2023 Summit Session D Details

Breakout 1D: Generating Value and Measuring Impact through the Creation of a Donor Engagement Score | Salon C-4, LL

Join us to discover how you can leverage business intelligence to boost donor engagement and overall giving. In this session, we'll review how our team approached and delivered a mission-aligned, donor engagement score in just two weeks. We'll dive into the key findings from the analysis of our data, which led to actionable use cases and segmentation of constituents. We'll review the data warehouse architecture used to measure the impact of business process enhancements and the key performance indicators we established to measure our success. We'll share how the results of two use cases are being used to improve data quality, realize higher donor interaction, and quantify the return on investment for targeted spending. You'll leave this session with a broader understanding of the resources, planning, and analysis required to implement an effective donor engagement score within your organization.

Javi Escobar is the Senior Director of Business Intelligence at the University of Arizona Foundation (UAF). He's responsible for the guidance and support of various services provided under the UAF IT division, including Master Data Management, Data Integration, ETL and Data Warehousing, Data Modeling, Data Analysis, Reporting and Visualization, Enterprise Application Development and Support, List Production, and Data Science. The team supports various strategic efforts and initiatives on behalf of the organization. Javi has been with the UAF for two years but was previously with the University of Arizona's Analytics and Institutional Reporting team for 14 years.

Jason Shults has been an advancement services professional for more than 15 years, serving in or leading teams for biographical data entry and maintenance, gift acceptance, entry, and receipting, membership processing, prospect research, business intelligence, and data strategy. He holds an MBA and an MS in Management Information Systems.

Shannon Maitland is a Senior Business Intelligence Analyst specializing in Data Warehousing, Data Modeling, and ETL and Report Development. She has been with the UA Foundation for over three years, supporting everything from CRM migrations, rebuilding of data warehouses, creating reports and visualizations, and providing strategic insights to leadership about fundraising and constituent engagement. Her passions are data-detective work and resolving pain points in processes and data flows, but has a background in front-end constituent engagement and prospect development.

Breakout 2D: On the Move: UMGC's Approach to Lead Generation and Moves Management in SalesForce CRM | Salon C-6, LL

This presentation will be a deep-dive into prospect portfolio management, opportunities management, and progress to goals dashboard reporting in the SalesForce CRM. Institutional Advancement at University of Maryland Global Campus migrated from Ellucian Advance to SalesForce as its database of record in 2018. They have created unique and efficient pipeline and moves management tracking and use SalesForce to facilitate their prospect management for both Development and Alumni Relations teams. With customized research profile generation, prospect viability and opportunity eligibility tracking, building a steady pipeline from lead generation to stewardship has never been easier!

Rebecca Boughamer has lead Advancement Services at UMGC since 2012. Throughout her career of nearly 20 years, she has gained insight and fluent knowledge of strategic leadership and data driven decision-making. Rebecca is passionate about inspiring growth and change at evolving institutions that are facing unique challenges. She uses her concrete experience in donor and engagement tracking, prospect management, donor relations and information management to create strategic models that are molded to fit the unique needs of her institution. Rebecca has successfully led three major Advancement database migrations, with a specialized expertise in enterprise centralization and developing a 360-degree view of university constituencies. She grew the Advancement Services team at UMGC from a one-person shop to a team of twelve. She is a liaison to the University System of Maryland Foundation, and a member of with the USMF Data Advisory Committee. She serves on the UMGC SalesForce Advisory Committee as well as IA point of contact for the Office of Analytics and the Information Security and Governance team. Before coming to UMUC, Rebecca worked in Advancement Services at Marymount University in Arlington, Virgina and the University of the District of Columbia; she also spent time as a middle school teacher and a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Rebecca is a native Marylander, and alumni of Towson University and Johns Hopkins University. In her free time, Rebecca is an active soccer mom, roller coaster enthusiast, and runs a modern second-hand clothing and accessories consignment shop.

Breakout 3D: DEI in Advancement Data with the 2023 Task Force | Salon C-3, LL

Hillary Cote-Schatzel is the Manager of Advancement Services for Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. She worked in development operations in healthcare for nearly 10 years, at the Bassett Healthcare Network and at Boston Medical Center before moving into higher education. Hillary manages the gift processing operations and moves management program as well as creating collaboration for fundraising across campus. She lives outside of Cooperstown, NY, with her heeler and husband, where they hike in the Catskills and listen to the blues.

Felecia McCree is a Senior Director with CCS Fundraising's Systems & Change Management team. After two decades in the for-profit sector, she has spent the last 13 years in higher education advancement services and prospect development roles with the University of Chicago, Dominican University, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and most recently, Washington University in St. Louis. She has also worked on independent consulting projects for small non-profit organizations in the St. Louis and Chicago areas. A Chicago native, Felecia obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry, Pre-Medicine from Xavier University of Louisiana, with minors in Biology, English, and African-American Studies, and began working on a doctorate in Business Psychology prior to joining the non-profit sector. She, son Adjani, and chihuahua, Princeton, currently reside in St. Louis, MO. A devoted supporter of the Chicago Cubs, Felecia's interests extend beyond academia into the realms of sports and music, and in her spare time, she can be found exploring unique local spots in the Greater St. Louis area.

