The Development Debrief

The Final episode of our Impact and Innovation season is extra long. It may be because I’m just not ready to end these amazing conversations we’ve been having over the past 8 weeks. The good news is, we will have a Webinar next week on March 29th at 11am (ET) to recap these episodes and dig even deeper. 

You can learn more via this registration link: https://bwf.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lSj9P2hqSA2aZVEyu2hbsQ

This week's conversation is with several leaders within the New School Office of Development and Alumni Engagement. This conversation grapples with some hard questions and focus on three main themes; hiring diverse applicants, handling micro aggressions on the front line, and building affinity groups and cohort fundraising. Jonah Nigh, Meg Kaufmann, and Alex Tapnio are incredibly inspiring as they talk about their work advancing the New School with a diverse team and brilliant set of perspectives.

Connect on instagram @devdebrief

Rob Scott and I talk about his role at MIT that evolved out of an idea. Rob actually wrote the job description for his role and has been able to live out his vision. Rob gives great advice on working with senior leaders and explains how he has executed his ideas and goals.

Robert D. Scott, senior advisor to the Chancellor for Academic Advancement at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is a career fundraising professional, advancement leader, and veteran of four multi-billion-dollar campaigns. He has held various leadership positions in resource development at MIT during the past twenty years, and before coming to MIT Scott served New York University as a development professional for five years. He entered the fundraising field in 1989 at Cornell University, his alma mater.  Over the course of his thirty-year career, Scott has held national and international volunteer leadership roles within the professional advancement community.

If you want to continue this conversation, please join me and James Barnard of BWF to talk about this innovation series with a larger group of professionals. We will be hosting a webinar on March 29th at 11am ET. Please reach out if you would like more information or have questions you would like us to address. Next week is our final episode of the season. See you then!

Dr. Ashutosh Nandeshwar is the Assistant Vice President, Relationship Management and Data Sciences at the University of Southern California. He also is a Data Scientist. Consultant. Speaker. And Process Innovation leader. We talk about Ashu’s recommendations for portfolio management as expectations have changed since the pandemic. We discuss the pros and cons of activity comparison amongst gift officers as well as how Ashu thinks AI can advance our industry. This is a wonderful conversation about data from the research perspective.

Author of Tableau Data Visualization Cookbook, Ashutosh R. Nandeshwar is one of the few analytics professionals in the higher education industry who have developed analytical solutions for all stages of the student life cycle (from recruitment to giving). He enjoys speaking and ranting about data professionals' chase of "interesting" things (example: http://youtu.be/dHbl9t5eNjg). He received PhD/MS from West Virginia University and BEng from Nagpur University all in industrial engineering.

Learn more about Ashu's work here: https://nandeshwar.info/

This week we revisit the on-going conversation about working for one’s alma mater and building momentum for campaigns. Karl Clauss, the Vice President for Advancement at Colgate University and I talked about what it has been like for him to return and lead the Development team at his alma mater, and the exciting new plans they have for their upcoming campaign. Karl is currently partnering with President Casey, Colgate faculty, and board leadership to engage alumni and parents and secure the resources that will make their newest campaign- The Third-Century Plan a reality.

As of this week, we have surpassed 50,000 downloads on this podcast. Thank you for listening, sharing, and contributing to this vital community. Thank you as well for celebrating with us on social media. If you don’t already follow, you can find a page on LinkedIn called The Development Debrief and our Instagram page is @devdebrief.

Jason Briggs and I have a wonderful conversation this week about everything from Tibetan Buddhism to entrepreneurship. He tells us how he decided to make specialist knowledge more accessible through Pyro Talks.

Jason Briggs is Co-Founder of PyroTalks CIC, as well as Consulting Partner for BWF Europe. and Fellow for Halpin Partnership. Previously, Jason was Director of Development at Cavendish Cancer Care, leading on all income channels. Whilst Jason was at The University of Sheffield he headed up their fundraising research & insight function, raising the value of their prospect pool value from £4.2m to £62.5m, and sat on the senate’s academic Research Ethics Committee. He also worked as a Consultant at Graham-Pelton specializing on campaign planning.

