Lynn Lerardi

 

The University of Pennsylvania completed its recent “Making History” campaign with gifts of more than 4.3 billion dollars, surpassing the original goal of 3.5 billion dollars more than a year early. This is remarkable when you consider that the campaign launched in late 2007, continued unabated through the great recession, and closed to great fanfare in five years. There are many lessons to be learned from Penn’s campaign. In this session, we will focus on the lessons learned about gift planning in a capital campaign – highlighting the issues and strategies for effectively incorporating gift planning into your capital campaign and more broadly into your development program. As we consider the ever growing size and frequency of capital campaigns, the case for gift planning has never been stronger. Campaigns increasingly require greater strategic planning, fiscal integrity, and performance metrics that include gift planning. Attendees will leave with specific ideas and solutions for gift acceptance, counting and recognition, fostering donor participation, and increasing collaboration among development colleagues. We will examine performance metrics and other measurements designed to influence behavior and quantify results (including examples from Penn and Penn Medicine). With input from the participants, we’ll talk about what worked for Penn and alternatively what might work for your organization as you identify keys to success.

 

CFRE: Approved for 1 point

CAP: Approved for 1 PACE credit