Welcome and opening remarks for TRANSFORM23.

This session will explore what we can learn from the science of how human beings form relationships to inform how we might build stronger, loving and more fulfilling relationships with our supporters. Many organizations claim to be practising relationship fundraising, but in reality, there is little agreement about what that actually means and what might constitute a relationship approach. In this session, we’ll pull apart relationship fundraising and the concept of donor-centricity drawing on the latest science from philanthropic psychology or PhilPychTM. We’ll look at the concepts of identity, well-being and love and how they can be leveraged to quite literally double your income. We’ll share with you our experimental testing and show you many examples of how organizations around the world have put our ideas into practice Participants will leave with a new perspective on how to get the most from their communication and help donors to do likewise.

Participant outcomes:

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

1. Distinguish between motivation and identify.
2. Develop communications that build supporter well-being.
3. Use an understanding of love to build more communal relationships with supporters and
4. Use all these concepts to double giving

About Professor Andrian Sargeant, Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Co-Director, Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy

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Adrian Sargeant is the Co-Director of the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy. He was formerly the first Hartsook Chair in Fundraising at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. Adrian is a Visiting Professor of Fundraising at Avila University and the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. In 2010 in the United States he was named to the prestigious Nonprofit Times, Power and Influence list and in the same year received a Civil Society award in the UK for his services to the profession of fundraising. In 2016 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Institute of Fundraising. Adrian designed the UK’s system of professional education for fundraisers and is currently working on the European qualification framework for the European Fundraising Association.

In this session, Prof. Jen Shang will explore the psychological theories of meaning and meaningfulness in the philanthropic context, based on new research conducted with high-net-worth individuals (HNWI). Drawing on the findings of the study, Prof. Shang will discuss the psychological challenges and opportunities posed by engaging in meaningful philanthropy and focus on the identity and ‘self’ behind the gift, as opposed to the motives and processes that lead to giving.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Understand the new concept of “identity-ceding”
• Describe the differences between meaning and meaningfulness in the philanthropic context
• Explain how, through the process of “identity-ceding”, people can experience meaningful philanthropy, and
• Recognise the challenges and situations associated with ceding one’s identity in their philanthropy

About Professor Jen Shang, Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Co-Director, Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy

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Jen Shang is the world’s first Ph.D. in Philanthropy. She is also the world’s only philanthropic psychologist. Her research has been covered in the New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Advancing Philanthropy and the Nonprofit Times. Jen has been published in numerous academic journals including, the Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, the Economic Journal, Experimental Economics, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and Nonprofit Management and Leadership. Her research has been funded by the Society of Judgment and Decision Making, the National Science Foundation, The Aspen Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and the Hewlett Foundation.

As we consider trends in research a full two years after the pandemic shutdown began, one thing is clear: the philanthropic landscape continues to be both complex and rapidly changing. Economic factors, social values, the impact of the racial justice movement, and the rapid rise in the use of technology have all played a central role. What are the key factors shaping philanthropy now, and how do they impact nonprofits? What are donor motivations and what are the most effective strategies to build relationships with donors? What is the impact of technology? Who is giving, and who is getting?

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Understand the factors shaping the current and future landscape
• Describe the role that economic factors, values, and technology are playing in the philanthropic context
• Explain how donor motivations are changing, and
• Identify how to build meaningful and trust-based relationships with donors

About Una Osili
Associate Dean for Research and International Programs; Efroymson Chair in Philanthropy; Dean's Fellow, Mays Family Institute on Diverse Philanthropy

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Una Osili serves as the Efroymson Chair in Philanthropy and Economics and Associate Dean for Research and International Programs at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, the world’s first school dedicated to the study of philanthropy. She also serves as Dean’s Fellow for the Mays Family Institute on Diverse Philanthropy.

An internationally recognized scholar in economics, Osili leads the research and publication of Global Philanthropy Tracker and the Global Philanthropy Environment Index, as well as Giving USA, the annual report on American philanthropy. She is the founder of Generosity for Life, a digital platform, and chairs the school's signature research project, the Philanthropy Panel Study, the most comprehensive study of the generosity of American families over time.

Osili has provided expert testimony at the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, Joint Economic Commission and United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee on philanthropy and international development.

Osili received her Bachelor’s in economics from Harvard University and her MA and Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University.

It is imperative that nonprofit fundraisers receive real-time insights into donor sentiment—especially in our current inflationary environment. Mitigating the impacts of inflation requires nonprofits develop these insights for every level of giving, solicitation channel, campaign type, and communication form. Finding and revealing such deep donor sentiment may sound daunting, especially for a resource-constrained organization, but it can be achieved with optimal use of AI-driven services.