This week, Leti Light takes the mic. She continues the conversation we had last week with Matt Hutter about strategic initiatives and principal gifts. The conversation moves from east coast to west coast as we go from Durham North Carolina to Berkeley, California. Leti emphasizes that giving at the highest levels is not about the dollars but about the idea itself. She also reminds us that partnership is critical at all levels of this kind of work. Leti is the President and co-founder of SIGAP—Strategic Initiatives Group for Advancement Professionals.

Leti Light is a leader in higher education fundraising for transformational philanthropic partnerships, often in the form of cross-cutting, multidisciplinary initiatives. As Executive Director, Principal Gifts & Strategic Initiatives at UC Berkeley, Leti and her team partner with a wide range of academic and program leaders and work with the world’s leading philanthropists to achieve their vision through partnerships with the university designed to make Berkeley’s highest aspirations possible. Over the last 20 years, Leti has led philanthropic development efforts at Cornell University, UCLA, and now UC Berkeley.

Follow us on instagram @devdebrief

Today's episode is sponsored by BWF. 

This week, we hear from Matt Hutter, Assistant Vice President of Development for Duke Science and Technology at Duke University. He is a strategic initiatives fundraiser who is an expert in raising money for the sciences. Roles like his are primarily found in large research universities and drive large scale giving. We talk about how these kinds of gifts make ripples not just through their dollars, but the culture change they create. Matt breaks down strategic initiatives and transformational gifts for us in a very approachable way.

Please connect on instagram @devdebrief 

BWF is the proud sponsor of Season 6, Innovation and Impact.

I have the absolute pleasure of speaking with Sue Cunningham, the CEO of CASE. Sue’s long relationship with CASE as well as her international experience really set her apart as a leader and visionary. We talk about her career to date, and then drill into CASE’s most recent strategic plan. Sue tells us how she facilitates joining the dots globally, expresses pride in her staff, and talks to us about the six key areas CASE will be focusing on as they recalibrate the organization into the next 5 years.

CASE is truly a community of volunteers and leaders aiming to evolve and grow the profession. Sue says it herself in the episode that she would love to hear from you and add you to the growing community that is CASE. We will be ending this season with a Webinar on March 29th. Mark your calendars to join us and keep the conversation going! More on that soon, but in the meantime, please connect on social and have a great week! 

Instagram: @devdebrief 

LinkedIn: The Development Debrief 

I can’t believe this episode will wrap up two years of the Development Debrief! I talk with Stephanie Posen about how she has recruited, trained, and grown a team of front line officers doing leadership gift work. She has worked with her team to build a great culture of work in a remote environment.

Stephanie Posen is the Director of Leadership Giving at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). Stephanie manages the mid-level giving program which includes donors and prospects giving $1,000- $250,000. The Leadership Giving team serves as a pipeline for the rest of the department- both for revenue and donors, as well as developing talent and strong gift officers.

Stephanie's professional career has been focused on Education and Academic Medicine with prior experience working at New York University (NYU) and Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM). In previous roles, Stephanie has worked in International Major Gifts, Leadership Annual Giving and Campaign Events. Stephanie holds a Master of Business Administration from NYU's Stern School Business and a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University in History and French Literature.

I will be taking a break in January before returning with more episodes in February. Please share this podcast with your networks and follow us on social media @devdebrief and on Linkedin. Thank you for listening to the last episode of 2021. Warm wishes for 2022 and the great work I know we will all do! 

I talk with Dave Kayiatos, Assistant Director Leadership Giving (and fellow alum of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut) who received both a BA and an MA in history at Trinity, in 2002 and 2006 respectively. We discuss the value of working at your alma mater and how exciting it is to be working at Trinity today! This conversation prompts me to share some great opportunities at Trinity.

Trinity is moving toward the public phase of a $500 million dollar comprehensive campaign, and they are growing the advancement team. Frontline fundraisers – this is an opportunity to join a strong, collaborative team. Trinity is also looking for an inaugural director of digital media, as well as other communications positions. If annual giving is where you shine, some great leadership roles are available there, too. 

If you are thinking about your next move and want to have great impact, Trinity may be the place for you. To learn more, reach out to Vice President Michael Casey at [email protected].