and low-cost research tools, efficient database strategies, and streamlined workflows—that can help teams maximize their impact without overextending their resources. Whether you’re a team of one or part of a small advancement office, this session will provide you with strategies to level up your prospecting game.
Integrating New Constituency Groups Into Your Already-Crowded Prospect Pool
John McBride, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
At SAIC, they’re constantly bringing in new prospects—whether it’s from taking on fundraising for new areas like an on-campus theater or adding new parents each year. This session will walk through how to fold these new sources into your existing workflow. Are they major gift prospects? Annual giving? How do you know, and how do you manage them without dropping the ball on your current work? We’ll talk about why it’s essential to have an overarching goal for new prospects, a clear plan, and a guiding philosophy—so you’re not just reacting, but integrating them with purpose. You’ll leave with practical ways to qualify, prioritize, and keep everything moving without burning out your team—or your database.
Let’s Dance! Inside the University of Louisville’s raiseRED Dance Marathon
Amanda James, University of Louisville
RaiseRED is the University of Louisville’s largest student-run philanthropic organization, and its efforts benefit the Norton Children’s Cancer Institute and the UofL School of Medicine. Every February, raiseRED hosts a nationally recognized 18-hour dance marathon that celebrates the children & families it supports. With hundreds of students involved each year, it aims to be a dynamic, inclusive, and impactful entity. It has raised over $5 million for research and patient needs over the past eleven years. Come and hear the story of raiseRED.
Mastering the Art of Donor Intent
Heather Johnson, UNICEF, USA
This session will explore creating crystal-clear, legally sound gift agreements and using gift transmittal forms to further your mission! Take home actionable insights into workflows to document donor intent, partner with your legal and finance teams, navigate compliance requirements, and ensure rewarding relationships. This will include a discussion of pledge and pledge payment gift administration, revenue considerations, multi-year commitments, split designations, audit concerns, and stewardship of these crucial donors!
Omnichannel Annual Giving – At Scale!
Jeff Neal, Loyola University Chicago
Session description to follow.
Principles of Ethically Influencing Annual Giving
Clark Gafke, LEAD Philanthropy
Discover the science behind donor motivation in this engaging and insightful session! Principles of Ethically Influencing Annual Giving will equip you with eight proven principles—Authority, Consistency, Contrast, Liking, Reciprocity, Scarcity, Social Proof, and Unity—that inspire donors to make meaningful gifts to their university. Rooted in the groundbreaking research of the Cialdini Institute, these principles provide a framework for authentic and ethical donor engagement. Clark Gafke, a Cialdini Certified Professional and Ethical Influence Practitioner, will guide you through the subtle yet powerful elements of everyday communication that drive generosity. With practical examples and actionable takeaways, this session will empower you to build stronger connections with donors and achieve sustainable results in annual giving. Whether you’re a seasoned fundraiser or new to the field, this session will improve the way you approach donor engagement!
Records Management – A Panel Discussion
Moderator and Panelists TBD
Please join our group of industry experts who are prepared to discuss your records management concerns and conundrums! We will encourage audience participation as you are the experts, too! We will come prepared to discuss topics including data governance, deceasing best practices, common data entry errors, when – and when not – to create a spousal/partner record, matching gift company management, daily and weekly data integrity edits, and whether you really need to create a new record when you receive a gift from an existing donor’s estate. While we will be happy to discuss these topics with you, we also want to review what is most important to you! We will add your suggestions to our list at the session’s opening.
Small Shop Hacks and Automation Tools Anybody Can Use (and Afford!)
Torey Calvert, Archdiocese of Chicago, Andrew Gutierrez, Cleveland Clinic and Tracy Rush, Otterbein University
This practical and engaging session will explore a treasure trove of budget-friendly hacks and easy-to-use automation tools designed specifically for small fundraising shops. Whether you’re a team of one or just wearing too many hats, you’ll discover creative ways to streamline operations, manage donor data, and boost productivity without breaking the bank. From time-saving email workflows to data cleanup tricks, we’ll focus on solutions that require minimal technical know-how yet deliver maximum impact. You’ll leave this session with a toolkit of accessible technologies—many of them free or low-cost—that can help you automate repetitive tasks, improve data accuracy, and create space for more strategic work. If you’re ready to work smarter, not harder, this session is for you!
Text Success: Michigan Medicine’s Messaging
Ann M. Fisher, Michigan Medicine
With a lot of prospects (including patients), Michigan Medicine has found texting to be a productive channel for engaging audiences. Hear Ann tell the story of how they effectively use this enduring channel as an important fundraising communications tool.
Using Gift Assessment Fees to Support a Campaign & Offset Budget Reductions
John Taylor, John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
Your budgets are being frozen (or reduced), yet the Boss wants to launch a campaign next fiscal year. After an internal campaign readiness assessment, you have determined the likely need for increased staff, improved technology, and expanded stewardship and marketing efforts. However, money does not grow on trees. This overview will outline various Advancement funding models analyzed over the past three decades that might bridge the growing gap and discuss their pros and cons.
Which Advancement Services Role is the Most Important? A “Friendly” Debate
Elizabeth Tavares, Moderator; Tracy Rush (Prospect Development), and Panelists TBD
The world of advancement services includes several subdisciplines – many of which are combined or “morphed” depending on the institution’s size. Yet one thing remains constant. Each subdiscipline argues they are the most important to the Advancement program 😊. Elizabeth, who has done (or seen) it all, will lead this lively debate. Representatives from several subdisciplines will argue/debate why their functions are most needed. However, unlike most debates, this one will encourage audience participation to help the debaters make their cases! Regardless, you will leave this energetic session with a list of 3-5 roles each AS area serves that no organization can live without!
Why is AI All Up In Your Business?
Felicity Meu, GiveCampus
AI is everywhere, in every industry, and it’s actually been a part of our daily lives for years. Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Face ID, Netflix’s movie recommendations, and Gmail’s spam filter all use AI to–at least in theory–make our lives easier and better. But what does it mean for you as an advancement professional? After all, cultivating an authentic, personal relationship is key to getting someone to give, so how exactly can AI help? Discover how to leverage this emerging technology while preserving and enhancing the most important aspect of the work you do—meaningful human-to-human engagement.
In this session, participants will learn:
● Why advancement teams should care about Artificial Intelligence
● The opportunities and challenges of this technology in the fundraising space
● Practical ways to start leveraging AI in order to reclaim your most precious resource—time.
Join Felicity as she discusses the opportunities and challenges posed by AI and how to effectively leverage this powerful tool today.
Writing for Annual Giving
Shannon Dale, Grand Valley State University and Jordan Revenaugh, Albion College
Join us for a forum discussion on the annual giving writing process. What themes resonate? What voices do you use – including the voice of your institution’s leadership? What considerations do you make for different audiences? How do you use humor? Urgency? Guilt? Peer pressure? When do you write with brevity, when do you write an extended proposal, and when do you write for “however long it takes to tell the story?” And what about AI tools? Join us for some direction and some discussion on ways to approach your annual giving writing objectives.