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Agenda
*All times are PT

Monday, March 13

🕐1:00–5:30 PM

Conference Registration open

1:00–4:00 PM

Pre-Conference Bus Trip: Meet Las Vegas's Educational Best

Join a small group of your fellow conference attendees for an afternoon of visiting sites in North Las Vegas. Meet some of Nevada's education foundation leaders, school board administrators and experts in the field to hear about their spectacular programs that set trends nationally!

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🕕6:00-8:00 PM

Welcome Reception — Cocktails and light appetizers (included with conference registration)

Tuesday, March 14

🕢7:30–8:30 AM

Registration & Breakfast

🕣8:30-8:45 AM

Welcome

🕣8:45–9:45 AM      Keynote Session       Fundraising & Development  

Keynote Speaker Meg George on: Transformational Philanthropy in Education: America's Giving Trends & Strategies for Solicitation Success

Meg George, Co-founder and President of George Philanthropy Group, will share a snapshot of America's current philanthropic landscape and trends in education-centric giving, as well as high-level strategies around identifying and approaching philanthropic investors. Pulling from first-hand experiences, Meg will offer tangible recommendations for approaching philanthropists in a relationship-centered fashion, and soliciting major gifts that are impactful to education and meaningful to donors.

🕤9:45–10:00 AM

Transition/Break

🕙10:00–11:00 AM      Administration & Operations  

Kiersten Hill on: Marketing Trends Nonprofits Need to Know

Nonprofits are not immune to changes in technology and the marketing space. It is necessary to discuss marketing trends that will shape your nonprofit’s efforts during the next year. You’ll learn:

  • How to maximize your website to engage with voice search.
  • Gaming as a fundraising and awareness tool.
  • The differences between visual, local, and voice search.
  • How to automate your marketing for efficacy and efficiency.

🕙10:00–11:00 AM      Growing the Foundation  

Angie Adams, CEO, PENCIL on: Deliver the Best Results of Your Career Through a Big-Board Strategy

Is your 25-person board homogeneous, lethargic, and a drain on you and your staff?  Consider transforming your organization by moving to a Large Board governance model.  Learn specific methods and tips to attract and engage a board of 50-60 who will significantly impact your organization’s ability to deliver results. 

🕙10:00–11:00 AM      Fundraising & Development  

Jodi Gillette and Tyren Frazier on: Innovation & Classroom Grants: From Pilots to Sustainable Programs

Learn about strategies foundations are utilizing to transition pilots into permanent programs while developing sustainable funding to ensure long-term continuation and success.

   
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🕙10:00–11:00 AM       Growing the Foundation  

Robin Callahan and Gail Rothman on : Leadership Succession Planning

Leadership changes can rock an organization, present unexpected challenges, and slow your hard-earned momentum. Ensure that your foundation is ready for both a planned and unplanned leadership turnover by tackling succession planning. In this practical session, learn from two experienced foundation executives about how their foundations handled or are planning for leadership change. You’ll receive an understanding of the critical elements of a good succession plan and a sample that you can utilize in building your own succession plan. 

 

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🕚11:00–11:30 AM

Break & Vendor Hall

🕦11:30 AM–12:30 PM

NAEF, CEFL, & 2022 Cohort Awards

🕧12:30–1:30 PM

Lunch & Vendor Hall

🕜1:30-2:30 PM      Fundraising & Development  

Robin Callahan on: Growing Your Endowment Through Planned Giving

The Transfer of Wealth is the total household wealth that will transfer from one generation to the next. The US is amid the greatest wealth transfer in history – an estimated 9 Trillion in the next 10 years. What would it mean for the sustainability of your foundation if you could capture some of this wealth on behalf of the students you serve? In this session, a former education foundation leader and planned giving expert will give you the knowledge you need to start or grow your endowment by either establishing or growing your planned giving program. You will learn about the types of gifts best suited for planned giving, the policies required, where and how to market your planned giving program, and other organizations you can partner with to accept complex assets.  If growing your endowment fund has been on your to-do list for a while, but terms like CRUTS, and CGA’s have scared you away, this is the session for you!

