Center For NonProfit Success

Panel discussion and dialogue with Grantmakers

As the grant seeking process becomes more and more competitive, it is essential to understand what grantmakers are actually looking for when they decide whether or not to award a grant. This session offers an unusual opportunity to hear directly from a variety of corporate, community, private and family foundation funders, and consists of two parts:

A. Panel Discussion
In the first two hours, grantmakers from a variety of private, corporate and family foundations will participate in a panel discussion. Issues we will explore with the panelists include:

Foundation culture: what kinds of projects do grantmakers like to fund?
Winning proposals: what makes them stand out?
Foundation guidelines: are they set in stone?
Building the relationship: what gives foundations confidence in the organizations they fund?

Whether you have been securing grants for decades or are just starting out, the panel discussion will provide you with a valuable view of the grantmaking world from the point of view of the grantmaker.

B. Q&A session
In the third hour, the grantmakers will join attendees at at their tables to answer specific questions. Grantmakers will switch every 15 minutes to a different table to ensure that everyone in the room is able to ask them questions.

Speakers for this session:

Becky Rafter

Development Director

Fund for Southern Communities

Becky Rafter is the Development Director for the Fund for Southern Communities. Her grant-making responsibilities include coordinating FSC’s general grant cycles, special initiative funding, affiliate funds and Donor Advised grant-making. She has 10 years of professional fundraising experience, including staff and board leadership positions within the reproductive rights community at NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia, the Feminist Women’s Health Center and Georgians for Choice. Additionally, she is a member of the L.E.A.D. Atlanta class of 2006 and of Project South’s Building A Movement (BAM) Institute. For seven years she was the senior trainer for the Chrysalis Project, a health empowerment workshop of the Feminist Women’s Health Center. Becky graduated from Agnes Scott College in 1997 with a B.A. in International Relations and Spanish.

Atlanta 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 Atlanta Summit focuses on the relationship aspects of fundraising, and offers you several ways to enhance your relationship management skills:

Day One:
In the morning, listen to a panel of private, corporate and community grantmakers who will openly discuss their philosophy on grantmaking, how they operate, and most important, how you can build a more successful relationship with the grantmaking community. In the afternoon, participate in seminars led by experienced grant seekers who have successfully secured many foundation grants, and have built successful relationships with the grantmaking community.

Day Two:
Attend a series of fundraising seminars covering the hottest areas of fundraising (capital campaigns, major gifts, annual giving campaigns, and many more). Panels of experts will discuss the latest developments in these fields, and then enter into a dialogue with the participants that addresses their most pressing questions.

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.

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.

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 take place at the Cobb Galleria Centre, which is situated 10 minutes from downtown Atlanta, and is easy to reach by public or private transportation. The full address is:
Cobb Galleria Centre, Room BR A
Two Galleria Parkway
Atlanta, Georgia 30339

Public Transportation
The Cobb Galleria Centre is Bus accessible. Take the # 10 CCT (Cobb County Transit) From the Art Center Train station, or the # 50 from Powers Ferry, or the # 70 from South Cobb Drive to Cumberland Parkway. The Galleria Mall and Cobb Centre are connected by the pedestrian sky-bridge.

Directions by car

If Traveling Northbound on I-75 (or coming from Atlanta Airport):
If traveling north on I-75 take Exit 258/Cumberland Boulevard. Go west on Cumberland Boulevard and proceed to Cobb Parkway/US 41. Turn right on Cobb Parkway and go 7/10ths of a mile to Galleria Drive. Turn right onto Galleria Drive and right again into the Cobb Galleria Centre parking deck.

If Traveling Southbound on I-75:
If traveling south on I-75 take Exit 258/Cumberland Boulevard. Go west on Cumberland Boulevard and proceed to Cobb Parkway/US 41. Turn right on Cobb Parkway and go 7/10ths of a mile to Galleria Drive. Turn right onto Galleria Drive and right again into the Cobb Galleria Centre parking deck.

Directions from I-285 Eastbound:
If traveling east on I-285 take Exit 19/Cobb Parkway/US 41. Turn right onto Cobb Parkway and move into the left -hand turning lane. Turn left onto Galleria Drive and right into the Cobb Galleria Centre parking deck.

Directions from I-285 Westbound:
If traveling west on I-285 take Exit 20/Cobb Parkway/US 41. Turn left onto Cobb Parkway and go under I-285. Make a left hand turn at the second traffic light onto Galleria Drive and turn right into the Cobb Galleria Centre parking deck.

Parking at the Cobb Galleria Centre
Parking is available in any of the three Cobb Centre parking garages. The Cobb Centre offers complimentary parking.

Hotel Accommodations
Most hotels near the Summit venue are within the $150-$200 per night range. The following hotels are within a two-block radius of the venue:

1. Sheraton Suites Galleria - Atlanta   (770) 955-3900
2. Courtyard by Marriott: Cumberland Center   (770) 952-2555
3. DoubleTree Guest Suites Galleria Atlanta   (770) 980-1900
4. Renaissance Waverly Hotel   (770) 953-4500
5. Embassy Suites Hotel Atlanta-Galleria   (770) 955-4183
6. Wingate Inn and Suites Atlanta Galleria Center   (678) 214-6000

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One-on-one mentoring

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