This session will discuss tangible principles and applications of AI in nonprofit fundraising. Case studies will illustrate the success numerous nonprofits have had using AI to develop insights into donor sentiment—and in return, improve giving, reduce cost-per-dollar raised, and sustain retention. Actionable insights include practical tips that ensure nonprofit fundraisers can optimize their data and processes for AI success—while avoiding technical and ethical pitfalls.

Participant outcomes:

• How AI can deepen your donor sentiment knowledge
• Where to implement AI in your fundraising process
• How to instill discipline and integrity into your fundraising data and processes
• How to protect donor privacy and ensure that the AI does not inject bias into your fundraising
• How to select an AI services vendor

About Michael Gorriarán
President, Arjuna Solutions

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Michael Gorriarán is a globally experienced technology sector executive with an extensive 30+ year career at Microsoft, Xerox, and early-stage, high-growth business ventures. He has held executive leadership roles in advanced cloud services, enterprise software, business process outsourcing, and professional services businesses.

He has either led, been COO, GM, or a key executive in businesses ranging from under $10Mn to over $77B in annual revenues. His responsibilities have included developing and implementing new business strategies, financial models, executing turnarounds, launching new lines of business, and GTM plans to gain a sustainable competitive advantage around the world.

Prior to his current role as President of Arjuna Solutions, Michael was most recently GM, Worldwide Commercial Markets Strategy Group at Microsoft. He was responsible in this capacity for being one of the core leaders responsible for the largest GTM transformation in the technology industry; successfully migrating Microsoft's global sales, marketing, services, and partner ecosystem from the software and enterprise solutions business to becoming the preeminent leader of the cloud services industry. He held this responsibility as Microsoft's annual revenues were growing from $58.4B to $77.8B over three years.

Before this role, he was GM (COO), US Enterprise Sector & Partners Group at Microsoft. He was responsible in the capacity for developing, executing, and managing the US Enterprise Sector Business and GTM plans. He also led the national organizations serving US Enterprise Sector clients. He transitioned this business from selling software to selling enterprise solutions and services while growing from $5.4B to $7.6B in annual revenues over three years; tripling the growth of the overall US enterprise sector software market.

Prior to Microsoft, Michael spent 18 years with Xerox Corporation. He was most recently VP/GM, Industry Solutions & Services Organization, Northern and Central Europe. He also previously served as VP/GM, Carolinas/Georgia, GM of Oregon, as well as roles in worldwide product management and strategic planning.

Michael holds an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a B.S. in Marketing, with concentrated studies in Economics and Spanish, from the University of Rhode Island.

He is an avid distance runner, outdoor enthusiast, and active parent with his wife Kris of their two children. Michael was also the Chairman of the Board for the Oregon Council for Hispanic Advancement (OCHA).

Crypto Philanthropy programs are now the fastest-growing revenue channel for hundreds of nonprofits including United Way Worldwide, Save the Children, and the American Cancer Society. With hundreds of millions of crypto users worldwide and over $450 million in donations, Crypto Philanthropy is growing rapidly. From Bitcoin to NFTs, crypto philanthropy has changed the way thousands of nonprofits fundraise, and it’s just the beginning.

In this session, Alex Wilson, co-founder of The Giving Block, explains:

• What crypto is and the size of the potential donor base
• How to incorporate cryptocurrency into your fundraising strategy
• How to decide which crypto philanthropy platform is best for you

About Alex Wilson
Co-Founder of The Giving Block

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Alex is the Co-Founder of The Giving Block, a Shift4 company. The Giving Block is the leading Crypto Philanthropy platform that connects nonprofits with crypto donors. Alex oversees The Giving Block’s growth in several areas, including technological innovation, crypto and financial partnerships and institutional giving.

Alex’s background is in management consulting, where he worked with Fortune 500 companies to develop strategies for emerging technologies like AI, IoT, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. As he went down the cryptocurrency rabbit hole, he and his Co-Founder, Pat Duffy, discovered a need for nonprofits to tap into the growing crypto donor demographic.

Alex graduated from Wake Forest University School of Business, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Enterprise Management and a concentration in International Business. Due to his unique expertise in Crypto Philanthropy, Alex has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, USA Today, Bloomberg to name a few. He was also recognized as Forbes 30 Under 30 for Social Impact in 2021. 

The process of building trust and maintaining relationships with all of your stakeholders is so much more digitally distant today than even a few years ago. Learn how and why simple video messages in place of some of your faceless, typed-out text overcome the challenges of this reality - including some challenges you may not even be aware of.

