Women in Development North February Meeting - Making the Most of Your Annual Giving Program 

An effective annual appeal is a cornerstone of an effective fundraising program. Learn how to take your  annual appeal beyond a year-­end mailing and transform your annual giving. In this course we will discuss request and marketing materials, donor communication and follow up, donor segmentation and targeted  requests, volunteer engagement and thanking your donors. This program is a special presentation by the  CCS consulting group and will run all morning.

Presenter Biographies:    The program will be co-led by Laura Aikens and Douglas H. Adolph.

Laura Aikens is Senior Vice President at CCS. Laura joined CCS in 2009 and has more than 13 years of experience working with local, regional, and national nonprofit organizations. Her areas of expertise include strategic planning, data analysis, major gift program development, annual fund operations, and leadership engagement. She is especially skilled at raising funds in resource-poor environments and has helped numerous organizations achieve their highest fundraising levels in years. Laura has assisted her clients in raising a combined total exceeding $500 million.

Laura is a leading member of CCS’s Client Operations Committee, through which she oversees data management across all sectors to identify and evaluate national philanthropic trends. She also provides executive leadership to corporate learning efforts, serves as a mentor to team members nationwide, and is active in both internal and external training programs.

Recent clients Laura has assisted include the American Nuclear Society (La Grange Park IL), the Archdiocese of Chicago, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, Michigan Opera Theatre (Detroit MI), the University of Windsor, Ontario and the Vatican Library.

Laura has a B.A. from Hope College and an M.S.W. degree from the University of Michigan.

Douglas H. Adolph is Assistant Vice President at CCS. Doug has invested his entire career in service of non-profit organizations. For nearly ten years, he has assisted some of the nation’s largest charities in meeting their development goals. His areas of expertise include nationwide chapter-based organizations, volunteer mobilization, healthcare, synagogue, and independent school philanthropy, annual fund and major gift strategy, donor stewardship, and maximizing event success. Most recently, Doug worked with the College for Creative Studies, planning for and implementing an $50 million campaign. Under Doug’s leadership all campaign milestones were met, including the recruitment of a Campaign Cabinet and solicitation of cornerstone gifts.

Doug’s previous experience includes successful projects with Detroit Country Day School, an independent private school in southeast Michigan; Cristo Rey Network, a national network of 26 quality, Catholic, college preparatory high schools for underrepresented urban youth; the Alzheimer’s Association; and the American Cancer Society. Doug holds a B.A. with honors from Lake Forest College.
This program is eligible for 2.5 CFRE points.