🕜1:30–2:30 PM      Growing the Foundation 

Amy Gough and Troy Selberg on: Connecting with Businesses in 2023

It may seem that education staff, business partners, students and education foundations have competing interests at times, but the good news is businesses want to connect and education foundations can serve as the conduit to bring together these different perspectives to create beneficial relationships. In this session, we will explore each of these perspectives and strategies to understand and meet stakeholder return on investment goals through several program projects including our latest, the Sweet Treats Raffle. Business partners can begin developing their future workforce funnel, educators are inspired by the opportunity afforded to their students and the education foundation is seen as the connector, valuable partner, and doer to making it happen.

🕜1:30–2:30 PM      Growing the Foundation  

Randall Hallett and Brandon Sak on: Can't Live With Them, Can't Live Without Them

Ever wonder, from a best practice perspective, what your foundation board should be doing? And maybe even how to get them to do that? This session will delve into best practice of foundation boards, the BIG responsibilities, the old school/new school understanding of board responsibilities, the difference between a “bored” meeting vs. a board meeting, how to report out fundraising numbers, and how board members should be on the frontline of referrals (and how to do that).

🕙1:30-2:30 PM      Administration & Operations 

Nicole Smith on: Celebrate and Retain Your Teachers - Aligning Foundation Resources with District Strategic Goals

The time is now! Reframe your thinking around your role in helping your district recruit and retain high quality staff. Research suggests that, among school-related factors, teachers contribute most to student academic success. Learn about several new initiatives from the Howard-Suamico Education Foundation (Green Bay, WI) who recently jumped in to support their school district’s staffing efforts. Then deep-dive into the HSSD CARE Awards, a unique employee recognition program supported by community sponsors. Hear about resources that could allow your education foundation to implement a similar program quickly!

🕝2:30–3:00 PM

Break & Vendor Hall

🕒3:00–4:00 PM     Administration & Operations 

Trish O’Shaughnessy and Cindy Morris on: Expanding Horizons: Career Exploration Program Partnerships with Your District

Career Development Education is often identified as a key to student success, and educational foundations are uniquely positioned to provide this program support. For more than a decade, the PPS Foundation has partnered with our district to directly manage and implement highly valued K-8 career exploration programs that helps fill a gap in district needs, create out of the box opportunities for our students, and use our strong community connections to help create educational equity in the district.

This session will cover the initial development of these programs, program growth with staffing and funding, as well as future career readiness work with the district, including high school internships.

🕒3:00–4:00 PM      Fundraising & Development  

Meg George on: Making the Ask: What's First?

Meg George, co-founder and president of George Philanthropy Group, is a major gift and campaign specialist who will lead a session around how to prepare for solicitations of philanthropic support. Meg will offer examples of how to organize information, conduct outreach, and streamline a process to approach relationship-centered major gifts work systematically and seamlessly. She'll share examples of significant asks she has made to education funders, and explain her process in preparing for that activity.

🕒3:00–4:00 PM      Growing the Foundation 

Blair Ellis and Alyx Picard on: The Power of Relationships: Building Strong Connections WITH Your District to Maximize Your Foundation's Impact

School foundations can increase their efficiency and grow their impact when they work together as true strategic partners with school district leaders. In this session, panelists will share how to improve communication and build solid relationships between the school district and foundation, how to ensure alignment of funding and program priorities, and how foundations can engage school districts to support their fundraising efforts. Attendees will leave with specific strategies addressing these topics that they can apply to school foundations of any size.

🕒3:00–4:00 PM      Administration & Operations 

Karrie Wozniak on: Generational Giving 101: Tips to Market Your Events to All Ages

We all know marketing and promotion are vital to the success of your fundraising events. But how do you reach the right donors on the right channels? Find out where 1,029 social donors of all ages told us they found out about their last social giving opportunity or event and where they are most likely to give (there were a couple of interesting surprises!). We’ll share actionable tips and ideas to help market your next event to a diverse audience of supporters! 