Learning points:

• What the two criteria at the root of every social judgment are
• Why attention is not the currency of the digital economy (and what is)
• How a human-centered approach to your communication improves results
• When, how, and why to mix video messages into your donor, volunteer, partner, and employee outreach

About Ethan Beute
Chief Evangelist at BombBomb

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Chief Evangelist at BombBomb, Wall Street Journal bestselling co-author of Human-Centered Communication and of Rehumanize Your Business, and host of Chief Evangelist and The Customer Experience Podcast, Ethan Beute has spent the past decade helping business professionals be more personal and human through simple video messages. He’s sent more than 14,000 videos himself. He also spent a dozen years leading marketing teams inside local television stations in Chicago, Grand Rapids, and Colorado Springs. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan and UCCS in communication, psychology, and marketing. A husband and father, he lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Our Wall Street Journal bestseller free

Free BombBomb account for nonprofits

Since the term “poverty porn” first appeared in 1981, much has been said about the exploitation of human suffering to inspire charitable giving. Yet many organizations still struggle to communicate their impact in a way that authentically represents the issue and preserves the dignity of those affected by it.

How do we portray our program participants as their own agents of change, while admitting that they also need our help? In a refreshing take on this provocative issue, Caliopy Glaros invites attendees to move beyond shifts in lexicon and imagery, in order to embrace methods that both challenge assumptions and inspire empathy. Attendees with leave this session with an applicable strategy and concrete process they can take back to their organizations and begin utilizing immediately.

Attendees will learn how to:

1. Understand how exploitative storytelling impacts our organizations, clients, and communities
2. Distinguish between exploitation, sympathy, and empathy in storytelling
3. Identify ethical storytelling practices and principles that work that could be applied at their organizations
4. Explore several approaches to tell more ethical and equitable stories

About Caliopy Glaros
Founder and Principal Consultant, Philanthropy Without Borders

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Caliopy Glaros is the Founder and Principal Consultant at Philanthropy Without Borders, a firm with expertise in ethical storytelling, donor engagement, and strategic planning. Her work is informed by experience as a front-line fundraiser, intercultural trainer, and former recipient of nonprofit services. She has worked in nearly 40 countries around the world and has delivered workshops on ethical storytelling to small volunteer-run organizations as well as large multi-national charities. Her goal is to deepen the critical consciousness around ethical storytelling and to provide actionable recommendations that are applicable to organizations of any size, budget, and mission. Caliopy has an academic background in Anthropology and Adult Learning, and is a certified trainer in Intercultural Communication.

As behavioral science continues to gain popularity, more attention is being directed toward nudges that impact donors and their giving behavior. Understanding the influences on donor behavior can make a significant difference in the activities and outcomes for fundraising.

With 20+ years of fundraising experience in annual funds, major gifts, planned giving, and capital campaigns, Cherian Koshy, is one of the most sought-after trainers and speakers in the nonprofit sector. As the head of fundraising for various nonprofits, he’s personally raised more than $100M.

In this session, Cherian shares expertise from more than two decades immersed in helping organizations scale their revenue growth and his studies from Dan Ariely's Irrational Labs as well as Harvard University on behavioral science.

Participants will be able to:

• Differentiate rational choice theory and behavioral science approaches to understanding donor psychology and reasons for giving.
• Explain how heuristics can lead to biases in donor behavior.
• Critically evaluate giving strategies through the lens of behavioral science to improve the predictive power of appeals.
• Develop a contextual framework for testing, describing, and evaluating donor activities and choices.

About Cherian Koshy
Founder, Nonprofit Operating System

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Mr. Koshy, Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE), is the Founder of Nonprofit Operating System. 
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With 25+ years of direct experience in annual funds, major gifts, planned giving, and capital campaigns, he is one of the most sought-after trainers and speakers in the nonprofit sector. As the head of fundraising for various nonprofits, he's personally raised more than $100M including several seven and eight-figure gifts. As a coach and consultant, he's led organizations to scale their revenue growth and build stronger teams. He's led several successful multi-million dollar capital campaigns and worked with a wide variety of nonprofits including the arts, human services, faith-based, and education. The nonprofits he works with design strategies that give them back time and develop predictable success. His industry-specific thought leadership has been featured in Advancing Philanthropy, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Institute of Fundraising (UK), and dozens of keynote presentations, blogs, webinars, workshops, and podcasts.
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Cherian is also active on numerous nonprofit boards. He is the Chair of the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service (Volunteer Iowa) and serves on the global board of the Association of Fundraising Professionals as well as eight other nonprofit boards.
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In addition to receiving the Chartered Advisor of Philanthropy (CAP®) designation from The American College of Financial Services, Cherian is an AFP Master Trainer, Certified Scale Architect, a Certified Mind Genomics Advisor, and holds certifications in Behavioral Economics from Dan Ariely's Irrational Labs as well as Harvard University. Cherian was also one of the most successful debating coaches in the United States. His students won dozens of national and international championships. He is the author of one of the most widely used debating textbooks currently used and has taught thousands of students over the last twenty years.

