April 11, 2016

Practical Advice to Amp Up Your Mid-Level Program

If you're not investing in mid-level giving, you should be. Whether you're just starting out or looking to up your game, this webinar will be chock full of action steps you can take to cultivate and steward mid-level donors. Join Sea Change Strategies principal Mark Rovner, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Lori Hutson, and Andrea O'Brien of the Wilderness Society for this lively and idea-packed session.

At the conclusion of this session, participants will have learned:

  • Common reasons why mid-level programs stagnate or founder; 
  • Cost-effective tactics for building trust and loyalty among middle donors;
  • How to combine the best of major giving and direct marketing to create a unique and effective program.

About the presenters:

Mark Rovner is founder and principal at Sea Change Strategies, a research and fundraising practice serving charities and non-profits. A frequent writer, speaker, and blogger, Mark is one of the pioneers of using the Internet for fundraising, organizing and strategic communications. Over the past ten years, he has led fundraising, integrated communications and marketing efforts on behalf of a host of organizations, including World Wildlife Fund, Amnesty International, Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU, the Christopher Reeve Foundation and the National Audubon Society. In his best-selling book Tribes, Seth Godin called Mark a fundraising heretic and a leader in the field of non-profit communications. Mark's short essay Timeless appears in a 2009 Seth Godin e-book compilation of thought leaders in public communications.

Lori Hutson has been with the Planned Parenthood team for 14 years. Formerly with the Arizona affiliate, she is currently at the national office in New York and manages the mid-level program in the role as the Associate Director of the President's Circle. During her ten-year tenure with PPAZ, Lori operated the direct marketing program and managed the information management systems. She has also worked as an independent consultant helping leading Phoenix-area non-profits improve their development systems. Currently, the mid-level national program has experienced significant increases in the number of donors and revenue. Lori is responsible for developing and implementing program strategies that will engage this sustaining base of supporters and build a strong pipeline for the major gifts program – a vital component to growing the PPFA fundraising program.

Andrea O’Brien began her career with the Atlanta based consulting firm Coxe Curry & Associates, working with clients like the Atlanta Ballet, Olmstead Linear Park Alliance and the Woodruff Arts Center. After a brief forary into the underbelly of the publishing world, Andrea gleefully returned to the nonprofit sector, working with organizations like Safe Horizon and the ASPCA. A fundraising professional with over a decade of experience in membership, mid-level, and major giving, Andrea joined The Wilderness Society in 2015 as Director of Advocates for Wilderness. In this role, she oversees the strategy and implementation of the mid-level giving program and works closely with both the membership and major gift teams.