Join this session to learn:  

  • Which marketing channels donors of various generations prefer  
  • What event donors of all ages reported motivates them to give and how you can incorporate that into your marketing  
  • Tips and ideas you can use to successfully market your next event to donors of all ages 

🕕6:00–8:00 PM

Networking Reception in Vendor Hall

Wednesday, March 15

🕢8:30–9:00 AM

Registration & Breakfast

🕙9:00–10:00 AM    Keynote Session         Administration & Operations 

Keynote Speaker Dr. Monica Manns and Speaker Cara Jean O'Neal on: Equity - the Words and the Work?

Equity has been a popular issue of discussion over the last five years, yet discussions rarely result in the implementation of solutions. We will encourage you as Education Foundation Leaders to ponder the following questions during our session: Is Equity defined accurately in our school district? Is Equity's work influenced by both "heart" and "mind"? Are your efforts an "act of equity," or are they "measured actions for equity"? Are people avoiding Daring Dialogue about Equity because they are afraid of bringing up a social identity as a consideration factor? Our conversation will provide context for these issues, a safe space for collective discussion, and viable strategies you can implement to support the work of equity.

🕤10:00-10:15 AM

Break

🕙10:15–11:15 AM      Growing the Foundation 

Robin Rowland on: Building Revenue Through Program Initiatives

Using the example of the Early Learning division of the Henrico Education Foundation, Robin will show how you can turn the needs and focuses of your school division into revenue-generating programs that help you build salaries for staff to support your work. These programs support every aspect of a good education foundation; public relations, district partnerships, private partnerships and building a solid donor base.

🕙10:15–11:15 AM      Fundraising & Development  

Shanon Stroer on: Data Basics: The Care and Feeding of Your Donor Data

Good data management is the most important part of creating and maintaining a quality relationship with your constituents. If you are a small or medium-sized educational foundation finding some challenges maintaining and leveraging the data you keep, then this presentation is for you! Shanon Stroer, Senior Client Account Manager at Charityproud, will review what to look for in a nonprofit CRM, where to begin with your data migration and/or cleanup, essentials and best practices for keeping your donor data healthy, and more.

🕙10:15–11:15 AM      Administration & Operations 

Sara Bender on: Marketing Strategies to Connect Communities and Classrooms

The 2022 Cohort of the CEFL Program piloted courses on Marketing and Resource Development, which scaffolded weekly concepts into capstone projects including a strategic marketing plan for social media platforms and a case for support. In this panel presentation, you will get insights from CEFLs regarding their processes of connecting communities to classrooms and learn how they were able to apply these concepts in real time to provide immediate benefit to their foundations. CEFLs will also share selections from their capstone projects.

Attendees will learn tips to make marketing more strategic and targeted asks more purposeful. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions about benefits of the CEFL program. 

🕙10:15–11:15 AM      Growing the Foundation 

Toba Cohen-Dunning on: Public Private Partnerships - Your K12 Education Foundation at Work

This workshop will showcase several successful models by NAEF members across the country and how students benefited from a variety of collaborations.

🕚11:15–11:45 AM

Break & Vendor Hall

🕦11:45 AM–12:45 PM      Administration & Operations  

Ralph Hayes and Josh Mahlik on: Reaching Special Needs Students (& Motivate New Donors) Through STEAM

Research shows students with special needs often lack exposure to STEAM activities but learn best through that medium. Dorchester Two Educational Foundation has partnered with Fork Farms to implement hydroponic gardens to all 26 schools in their district to address this need.

Participants in this session will learn the challenges, the lack of exposure, why including these opportunities are important, and an innovative way to infuse STEAM and support to this cohort of students and their teachers. This project has shown success in all grade levels and focuses on life-skills development while integrating STEAM to everyday lessons and routines. The units are designed for ease of use and provide a tangible way for teachers and students to engage and GROW (pun intended!). The program has been featured in local media, motivated new donors, and yields documented results.

