10B | Tapas Talks - Reporting

Friday, Oct 2
1:00 - 2:00 PM

A "Tapas Talk" hour groups three different presenters by topic. Each will address the given topic from a unique perspective. Attendees can expect to see three shorter, thought-provoking presentations followed by time for facilitator-led discussion.

The following three Tapas Talks presenters are not necessarily listed in the order in which they will present. 

The Stewardship Games: May Your Reporting be Ever in Your Favor 

The Nuts and Bolts of Creating a Stewardship Reporting Program: Our donor relations team was challenged with inconsistent stewardship reporting for donors. After a thorough analysis of our donor data and giving trends, we came up with an efficient, comprehensive, and engaging stewardship reporting plan that encompasses various levels of impact reporting to donors at different thresholds and relies on Raiser's Edge for information management and strategic scheduling.

In our presentation, we will share our tool kit so you can increase donor engagement through a comprehensive strategic stewardship reporting plan.

Melissa Coleman

Melissa Coleman is the Director of Campaign Management and Donor Relations at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. During her decade-long career at Cedars-Sinai, she has been a major gift fundraiser responsible for a portfolio of major gift and leadership-level donors and has overseen the campaign strategic planning, design and implementation for the past two Cedars-Sinai fundraising campaigns - Discovering for Life which closed at $357M ($7M over target) and our current $600M campaign. As the head of Donor Relations she oversees all development operations including the gift processing and reporting teams, and all the stewardship functions of the back office including donor benefits, recognition and signage and events. Melissa is a past presenter for the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Institutional Advancement (AAMC-GIA). Melissa is a law school graduate from Southwestern University School of Law and is licensed to practice law in California. She also holds a B.A. in Linguistics and Spanish from the University of California, Los Angeles. 

Kristen Goff

Kristen Goff is the Manager of Donor Relations at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. In her role she oversees a comprehensive donor recognition and engagement program including signage, benefits, progress reporting, recognition events and more.  Prior to joining Cedars-Sinai in 2011, Kristen was the Director of Major Gifts at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica California, where she focused on individual and foundation fundraising for translational cancer research.  She has utilized her experience in major gift fundraising, event management and being a support group liaison to participate in building a comprehensive stewardship program at Cedars-Sinai. Kristen is a native Californian and graduated with a B.A. in communications with a minor in business administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  

Divide and Conquer: Sharing the Labor of Narrative Reporting

Do you sometimes feel that you have too many donors but not enough time or resources to tell them meaningful impact stories? If so, you aren't alone. In this session, we'll show how with a clear goal and a little planning, you can get help from your non-stewardship friends to create great narrative reports. You should walk away with a framework for engaging non-stewardship colleagues at your organization and capitalizing on their strengths in order to build better impact reports than your team could create independently.

Emily Fondaw

Emily Fondaw is the Project Manager for Donor Services at the University of Washington in Seattle. She graduated from the University in 2012 and worked as the Stewardship Coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences before moving to Donor Services. She is now charged with improving reporting to endowment donors, fulfilling annual recognition society benefits, and supporting the stewardship needs of fundraisers across campus.

Outcomes: Catalysts for Careers & Funding

Even though your outcomes may be impactful, simply reporting them in the hopes that they will be used to their full potential is an elementary approach. For funders, you have to connect the dots between your outcomes and the value they receive for them, and that often requires personal interaction. For strategic initiatives, outcomes should drive the planning process, not vice-versa. We will discuss how using these two avenues of interaction can be valuable to both your career and the coffers of your organization.

Tom Ralser

Tom has worked with organizations of all kinds, from Chambers of Commerce to religious organizations, national museums to rural health networks, and local youth organizations to international research institutes. He has personally been involved in over 500 nonprofit funding projects nationwide, helping nonprofits raise over an estimated $1.1 billion. Tom pioneered the concept of applying return on investment (ROI) principles to nonprofit fundraising, and fundraisers have described his work as the "silver bullet" that justifies larger investments in nonprofit organizations. Clients across the nonprofit sector have benefited from increased funding by using his innovative ROI analyses and applications.