In Service: The Column of the ADRP President
Eliza McNulty
Senior Donor Relations Manager
YMCA of the USA
Giving makes us happy. Check out the latest research from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. As donor relations and stewardship professionals, it’s our job to build on that happiness and create lifelong relationships between donors and our organizations. We do that through our thank you letters and calls, reports, videos, events...every experience that becomes part of a donor’s journey with our organizations. Clap along if you know what happiness is to you…
As a community, ADRP members are incredibly generous with sharing ideas and samples with our peers. We benchmark with other organizations of similar sizes or scope. But there’s also the need for rigorous, academic research to help move our profession forward, to ground all of these great ideas in scientific results. We need to understand giving trends across the industry, how philanthropy differs across demographics or cultures, or even the science behind how giving makes us happy.
We have created a new section of the ADRP website, under the Resources menu option, called Research. Here you can find the results of the literature review that ADRP commissioned from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. You’ll also find links to several research studies we think are important to our work as stewardship professionals.
We are happy to announce that ADRP will embark on a research project with the Fundraising Effectiveness Project to quantify the impact of investing in donor relations and stewardship on an organization’s giving trends. We are looking for 3 to 5 ADRP member organizations to participate in the study. The organization must have significantly invested in donor relations and stewardship within at least the past three years (people, strategies, professional development) and have access to giving data. If you think your organization may wish to participate, contact [email protected].
Later this month, my husband, dog and I will be moving from Chicago to California where I start a new role as Director of Stewardship at Stanford University in December. Here’s what I’ll be reading (or at least trying to) on our road trip: Women Give 17, Talking About Sexual Harassment in the Profession, and How to Win Over Mission-Critical Colleagues. More than likely, I’ll be entertaining our dog who isn’t a huge fan of cars! If you have any must-see sights, let me know!
Awards Announcement
ADRP is pleased to announce the winners of the inaugural ADRP International Stewardship Awards (ADRP ISA’s), which were distributed at the ADRP Annual International Conference in Las Vegas. The Award was established as the premier awards program recognizing excellence and outstanding accomplishments in donor relations field.
Meet the Winners
Conference Reflections
Julie Mahoney
Associate Director of Stewardship
Washington University School of Medicine
The first time I attended the ADRP conference was in Chicago in 2012. Everything was new. I was a new ADRP member in a new position within a new profession. I had spent the previous ten years in public relations and communications for a health care non-profit. I knew very little about donor relations and stewardship. Those few days in Chicago were like an immersion course. I was tired each evening from all the new information I was absorbing, but I was also grateful for a broader context and new vocabulary for the work I was now doing. I also had a sense that I’d found my professional tribe from the lovely interactions I had with other attendees.
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Write for The Hub - We Want to Hear from You!
With 2018 just around the corner, The Hub is seeking article proposals for each month’s issue!
Do you have a success story you would like to share? How did you handle a particular problem or project that seemed insurmountable? Have you discovered effective tactics that help gain a seat at the table? What are your thoughts on best practices or new, emerging ideas that take a donor relations/stewardship program to the next level?
We want to encourage our members— new and experienced—to share their insights, best practices, and what works (or doesn’t work!) when planning their shop’s programming and responsibilities.
We welcome all submissions related to donor relations and stewardship, but we especially encourage ADRP members to step forward and share their expertise and experiences in the profession.
The 2018 submission form is now open. We have, once again, included the webinar topics for each month, in case you would like to tie your article to a specific webinar topic. Please submit your article proposal today! We can’t wait to “hear” what you have to say!
Member Spotlight
 Name: Marci Generose
Institution: The Franklin Institute
Position: Director of Donor Relations
ADRP member for 2 years
How long have you worked in donor relations/stewardship and how did you get involved in this profession?
I’ve worked in donor relations/stewardship for the past 12 years, but I’ve worked in fundraising since 1998 and have had some responsibility for donor relations/stewardship throughout most of that time. I got started in this field after working part-time at Penn State’s Lion Line, which is their fundraising call center. My name is still listed as one of the top student callers to this day! As far as my current role, it’s been evolving since 2005. I never considered donor relations as a career path—I always saw myself as a fundraiser—but as The Franklin Institute’s fundraising program evolves, I find the work incredibly fulfilling.
Meet Marci
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