The only conference for nonprofits that focuses on corporate philanthropy, sponsorships, employee volunteerism, workplace giving and cause marketing all in one space.
Wednesday, March 13
3:30pm – 6:30pm PT
In-person receptions in five cities
Wednesday, March 14
8:00am – 1:00pm PT
Virtual Conference
Seattle In-Person
Schedule:
3:30pm -4:00pm: Check-in and Meet & Greet
4:00pm – 5:00pm: Panel Discussion
5:00pm – 6:30pm: Networking
Panelists:
Location:
Columbia Tower Club
701 5th Avenue, 75th Floor, Seattle, WA 98104
Portland In-Person
Schedule:
3:30pm -4:00pm: Check-in and Meet & Greet
4:00pm – 5:00pm: Panel Discussion
5:00pm – 6:30pm: Networking
Panelists:
Location:
TBA
San Francisco In-Person
Schedule:
3:30pm -4:00pm: Check-in and Meet & Greet
4:00pm – 5:00pm: Panel Discussion
5:00pm – 6:30pm: Networking
Panelists:
Location:
TBA
Los Angeles In-Person
Schedule:
3:30pm -4:00pm: Check-in and Meet & Greet
4:00pm – 5:00pm: Panel Discussion
5:00pm – 6:30pm: Networking
Panelists:
Location:
TBA
Phoenix In-Person
Schedule:
3:30pm -4:00pm: Check-in and Meet & Greet
4:00pm – 5:00pm: Panel Discussion
5:00pm – 6:30pm: Networking
Panelists:
Location:
TBA
Welcome and Introduction to Program
Opening remarks by AMAZON – Keri Pravitz, Amazon
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Start off Day 1 of our conference with lively and engaging discussions in your choice of 9 breakout rooms on a variety of topics from career roadmapping, to retirement and side hustles. Prime your brain by learning something new, exchange experiences and insights, and make new connections.
1. Breakfast Banter – Commiserate over coffee
Got something weighing on your mind that others may relate to? Join us for candid, open forum to discuss topics you feel the need to get off your chest, hear from others, learn and gain fresh perspectives and insights to perhaps take action on something bogging you down.
Facilitator:
Co-Host:
2. Retirement Ready: The steps to get there
No matter how close you are to retirement age, the bottom line is you need to be prepared. What are the steps to determining how much you need to retire? What are your individual and household needs? At what age can you realistically retire given how much you’ve set aside for retirement? Discuss these topics and more with others thinking ahead to life after your 9 to 5.
Facilitator: Karun Thota, Financial Advisor at Corebridge
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3. Book Discussion: Professional Troublemaker by Luvvie Ajayi Jones
Have you read the New York Times best-seller that invites you to Speak the truth. Be too much. Live audaciously. We’ll explore together the lessons we’ve gained from what has been heralded as a powerful book that talks about how to tackle fear–that everlasting hater–and live boldly and audaciously in spite of all the reasons we have to cower.
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4. Earn your worth, know your worth and ask for a raise
Do you know how to advocate for yourself, present your value proposition to your organization and successfully lead the conversation to a favorable outcome when negotiating a raise? What has worked for you? What has not worked for you? Let’s share our collective wisdom to enable others to successfully negotiate to earn their worth.
Facilitator:
Co-Host
5. Building a Professional Roadmap: What skills are needed to be a leader
Professional development: What does your own career roadmap look like to get from where you are now to where you want to be? Have you identified the areas in which you want to grow, upskill, gain degrees or certifications. Have you sought out mentors through building your professional network, served on boards, sought out informational interviews with professionals whose career and titles you aspire to move into someday?
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Co-host:
Co-host: Thomasina Tafur, PhD Candidate, Global Leadership and Change
6. Hobbies: More than just for fun
What are the hobbies or activities that “fill your cup” – those pursuits that you wish you could do more of and more often and look forward to? Is it travel, photography, watercolor painting, gardening, hiking, birding, learning a new language? Do you know we grow new neural pathways when we learn and practice something new, not to mention the health benefits – both physical and mental you derive from doing something that engages your mind and body.