Colton Withers currently serves as the Donor Relations Group's Director of Operations. In this role, Colton is the waymaker and pathfinder for this growing business. Founded by Lynne Wester, DRG is celebrating its tenth year of service to the nonprofit industry. Colton excels at (and finds great joy in) bringing ideas to life and delivering quality results. In addition, Colton serves as project manager for a number of DRG clients, manages a portfolio of his own consulting projects, and assists with DRG education programs. Prior to joining DRG, Colton served as the Associate Director of Purdue Musical Organizations (PMO). In this role, Colton led PMO's external relations team of donor relations, marketing & communications, and operations professionals. Colton is a graduate of Purdue University (BS), the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy (MA), and proudly maintains a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) credential.

Vered Siegel, CFRE has spent her entire career in Advancement Services, starting as a Development Assistant, and is now a Senior Director at CCS Fundraising. Leveraging her enthusiasm for the field and her benevolent disruptive energy, Vered currently chairs the aasp’s 2023 DEI in Advancement Data Task Force, as well as co-chairing the DEI & Ethics Committee and facilitating the aasp’s monthly DEI Thought Force. Prior to these commitments, she chaired the Advancement Technology Best Practice committee, started the aasp’s Summit Scholarship program, and contributed to the aasp’s first Strategic Planning committee among other roles. A graduate of the University of Illinois (B.A. in Philosophy) and Spertus College (M.S. in Nonprofit Management), Vered also holds a CFRE certification. She invites you to ask: Who are the future leaders of our profession, and what will they need to succeed?

Breakout 4D: Transforming Gift Processing for a Changing Workplace | Salon C-5, LL

This presentation will focus on how a department pivoted during a transitional time. Inspired by the Six Sigma Lean process, the team was able to improve upon five key areas resulting in increased accuracy, efficiency, and overall functionality.  Improvements and changes include: Gift process/batching, Gift documentation capture Campaign, Fund and Appeal structure, Month-end closing process, and Gift auditing. We will illustrate how we addressed all of these processes and radically changed our entire gift processing paradigm, allowing us to work more efficiently and remotely during an unprecedented time.

Shaun Field is Sr. Director Data Services at the Children's Hospital of Orange County (aka CHOC) Foundation. She has over 19 years' experience in gift processing, database management, data integrity and event management; and is a champion for anything that improves efficiency.

Daniel Van Der Roest

Breakout 5D: Hiking the Mountain: Lessons in Managing Change and Elevating Your Team | Salon C-1, LL

Personal, professional, and team growth is a journey, not a destination. As advancement services professionals we have insight into many areas within our organization. This awareness, coupled with our innate curiosity and keen ability to see connections, positions us well to find our voice within our organizations and propel our work forward. Optimizing and elevating the supporting roles of annual giving, donor relations, alumni engagement and prospect development lead to stronger results, increased collaboration, and more opportunities to create lifelong relationships between your organization and your donors. Whether your organization is raising $5 million or $500M, you are a one person shop or part of a larger team, we will talk about ways to position yourself and your team for success in partnering across all areas of Advancement.

Michele Miller

Breakout 6D: Transforming Software Implementation Through Effective Change Management | Salon C-2, LL

Successful change management for software implementation goes far beyond technical upgrades and staff training; it also requires empowering the individual users to embrace the change and to envision the potential of new technology. In this presentation, we’ll delve into best practices, invaluable lessons learned, and strategies our panelists wish they’d known and deployed in their own software implementations. We’ll also explore the opportunities, challenges, and risks of change, sharing insights into proven change management tactics, including what works and why, and the strategies these institutions are continuing to deploy throughout the life of the software. Participants will walk away with a deeper understanding of change management as a continuous journey as well as how prioritizing, promoting, and embracing change can pave the way for improved efficiency, increased adaptability, and better outcomes, propelling them to reach their institutional goals faster and more easily than ever before.

Karen Hook is a proven leader and change management champion with over 30 years of experience in higher education student services and development. She currently serves as the Advancement Database Administrator at Wesleyan University, providing strategic insight for staff engagement. Prior to this role, Karen was the project manager for Wesleyan’s fundraising CRM move from Millennium to Affinaquest – a robust 18+ month implementation.

Kevin Vaughn serves as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Advancement Operations at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). In this leadership role, he oversees a dedicated team of professionals responsible for accounting, finance, human resources, information management, and other services, all in support of the institution's fundraising priorities and strategic plan. Before joining UAMS, Kevin was the Director of Advancement Services and a senior IT lead at the Texas Tech University System. There, he played a crucial part in building a high-performance culture and modernizing many processes and systems to support it. Prior to entering the world of academia, Kevin directed logistics at a large private sector manufacturing firm, where he helped streamline operations and increase efficiency.

With 30+ years of non-profit and fundraising experience, including roles from Director and Assistant Vice Chancellor to Senior Consultant and Vice President of Implementation Services, Lori Stirling regularly works with institutions to achieve success through technology, process improvements, and change management. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated strong analytical and communication skills, enabling her to collaborate effectively with all stakeholders to achieve established goals and objectives, and she boasts an impressive record of managing conversions from various legacy systems. Lori’s leadership has consistently led to exceptional team accomplishments, successful complex implementations, innovative product enhancements, and transformative client experiences. At Affinaquest, she focuses on Advancement Strategies to support the company and its clients.