RAISE Podcast

Dan Allenby is an internationally recognized expert on annual giving and the Principal and Founder of Annual Giving Network, the world's leading resources for annual giving programs. Through its training, professional development, and recruiting services, AGN is proud to have supported more than 2,500 colleges, universities and independent schools around the world—including over 700 institutions through its membership program.

Dan is an active writer, speaker, and consultant, and his book Ideas for Annual Giving offers designs for helping organizations increase their levels of sustainable philanthropic support. During his 25 year career, Dan led annual giving and membership programs at Boston University, Tufts University, Georgetown University, and the National Geographic Society. He is a CASE Laureate and a recipient of CASE’s prestigious Crystal Apple Award for Teaching Excellence. He also served on the faculty for CASE’s Summer Institute in Educational Fundraising and chaired its Senior Annual Giving Professionals Conference and Annual Giving Workshop for five collective terms.

Dan holds a B.A. in History from James Madison University and a M.B.A. from Boston College. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his family, writing and playing music, and getting away to the beaches on Cape Cod.

Birgit Smith Burton is a respected leader in the fundraising profession who has raised more than $500 million during her 33-year career. As the executive director of foundation relations at the Georgia Institute of Technology, she led her team in raising $309 million toward the Institute's most recent successful $1.8 billion capital campaign.

Birgit is a well-regarded speaker on the topics of fundraising and diversity. She has authored articles on diversity in the fundraising profession, co-authored the book, The Philanthropic Covenant with Black America, and contributed to the book Five Minutes for Fundraising, A Collection of Expert Advice. Birgit is honored to tell her personal story in the book Collecting Courage, which shares the lived experiences of Black women and men working in the nonprofit and charitable space (published fall 2020). She was proud to be selected by Georgia Tech leadership to participate in the first cohort of Leading Women @ Tech, which identified the next community of leaders who will guide the institution in the 21st century. Birgit also was chosen as one of the 2020 Faces of Inclusive Excellence, recognizing faculty, staff, and students who are committed to gender diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Birgit serves on the global board of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and recently was voted as the chair-elect for 2021. She has the distinction of being the first African American woman in AFP’s 60-year history to serve in this role. Birgit is the immediate past chair of the IDEA Committee (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access). She also chairs the A.E. Lowe Grice Scholarship Fund, serves on the Hosea Helps board of directors, and advises the Aspen Leadership Group. Birgit is the founder of AADO, the African American Development Officers Network, which for 23 years has provided professional development, education, employment support, mentorship, and networking opportunities for fundraisers of color. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

Birgit earned a bachelor's degree in media communications from Medaille College in Buffalo, New York.

Armin Afsahi was appointed Associate Vice President of Alumni Affairs and Development (AA&D) and Dean of Development for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) by Edgerley Family Dean Claudine Gay in August 2019. In this key executive leadership role, Afsahi is responsible for designing and executing a fundraising vision that advances FAS’s mission and diverse academic priorities. In this capacity, Afsahi leads a fundraising enterprise that works collaboratively to generate annual philanthropic resources in excess of $1 Billion, and contributes to strategies to engage alumni, parents and friends with Harvard through creative and meaningful engagement.

An accomplished and respected advancement leader with nearly 30 years of experience, Afsahi brings a wide range of expertise in institutional advancement, strategic management, business development, leadership, and operations. Prior to joining AA&D, he served as the vice chancellor for advancement at the University of Denver. Previously, he held senior roles in advancement for the University of California San Diego and Georgetown University.

Afsahi has served on national and local boards and held volunteer leadership roles for both nonprofit and professional organizations. He holds a BA in communications from UC San Diego and an MBA from the University of San Diego. Afsahi lives in Boston with his husband, Joe Eklund, and enjoy outdoors, travel, playing tennis and enjoying sports.

Scott Mory is Carnegie Mellon University’s vice president for University Advancement. He is responsible for overseeing the university’s overall advancement efforts and for building partnerships with all of CMU’s philanthropic and volunteer communities, including university alumni, parents and friends; charitable foundations; and corporate donors.

Appointed in 2015, Mory works closely with administrative and academic leadership to develop advancement plans and resources to fulfill the university’s potential and support its continued ascent. Under his leadership, in October 2019 the university launched its most ambitious philanthropic campaign to date — Make Possible: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University. Thus far, more than 56,000 supporters have supported the campaign, committing $1.9 billion of its $2 billion goal. Among the impacts these supporters have had include the creation of 50 new endowed faculty chairs, including 4 endowed deanships; more than 300 new endowed scholarships and fellowships; and new world-class facilities like the Tepper Quad and ANSYS Hall, as well as new planned facilities for science and for health, wellness and athletics.