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7. Ideation Station: Let’s trade ideas & share inspiration
Are you a serial “Idea person” or have a new one you wish to explore? Want a place to brainstorm and “workshop” new ideas to get some real time feedback and use that to help move through your creative process and flow? Join us for this interactive session and come away with fresh insights, peer data, and hopefully renewed inspiration for whatever you’re dreaming up next.
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8. Efficiency Hacks -Work Smarter, Not Harder
Do you know there are better ways to work, but haven’t cracked the efficiency code? Let’s chat about interesting new tools, both technical and non, that have helped us better plan, organize, collaborate, and automate our work processes, saving us time, frustration and energy.
Facilitator: Wayne Veldsman (My digital NPO)
Co-Host:
9. Side Hustle: Is it right for me?
Have you been considering exploring ways to supplement your income through a side hustle? Maybe it’s to save for a big trip, purchase a luxury item, pay down debt or something else where an additional income stream would help you hit your goals faster. How do you know which side hustle avenue is right for you – for your schedule, skillset, set up investment? Let’s discuss various side hustle options to see which one checks the boxes and learn from others how they got started and how you can too.
Facilitator:
Co-host: Erica Lane
BREAK
The State of the Economy: Recession averted but don’t pop the cork yet
Since the official announcement that the US has not entered a recession, what are the implications of this on corporate investments into charitable giving in 2024? What should Fund Development professionals be aware of that is coming down the pike and how can we best prepare our forecasts and strategic planning accordingly?
Back by popular demand, presenter Professor Hodges will rejoin to update us on the state of the economy, reassess and report how aligned he was regarding his predictions for the last half of 2023 (did the recession happen) and move on to what lies ahead in Q2, Q3 and Q4 in 2024. He will tie his predictions into the likely impact this will have on corporate giving.
Speaker: Professor Hart Hodges, Western Washington University, Economics
BREAK
CSR & ESG: Social impact - Is it measuring up?
Is social impact, that is giving back to the community by channeling gifts, grants and goods-in-kind from companies and corporate foundations via nonprofits, being given the same attention as the environment, governance, and human capital areas?
The panel will discuss the ‘S’ (Social) in CSR/ESG, its modern-day meanings, why there has only been a 1% increase over the last forty years in philanthropy and what companies are doing in addition to grantmaking thereby explaining the true picture of corporate support. Trends like an increased workload for CSR professionals is a factor that will be explored and could this be what is driving ‘by invitation only’ in the grant application process?
Panel:
Anita Whitehead, KPMG, President and Chair, KPMG US Foundation, Inc
Joni Fitch, The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Director, Community Affairs & Engagement
Abigail (Abby) Hollingsworth, Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Director
BREAK
Corporate sponsors and galas: Falling out of favor?
In multiple conversations we’ve had with nonprofits lately, we’ve heard that companies are no longer as eager to sponsor a fundraising event like a gala as they were in years past. To unpack this further, we’ve invited three companies who make significant contributions to nonprofit events to discuss why they continue to do so and what other companies need to understand about the importance of helping cover the cost of an event.
Panel:
Lunchtime Networking Chat Rooms
Play a part in shaping our conference programming in real time. We are shifting our Lunchtime Networking sessions to respond to our attendee’s needs as we want these networking sessions to be as useful and aligned to your interests as possible.
We will be polling all attendees in the first half of half day of the conference to request everyone’s input on what topics they would find most valuable and of interest to them.
Please keep your eyes open in the chat for instructions on participating in the online poll, as we’ll be be circulating the poll through an online polling tool.
Thank you in advance for your participation and for sharing your real-time input with us ahead of the the start of our afternoon sessions.
END OF DAY 1
Welcome and Introduction to Program
SKILLS BUILDING WORKSHOPS: SESSION 1
These interactive workshops are designed to sharpen your skills, to teach new tips and tricks, to build on existing knowledge, and offer methods to implement all with the aim to advance your corporate fundraising career. The following six topics will be hosted by subject matter experts, experienced nonprofit professionals and/or corporate funders.