🕦11:45 AM–12:45 PM      Fundraising & Development  

Molly Servais on: Setting Up Your Education Foundation for Fundraising Success

This workshop will walk attendees through all of the aspects of achieving fundraising success – from aspirational goal setting , realistic budgeting, and developing a year-round plan to achieve success. The session will include the fundamentals of annual campaign fundraising, special events and major gifts to ensure you are building a committed and loyal donor base for your foundation.  Molly will also discuss how to engage your board members as fundraisers.  Match Nonprofit Consulting will be joined by Executive Directors to share their education foundation’s successes.

🕦11:45 AM–12:45 PM      Growing the Foundation  

Janice Kershaw and Makayla Buchanan on: Navigating the Relationships Between District Officials, the School Board, and Your LEF in Today's Changing Political Climate

As school boards have become more political over the past few years, local education foundations (LEFs) can get in the cross hairs of contentious debates just by having school board and district officials on their board. What is the role of district leaders on nonprofit education foundation boards? What conflict of interest issues should be named and addressed for district leaders who serve on LEF boards? What are the advantages of specifying in foundation bylaws that district leaders serve as ex officio, non-voting members? Participants will learn how Florida leaders consider these issues and discuss scenarios and challenges in their own district.

🕦11:45 AM–12:45 PM      Growing the Foundation  

Michel Hudson on: Can You Plan for the Unplanned

With so many things uncertain these days, it’s hard to think about planning – either for the short-term or long into the future. Even though you may feel stuck in overwhelm, you can still plot a course in a strategic direction.

With time for Q&A, this session will uncover how you can create a plan that will strengthen and position your organization for success – and also allow for the possibilities that might derail your plans at any point.

🕧12:45–1:45 PM

Lunch

🕜1:45–2:45 PM    Fundraising & Development  

Mark Bergethon on: Fundraising in Times of Economic Uncertainty

Leaders in education today are asking how they can continue to raise needed funds in this current environment of economic uncertainty and, more importantly, how can they possibly consider taking on a major capital campaign given these conditions. This session will focus on the process of turning donors into long-term investors in your organization’s mission using capital campaign best practices and an ROI/investment-driven approach to fundraising. You will walk away able to: (1) Mobilize your board and staff to take bold action in challenging times, (2) position your organization as an investable community asset, and (3) pivot current fundraising efforts for success.

🕜1:45–2:45 PM      Growing the Foundation 

Gail Rothman on: Get Curious! How Strategic Inquiry can Inform the Future of Your Foundation

In this moment, coming out of the pandemic, we have to acknowledge the significant toll the pandemic has had on our kids and every part of their lives. There are so many problems to solve, it can feel like we are plugging leaks in a dam that was already at the brink of bursting.  What if, in this unique moment, we got curious?  Hear how one foundation crafted a year of strategic inquiry to move from problem-solving to possibility creating.  Learn about the three components of inquiry they implemented: the lived experience of our youth, the academic research (learned experience) and visits with innovators and how that will inform the direction that the foundation takes.  You will leave this practical session with 5 concrete steps you can take at your foundation to get curious and get re-energized to position your foundation to meet the challenges of the future.

🕜1:45–2:45 PM      Fundraising & Development  

Jessica Rauch and Katie Aiello-Howard on: Strategic Planning to Drive Fundraising Success

You’ve probably heard stories – or experienced yourself – that strategic plans require a lot of effort to complete, and too often they end up collecting dust on the proverbial shelf. We’ve seen – and experienced firsthand – how ed funds can use a strategic planning approach to generate great fundraising success. The secret is establishing fundraising priorities as your strategic plan. We’ll guide you through a crash course on establishing fundraising priorities and will share best practices on how your organization can utilize those fundraising priorities to drive organizational improvement and success. The shifting pandemic recovery landscape, incoming federal funds, and new donor priorities mean that this is the perfect time for foundations to update their fundraising priorities to give funders dynamic ways to support education.

🕝2:45–3:00 PM

Break

🕒3:00–3:30 PM

Vendor & Door Prizes in Main Ballroom

🕞3:30–4:30 PM

Roundtable/Moderated Discussions

Closing 

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PO Box 1646 | Cockeysville, MD 21030

P: 410.527.0780 | E: info@educationfoundations.org


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