Session 6D - Stewarding Your Staff: Retention Strategies for Top Talent

Thursday, September 20, 2012
1:20 p.m. - 2:20 p.m.

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Description: It appears that Puff Daddy was wrong, it’s not ‘all about the benjamins’, at least not when it comes to retaining our top talent.  Just like our donor relations and stewardship strategies must be customized to our donors and prospects, we must also personalize our approach to retaining our top performers, understanding what’s important to them at different points in their career and not taking a one-size-fits-all approach.  In this session, we’ll discuss the key factors that influence our approach to staff retention and look at a few case studies of short-term and long-term retention strategies.

Sector:
Expertise Level: Midlevel (2-5 years)
Shop Size: Suitable for any size shop
Subject Focus: Professional Development

Speaker Bio: Danielle Churilla

Danielle Churilla is the Associate Director for Staff Learning Programs in Human Resources and Staff Development in Alumni Relations and Development at the University of Chicago.  She has spent the last four years building their internal staff training program, which includes developing a new curriculum for incoming staff, launching two management training series, and overseeing several roundtable series.  She also manages their three internal conferences each year and works with outside consultants and trainers to deliver programming for the University’s frontline fundraisers and alumni relations staff.  Before beginning her career in staff development, she spent 10 years in special events management at the university.  She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Purdue University.


Speaker Bio: Jeri Marcello

Jeri Marcello is Associate Director of Human Resources for the University of Chicago’s Medicine and Biological Sciences Development office. Jeri’s role is focused on retention and recruitment strategy and execution as well as a broad range of general HR responsibilities. She really enjoys building relationships with staff members and providing service and support to them. Prior to her time at the University of Chicago, Jeri spent five years in the nonprofit management industry planning and executing continuing education and career development programs. Jeri also has worked in various support positions within heath care and medicine throughout her career. Jeri holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and a master of business administration in Leadership and Change Management from DePaul University.