Cherian lives in Iowa with his wife and 2.3 kids and their little dog too.

In this session, boards will learn how to work to ground organizational values and recruitment practices so that they are inclusive. They will redefine their roles by accepting accountability for setting the tone with deliberate and strategic action to have an increased presence of people of color on boards.

As stewards of the public good, boards must act to alter and eliminate beliefs, practices, and policies that perpetuate structural and institutional racism and exclusion. This means being intentional about changing the racial composition of its members and adapting cultures that alienate and exclude others from feeling welcomed.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand why board diversity matters
• Identify the characteristics of an inclusive-ready Board
• Build a pipeline for diverse members
• Locate sources to recruit diverse members
• Embrace the value of collective networks in board-inclusive culture

About Christal Cherry
Principal & CEO, The Board Pro

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Christal M. Cherry is a nationally recognized nonprofit executive and professionally trained fundraiser. With over 20 years in the nonprofit sector, she has supported higher education institutions, human services organizations and faith-based missions. Her career portfolio, as a full-time professional and consultant, includes American University, the United Negro College Fund, Spelman College, Nicholas House, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Florida A & M University, Action Ministries and the GA Center for Nonprofits.

In each role, Christal has interfaced, guided and collaborated with diverse boards made up of college presidents, ministers and bishops, politicians, corporate CEOs, civic leaders, consultants, attorneys, stay-at-home moms and students.

With passion and a wide breadth of experience, Christal works today with clients to help them mark a clear path to success in board development. Her style is electrifying, inspiring, and energizing.

Christal earned a MA in Counseling from Hampton University, a BA in Liberal Arts from Hofstra University and professional development certifications in nonprofit leadership, social media fundraising, and nonprofit management.

She currently serves on the board of the Greater Atlanta chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Villages of Carver YMCA. She is a regular presenter with CANDID, Qgiv, Network for Good, Bloomerang, and the Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy where she facilitates webinars and teaches courses in fundraising, board development and equity and inclusion. Christal has been a guest on multiple podcasts and enjoys serving as a requested expert on board matters. She is contributing author in Collecting Courage, a documentary of racism and survival by 14 accomplished Black fundraisers working across North America. She also enjoys her membership in the African American Development Officers Network, Toastmasters, and F3, Fabulous Female Fundraisers which she founded.

This keynote explores the divergent views of donor-centered fundraising and community-centered fundraising. Who is the true hero in the nonprofit story? This talk shares the real-life story of Kam - a toddler diagnosed with retinoblastoma (cancer of the eye). Through Kam’s journey, his grandfather (a fundraiser) searches for the true hero in Kam’s family quest to save not only his vision but his very life.  Examining the strengths, passions, and impact of each possible hero (including fundraisers who raise money for cancer research and treatment), it becomes clear. It takes all of us. The problems we seek to solve are too big for any single hero. Taking inspiration from the Justice League, heroes are stronger when they work together.

About Tammy Zonker
Founder & President, Fundraising Transformed

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Recognized as one of America’s Top 20 Fundraising Experts, Tammy is an inspiring international speaker and trainer in the discipline of transformational philanthropy. She has led, trained, and coached nonprofit social service organizations, private schools, colleges and universities, and healthcare organizations to raise more than half-billion dollars, including a single gift of $27.1M.

Tammy is a masterful storyteller, major gifts strategist, and fundraising expert. She’s also a certified AFP Master Trainer. Her passion for donor development and mission impact is contagious, inspiring, and transformational. She pours all of this expertise and passion into her training and speaking to equip and empower others to skyrocket their fundraising results.

She and her partner, brand & marketing strategist R. Trent Thompson, were awarded the “Multichannel Campaign of the Year” and “Campaign of the Year” Gold Awards by Fundraising Success Magazine. She has served as adjunct faculty at Indiana University, technical editor for Wiley Publishing’s “Fundraising for Dummies” third edition, and served on Nonprofit Quarterly’s editorial advisory board.

When Tammy is not speaking at conferences or fundraising, she’s leading webinars, online masterclasses, board, and development team retreats or training, workshops, and coaching her online membership community of Fundraising Transformers.