Special events fundraising|Chicago, IL|04/28/2010

Special events fundraising

One of the best ways to educate the public about your nonprofit, recruit volunteers and solicit donors face-to-face is to hold a special event. This event could be related to the mission of your organization, or just an event like a blood drive, art showing or a concert that you organize.
Topics we will cover include:

Is a special event right for your organization? A look at the pros and cons of planning award receptions, sports tournaments, auctions, and other fund-raising events
How much money should your event make? Revenue considerations for a nonprofit event
Should you underwrite the event? Understanding the strings attached to corporate sponsorship
How should you market your event? Segmenting and positioning yourself for your target market

Attendees will walk out with key insights on whether a special event is feasible, and how to make it a roaring success. This session is intended for intermediate to advanced fundraisers.

Speakers for this session:

Mark Becker

Founding Partner

Cathexis Partners

Mark has been involved in special events fundraising for 7 years. In the last 18 months, Mark and his team have assisted over 50 organizations design, implement, launch and support online fundraising websites for special events. Some of these projects included, fundraising for walk, climb, and bike events. Previously, as Director of IT Consulting at Event 360, Mark was responsible for managing a team that provided support of online tools such as Convio and Sphere to multiple clients. Event 360's largest client was Komen's Breast Cancer 3-day where he and his team supported all technical aspects of producing the 3-day walk. He earned a BBA in Business Management from the University of Illinois, Springfield, and is a member of NTEN & ACN.

Karen Dillon

Assistant Director of Development

Anti-Defamation League (ADL)

Karen has been involved in fundraising events for over 15 years, both professionally and as a lay leader. Currently, she is responsible for one of the Anti-Defamation League's annual signature fundraising events, the First Amendment Freedom Award dinner, which also serves as the annual board dinner. Karen also helps ADL with other fundraising events including the ADL's annual Women of Achievement Awards. Previously, Karen has worked on fundraising events and galas for Apple Tree Theatre and as a former award-winning TV producer, she created videos that were shown at Apple Tree. Karen is a member of AFP and is also on the international board of the Women of Reform Judaism. Prior to joining ADL she worked for many years in local television, including ABC 7, Oprah, and CBS 2 - as a writer/producer, promotion director and sales marketing manager. Karen graduated from Washington University with a B.A. in Psychology.

2010 Chicago Fundraising Summit

A relationship approach to fundraising
Nonprofit fundraising has become highly specialized, and each segment of your donor market requires a different set of relationship management skills. Whether you are reaching out to private foundations, wealthy individuals or your own members, you need to understand who they give to, and why. The Chicago Summit focuses on the relationship aspects of fundraising, and offers you several ways to enhance your relationship management skills:

WHY ATTEND THE FUNDRAISING SUMMIT?
Fundraising is primarily a relationship business, and with increasing pressures facing all nonprofit professionals to build key relationships, it is becoming more important, though much more difficult to meet people face-to-face. Our innovative Summit format provides the most efficient and cost effective use of time away from the office by enabling attendees to interact with experts in the field, as well as other nonprofit leaders.

CAN ONE ATTEND SPECIFIC SESSIONS ONLY?
We understand the demands that are placed on you and on your time. That’s why you can attend only the seminars that are of interest to you. Come for the day or stop by for a couple of hours. You pay for only the seminars you wish to attend and only for the information relevant to you. It’s a novel approach to learning that allows you to get exactly what you’re looking for in a short amount of time. In 2009, we are also introducing a two-day pass so that attendees can attend all sessions at a reduced price.

WHAT IS THE FORMAT OF THE SEMINARS?
Each seminar features a panel of 3-4 experts who will give a short overview of the key developments in that field. After that , we will move into a moderated discussion to explore what these developments mean for nonprofit organizations. During the seminar, panelists will engage with the audience in an interactive manner to ensure the real-world implications of these developments emerge, and the session will end with a summary of practical next steps.

ONE-ON-ONE MENTORING SESSIONS
In 2010, we added an exciting new component to our Summits: one on mentoring sessions. In these 30 minute sessions, you can sit down with an experienced nonprofit fundraiser to discuss specific questions not addressed by the seminars. Mentoring sessions will cover the same topics as the seminar topics. However, each mentoring session that you sign up for will focus entirely on questions facing your organization.

