Over the past several months, volunteers on the CGP Conference Committee have worked together to curate sessions and topics to offer attendees the latest professional development and educational opportunities at CGP Conference. Members of the Conference Committee have developed specialized tracks tailored for different sectors of the planned giving community.

Roger Fussa, CFRE, Senior Leadership and Planned Giving Officer at The Cambridge School of Weston, created a track for individuals at smaller organizations or those who have gift planning responsibilities within their roles. In this track, learn practical skills and strategies to help you effectively manage your time and evolve your skills.   

Many development professionals, particularly at small organizations, have gift planning as only a portion of their work. At two organizations, I have officially had a dual role: leadership gift officer and gift planning officer. I say “officially” because I have also often done annual fund work, particularly when the fiscal year end looms large. 

As gift planning is long-term and time-intensive, I have puzzled over how to make substantive progress with it on a part-time basis. In my divided days, leadership gifts and annual fund priorities often take over half my time. Naturally, that creates a compounding challenge in advancing the organization’s gift planning efforts. What to do?

One answer is to attend CGP sessions with presenters who will guide how to most effectively and efficiently ration limited gift planning time. Of the conference’s many choices, I offer these suggestions to the attendee wearing more than one development hat.

What’s Holding You Back? Navigating Roadblocks, Creating a Plan to Get Unstuck and Move Ahead 

When stuck, you can feel enshrouded in fog. Or said another way, how do you find your glasses when you need your glasses to find them? In her interactive program, Sally Cross, a development professional with 35+ years of experience, will provide a quiz to help identify barriers to building a robust program. Inspired by their peers’ feedback, participants will leave the session with a customized plan for next steps and insights and resources to further their gift planning programs.   

Transform Your Donors from Friends to Family: Creating a Planned Giving Pipeline 

Particularly at fiscal year-end, either/or thinking can consume a lot of space in the mind of a gift officer juggling different giving roles (annual, major, and planned). In this session, Kelsey Tyler and Abigail Bruins will offer front-line fundraisers their experience identifying annual fund donors who can be cultivated to become major gift donors and eventual legacy donors. It will be, as they describe, “a legacy pipeline journey” of learning to identify and then convert the most promising prospects on a path to legacy giving.

Dribble, Practice, Aim, Shoot for 3! Annual Giver to Principal/Estate Philanthropist 

Join Michelle Hardy, Vice President for Advancement at Central Carolina Community Foundation, for a case study of a generous widow who for decades was an annual donor to over 30 nonprofits — multiple higher education institutions, health organizations, homeless and food insecurity nonprofits, etc.  She wanted to make a difference and had untouched principal gifts capacity. Yet, year after year, a gamut of organizations did not make the connection. This session will explore uncovering a donor’s passions and interests through “practice” gifts, crafting a personalized giving plan, ensuring collaboration and partnerships with professional advisors, and exploring different planned gift vehicles to make a big, long-term difference. 
 
The Confident Gift Planner: Solving Donor Problems with Life Income Gifts 

You may know the basics of life income gifts, but if you’ve seldom walked a donor through one from proposal to acknowledgment, you might find launching these conversations daunting. Using case studies, Ngan Raskin and Jessie Pridie of TIAA Kaspick will discuss real-life practical applications for life income gifts. Attendees will leave with new resources, specific language for donor communication, and the confidence to discuss these compelling gift opportunities. 

From Wealth to Philanthropy: The Power of Noncash Giving 

For me, the gravitational pull of annual giving is that much greater if a conversation is just about a gift of cash — i.e., the tiny sliver of where wealth is held. To advance a culture of soliciting gifts from non-cash assets, I have found it helps significantly to know the research-driven approaches to discussing these gifts with donors.  And if you want to learn the research, then you need to attend this session with Jackie Franey and Russell James, both CGP Hall of Fame award winners. 

Save your spot for CGP Conference and register today. 
—

Meet Roger Fussa, CFRE:
Roger Fussa, CFRE, has spent most of his career at educational institutions, beginning with Georgetown University. He worked there for nine years before taking a one-year fellowship in educational administration at Harvard University. After the fellowship, Roger joined Harvard Business School's alumni relations office. Subsequent stops have included Boston University, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Buckingham Browne & Nichols School. 

In 2023, Roger became the Cambridge School of Weston's Senior Leadership and Planned Giving Officer. Roger serves on the Planned Giving Group of New England's executive board. He was co-chair of its 2022 annual conference and its Vice President for Programming in 2022-2023. He is also very active in the civic affairs of Belmont, MA, where he lives with his wife, two children, and two dogs. Roger earned a bachelor’s in history from the University of Virginia, a master's in liberal studies from Georgetown University, and a graduate certificate in publications and communications from Harvard University.