Individualized Stewardship Planning in Principle and Practice

January 16, 2025 | 12:30-3:30 PM ET  

About the Workshop  |  Registration  |  Presenters

This event is now sold out. 

Individualized stewardship plans (ISPs) are becoming a necessary ingredient of a successful donor relations program. When developed strategically, ISPs can do wonders to deepen relationships with donors and influence their behavior and giving decisions. 

Led by facilitators with decades of ISP experience in health care, higher ed, and other nonprofit settings, the three-hour session will be structured as follows:

Hour 1: Attendees will learn ISP principles, see those principles in practice, and have the opportunity to ask questions and participate in discussion.   

Hour 2: We will break into small groups of five attendees or fewer and one facilitator. Attendees will be grouped according to the type and size of their organization and their goals for an ISP program. Tailored to the needs of the attendees, small groups will discuss and brainstorm building, optimizing, and scaling a strategic ISP program. 

Hour 3: We will reconvene as a full group to share top takeaways from each breakout group. The workshop will conclude with a quick tour of an ISP toolkit prepared for workshop attendees followed by a closing summary.   

All experience levels, shop sizes, and types of organizations are encouraged as small breakout groups will be tailored to registrants. 

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the workshop, attendees will have learned about ISP principles, seen them in practice, and applied them to their own programs. To help put learnings into action, attendees will receive access to a toolkit of ISP templates, samples, and other resources. 

1. A set of principles and best practices that are applicable to any individualized stewardship program
2. Examples of how principles apply real-life donor scenarios
3. Advice and guidance to apply principles to attendee’s ISP program
4. A set of templates, samples and other resources to support a strategic ISP program

Registration Fees

ADRP members: $200
Non-members: Contact the ADRP Office to join waitlist

 Register Now

 Presented By:

Analisa Gama Aguilar is the Manager of Donor Relations and Stewardship at Rotary International. With over a decade of donor relations, stewardship, and events experience, she leads a team of 15 staff across three of Rotary's international offices. Her team is responsible for Rotary’s giving societies, individualized stewardship plans, endowment, and restricted fund reporting, as well as stewardship events and activities for top-tier donor groups. Passionate about curating an outstanding donor experience, particularly for those from different cultures, Analisa works extensively with donors from over 50 countries and has produced donor events on five continents. Before focusing on donor relations, Analisa spent several years working directly with gift officers supporting major gift initiatives. Before joining Rotary, she was part of the development operations team at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Analisa received her BPS in Psychology from Roosevelt University and her MS in International Public Service from DePaul University. In 2023, Analisa earned her Certified Fund Raising Executive certification. She has been a member of the Association of Donor Relations Professionals since 2013 and served on the Midwest Regional Planning Committee since 2016. In 2021, Analisa joined the Board of Directors for the Association of Donor Relations Professionals, where she proudly serves as the board liaison to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.

Andrea Arntsen-Harris has worked in the field of donor relations for the last 15 years. She learned the ropes in various roles at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and went on to lead a talented team of experts at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Foundation. In 2024 she joined Earthjustice. Within a larger donor relations team, she leads a small cohort currently focused on defining and refining the stewardship experience for supporters at all levels.

Andrea is an active member of the Association of Donor Relations Professionals. She earned a bachelor of arts in international studies from the University of Chicago, and a master of science in communication from Northwestern University. She recently moved to Seattle with her partner Andrew their pooches Harvey & Gus.

Samantha Sanchez brings over a decade of experience in donor relations and nonprofit content creation to her role as senior donor stewardship officer at The Nature Conservancy. With a passion for fostering authentic donor relationships, Sam excels in delivering innovative and impactful stewardship that deepens partner relationships and drives conservation efforts that are deeply rooted in equity. Previous roles have included assistant director of donor relations with both the University of Chicago and Loyola University Chicago, and stewardship and engagement coordinator for The Nature Conservancy’s Illinois Chapter. A first-generation college graduate, she earned her BA in Journalism and Photography from Dominican University. Sam loves to chat about books (about shipwrecks or otherwise), music, and her zany Australian cattle dog, Zero.

Corey Smentek is in her 18th year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), beginning her career in trustee relations before moving into advancement. After supporting the efforts of MIT’s highest-level volunteer fundraising committee, Corey joined donor engagement and stewardship in 2014 performing a wide array of functions, from acknowledgments to reporting, recognition, and engagement. Corey established a robust individualized stewardship plan program for major and principal donors and has presented about MIT’s model at ADRP and CASE conferences. Today, she leads the team as senior director to drive strategic initiatives in donor engagement and stewardship, ensuring MIT’s relationships with its supporters are both impactful and enduring.

Corey has been a member of ADRP since 2015 and joined the Board of Directors in 2024.

Mary Weingartner has worked in the field of stewardship and donor relations for over 18 years, beginning at the University of Illinois Foundation in 2006. In 2009, she joined the University of Chicago’s Donor Relations team, leaving in 2012 to become Director of Alumni Relations & External Engagement for Loyola University Chicago’s Health Sciences Division. Taking a break from higher education, Mary managed stewardship for a portfolio of corporate and foundation donors at YMCA of the USA, the national resource office for local YMCAs across the country. Mary returned to the University of Chicago in 2016 and served as Director of Donor Relations through the end of the University’s $5.43 billion Campaign for Inquiry and Impact. In 2022, Mary joined UNICEF USA as Managing Director of Stewardship. In this role, she is charged with building a best-in-class stewardship program designed to engage donors in UNICEF’s work to build a world where every child is healthy, educated, protected and respected.

Mary is an active member of the Association of Donor Relations Professionals (ADRP) and had the privilege of chairing the 2018 and 2019 International Conferences, chairing the Education Committee and serving as an ex officio member of the Board of Directors. 

Gian Booker has been responsible for creating and refining donor relations, donor engagement, donor communications, and stewardship programs in various stages of development including from the ground up at multiple organizations in the healthcare and higher education industries. He is currently Executive Director of Stewardship, Donor Relations and Communications at University of Maryland Medicine. His specialty areas include principal gifts donor stewardship, wide-scale fund compliance, comprehensive program conceptualization and development, and donor impact communications.