HOW IS THE SUMMIT DIFFERENT FROM OTHER EDUCATIONAL EVENTS?
The Summit offers a unique format to help you accomplish the following:

Build relationships: to ensure maximum exposure to the experts and other nonprofit leaders, each seminar offers structured networking before the session starts
Hear different perspectives: the experts are drawn from different sectors of the nonprofit community to ensure cross-pollination of ideas and practices
Provide a global view: speakers give an overview of key issues so that you can eliminate any gaps in your understanding of the subject
Drill down to the specifics: speakers will also focus on providing specific answers to real-world questions that are common to most attendees
Obtain information you can use: the emphasis in all sessions is on avoiding theoretical discussions in favor of practical tools and techniques that nonprofit leaders can actually use

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SUMMIT?
The Summit is organized by the Center for Nonprofit Success, a nonprofit organization that specializes in bringing highly relevant information that nonprofit leaders need to run their organizations successfully. We developed the Fundraising Summit series as a follow-on to the Nonprofit Success Forum, a highly successful educational series on grantmaking that has been taking place around the country for the past two years. The Fundraising Summit drills down into specific areas of fundraising to give nonproft leaders cutting edge tools and techniques.

HOW DO I REGISTER FOR THE SUMMIT?
Simply click on the seminars listed below to learn more about the topics that will be covered in each seminar. Then select only those seminars that you wish to attend.

Location/Directions

The Summit will be taking place at the Illinois Institute of Technology which is located just south of the Loop at:
Hermann Union Building (Hermann Hall)
HH Ballroom East
3241 South Federal Street
Chicago, Illinois 60616-3793

Public Transportation

The Summit venue is accessible from the following stations:
- CTA Red Line (Howard-95th/Dan Ryan) to Sox-35th station
- CTA Green Line (Ashland-63rd or 63rd-Cottage Grove) to 35th-Bronzeville-IIT station
- CTA Bus lines with stops on Main Campus (#29-State, #35-35th, #24-Wentworth, #4-Cottage Grove)

Driving Directions

From the North:
Dan Ryan Expressway east to 31st Street exit, continue south to 33rd Street, turn left (east).

From the South:
Dan Ryan Expressway west to 35th Street exit, continue north to 33rd Street, turn right (east).

From Lake Shore Drive:
Exit at 31st Street, go inland (west) to State Street, turn left (south).

Parking - PLEASE CONSIDER USING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. PARKING IS LIMITED! IF YOU DO DECIDE TO DRIVE, PLEASE ALLOW 30-45 MINUTES TO FIND PARKING IN ONE OF THE LOTS.
Metered parking (max 4 hours, 30 minutes per quarter) is available to all visitors in Lots B6 and C1 located along Federal Street north and south of 33rd Street. If you wish to park for longer than four hours, parking is available in the Visitor's Parking Lot ( Lot A2-V, A3, A4). When you park in these lots, look for a cash-only pay box in the lot. Park your car, and pay at the cash box. Place the receipt on your dashboard as proof of payment. Rate is $10 for the entire day.

THE LOTS ARE NOT DEDICATED TO THE FUNDRAISING SUMMIT AND WILL BE USED BY OTHER PATRONS. PARKING IS ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVE BASIS IN EACH LOT.
Lot A2-V is located at 31st and State Street. Entrance is on 31st Street. (A2V: 40 spaces/A2: 96 spaces)
Lot A4-V is located at 32nd and State Street. Entrance is on State Street. (50 spaces)
Lot A3 is located at 31st Street and State Street. Entrance is on 31st Street. (LARGEST LOT - WILL BE USED FOR OVERFLOW)

Hotel Accommodations
Most hotels near the Summit venue are within the $133 - $389 per night range. The following hotels are within a four-mile radius of the hotel:

1. Hyatt Regency McCormick Place                      BOOK NOW          1.3 miles from venue
2. Best Western Grant Park                               BOOK NOW          2.4 miles from venue
3. The Blackstone, A Renaissance Hotel           BOOK NOW    2.7 miles from venue
4. W Chicago City Center       BOOK NOW    3.1 miles from venue
5. Hampton Inn Majestic Chicago Theatre District BOOK NOW    3.2 miles from venue

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One-on-one mentoring

Click on any seminar title or the arrow on the right side to learn more about that seminar

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