Mory was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) in July 2022. In the Pittsburgh community, Mory is a member of the Andy Warhol Museum Advisory Board and the AHN Cancer Institute Advisory Council.

Prior to joining CMU, Mory served as associate senior vice president and campaign director at the University of Southern California, managing the day-to-day activities of the Campaign for USC, a historic effort to raise $6 billion. He joined USC in 2007 as associate senior vice president for Alumni Relations, a position he held until his promotion to campaign director in 2012. Prior to USC, Mory served as assistant vice president for Alumni Relations and Annual Giving at George Washington University. He also was an adjunct professor in the university’s law school, teaching a first-year course on legal research, writing and oral advocacy.

Scott holds a bachelor’s degree from the George Washington University and a juris doctor from the George Washington University Law School. Following law school, he clerked for the Hon. John Garrett Penn of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and practiced as a litigation associate at the New York office of Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP.

Steven founded Fundriver in March 2006, and serves as President and CEO. He launched Fundriver because he recognized a gap in non-profit financial management. Always being an innovator and having an entrepreneurial mindset, he saw the potential that Fundriver had even before it was fully developed. The initial concept began as a custom project for a client and has since grown to a robust endowment tracking software for over 400 clients. In building Fundriver and hiring 22 employees, he has created a company culture focused on its team members and providing exceptional client service.

Lynne Wester is the Principal and Founder of the DRG Group. She strongly believes that donor relations is the key to unlocking fundraising success and that organizations must be as dedicated to the donor experience, as they are to the ask itself. Sometimes referred to as the Olivia Pope of fundraising, Lynne helps organizations when they need it the most – when crisis or opportunity arrive.

Michael Felberbaum is the co-author of Focused Fundraising with Chris Cannon of Zuri Group. Michael co-leads the Advancement technology effort at Yale University. He is on the Board of Solar Youth, and he is a long time teacher and practitioner of mindfulness meditation.

Chris Cannon’s areas of expertise include fundraising strategy and systems, resource and database management, business intelligence and data reporting, and gift and data processing. He has led fundraising operations at Saint Louis University, Saint Louis Zoo, and the Saint Louis Science Center.

Prior to joining Zuri Group, Chris was a managing associate at Bentz Whaley Flessner where he provided strategic counsel on database systems, advancement operations, and fundraising strategy. Chris also served as Research and Development Services director at Saint Louis University, provided leadership for the university’s $300 million campaign, and led an interdepartmental database conversion team.

Chris earned a Master of Arts from The University of Kansas and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Truman State University. He has been a featured speaker at CASE, APRA, AFP, and other conferences and has written articles for AFP’s Advancing Philanthropy, APRA’s Connections, and AHP’s Journal. His book, An Executive’s Guide to Fundraising Operations (Wiley 2011), is the industry resource for maximizing ROI from operations.

Floyd Akins joined The University of Toledo in February 2022 as a fundraiser with 25 years of experience in higher education advancement, public relations and admissions ready to move UToledo forward through philanthropy and increased engagement of alumni and friends.

Akins came to UToledo from Michigan State University, where he served as associate vice president for advancement, overseeing constituent fundraising, individual giving and prospect development and corporate and foundation engagement. Prior to that, Akins served as a senior consultant for the Aspen Leadership Group where he executed non-profit executive search and counsel in advancement and fundraising strategies.

In his career Akins also has served as assistant vice chancellor for development for the University of Tennessee Foundation, senior associate vice president for constituent fundraising for Ohio State University and vice president of the Ohio State University Foundation, and executive director of development for the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business. He also held several positions at Grinnell College.

Akins earned a master of arts degree from the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communications and a bachelor’s degree in communications from Eastern Illinois University College of Liberal Arts.

Cindi Roth has been leading the private philanthropic efforts of WVU and WVU Medicine as the president and CEO of the WVU Foundation since 2014. Cindi, with her 30 years of experience in leadership, fundraising, finance, and strategic planning, helped guide and direct the Foundation’s historic and successful $1 billion+ “State of Minds” comprehensive campaign for the University, which concluded in 2017. The Foundation is currently in the quiet phase of its next Campaign of $1.6 billion, which is set to go public in the Fall of 2023. Cindi is the first female president and CEO and the sixth president and CEO of the WVU Foundation since it was established in 1954.

A Pennsylvania native, she has served on several nonprofit boards in the western Pennsylvania and West Virginia region. Prior to arriving at the WVUF, Roth played a key leadership role in the University of Pittsburgh’s successful $2 billion “Building Our Future Together” capital campaign, as an associate vice chancellor for institutional advancement.

Cindi earned her Master of Public Management degree from the Heinz School of Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the University of Pittsburgh and is a professional Registered Nurse in the state of Pennsylvania. Cindi lives at Cheat Lake, WV and enjoys golfing, running and cooking to balance her non-work life.