1A. Cause Marketing 101 - Get with a program
Are you new to, or hesitant to try, cause marketing because you don’t really know what it is and how to get started in setting up a program? Are you unsure of which companies you can approach? If you want to learn what you need to do to find a partner as well as best practices in setting up a partnership, this is the workshop for you. CEO and Co-Founder Jessica Blotter of Kind Traveler will be sharing her cause marketing story along with a nonprofit, who after taking the Corporate Giving Certificate Couse, built and launched their program.
Facilitator: Jessica Blotter, CEO and Co-Founder, Kind Traveler
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2A. Workplace Giving and Employer Matching: Raise funds and find corporate prospects
Does your organization take advantage of workplace giving by using a ‘Double the Donation’ type of application on your website’s donate page? This sort of application asks the donor if their employer will match the gift they gave to your organization. If the donor does not know, some systems give them the chance to look it up. Did you know that an estimated $4-7 billion in matching gift funds go unclaimed each year? Let’s stop leaving money on the table.
Facilitator: Annemarie Dillon, American Cancer Society, Director-Workplace Giving and Matching Gifts
3A. Employee Volunteering requests and how to handle them
How do you respond when you get a request from a corporate donor for volunteering opportunities for their employees? Depending on your cause you’re either elated or filled with dread. You welcome the offer if you’re a food bank as there’s always apples to sort – but not all organizations can comply with the request. We are seeing a trend where requests for volunteering opportunities is increasing so what are you supposed to do? Furthermore, are you seeing that some grantors are ignoring your grant application if you are unable to provide volunteering options? Join us and learn ways to create volunteering opportunities without a lot of work.
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4A. Five T’s of how your board can help grow corporate revenue.
You’ve heard of the three T’s: Time, Talent and Treasure but what are the other two? They are Ties and Testimony. You really need your board to be focusing on all five to help you sustain, or rather grow your corporate revenue stream. Join CGN’s Founder and CEO as she breaks these down for you and gives you concrete examples of how you can teach your board to become better corporate fundraisers.
Facilitator: Joy Stephens, Corporate Giving Network, Founder & CEO
5A. Press releases and other publicity is valuable to corporate funders. Learn why and how to create.
Corporate funders give for altruistic reasons but there is also the need to capture a halo effect for their company. Businesses have the resources to release a story to the press or post on social media however if they do, it can come across as self-serving. If their nonprofit partner does it, then it comes across in a better light. If you have a Marketing & Communications person on site, great. Work with that individual and get them to write stories featuring successful programs with a human interest story and how your corporate donor made it all possible. If you don’t, and even if you do, join us and learn how you can create the same outcome without a dedicated person on staff.
BREAK
SKILLS BUILDING WORKSHOPS: SESSION 2
For our second round of Skills Building Workshops, we’ll be repeating the same five selections from earlier in the day. Here’s your opportunity to choose the workshop that came in as a close second from our wide variety of professional development topics.
BREAK
Roundtable Recap: Takeaways from our Bridging the Gap Roundtable
We are looking forward to sharing the results of this candid, curated Roundtable discussion where we convened Corporate Funders and Non Profits in fall of ‘23 learn about each other and from each other by exchanging their top pain points of working with the respective partner organizations. What were the key takeaways? Was there any common ground? How will you use these learnings in developing your Corporate Giving strategy moving forward?
BREAK
DEI today: Does it go far enough culturally?
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is a term becoming well known in most settings, and with more professionals entering the space, we are hearing about the expansion and reach of these initiatives within a wider swath of organizations.
But are DEI initiatives inclusive enough? Do they account for and accurately represent all cultures within our communities or are they too broad in their areas of focus and approach?
Hear from a panel of BIPOC-led organizations and Corporate America who will discuss the challenges, successes and, some common issues faced within DEI and the resulting impact on corporate funding at the intersection of cultural sensitivity and awareness.
PRIZE DRAWINGS AND CLOSING REMARKS
END OF CONFERENCE
Learn about sponsorship opportunities by emailing Joy Stephens at joy@corporategn.com or phone 425.653.1575