How Do We Want to Come Out of This Crisis

Last week – six months into the global pandemic that has changed the way we do virtually everything at home and at work – ALT sat down to review a document we had called How Do We Want to Come out of this Crisis. We created it just as COVID-19 sent us home and we thought at the time that it might be a month or two, or perhaps three, before we returned to campus in some capacity. While that proved not to be the case, this crisis will end eventually, and I thought I would share some of the things we discussed back in early April. As a team, the Office of Advancement has changed the way we work substantially, and we want to ensure that we keep the best of these new practices intact as we slowly emerge from the pandemic over the next while.

A few of the things we identified as goals coming out of the crisis included:

- Being more integrated as an organization with cross-functional teams that execute projects together.

- Ensuring that we treat the new ways of working during the pandemic as pilot projects for programming going forward.

- Lowering our dependence on direct mail.

- Moving as much as we can to full digital delivery.

- Focusing on what is really important and stopping some activities that are not core to our mandate.

- Increasing our focus on personalized stewardship of our stakeholders – alumni, donors, and volunteers.

Looking back over the changes during the last few months, we think we’ve moved the needle on these fronts in many ways, but we’d love to hear from you. How do you think we’re doing? What else should we consider? Let us know.

In the meantime, if you have changed something about the way you work that you feel should be maintained after COVID, please tell us about it here. We want to be sure that we capture all our positive change so that we are stronger together when this is all over.

Call for submissions for AFPSEO Philanthropy Awards nominees

As you may know, our local chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals marks National Philanthropy Day each year by recognizing members of our community who have demonstrated outstanding generosity through gifts of time, talent, or treasure.

This year, the AFPSEO Philanthropy Awards will be announced at the National Philanthropy Day celebration on Nov. 12. As the AFPSEO covers the territory between Brockville and Quinte West, nominees must contribute to communities within this area.

This is your call to put forward the names of donors and alumni who you think should be honoured for their outstanding contributions. All names must be submitted to Begona Pereira no later than Friday, Sept. 18 to allow  enough time to research and prepare a strong nomination package.

Award categories:

Youth in Philanthropy: 

This award recognizes service by an individual or group aged 10-23 demonstrating outstanding commitment to the community through direct financial support, development of charitable programs, volunteering, and leadership in philanthropy. Nominees will be judged based on work done while they were 10-23 years old.

Two categories: 

• 17 and under 
• 18-23 years old

Outstanding Corporation or Service Club: 

This award honours a corporation or its corporate foundation that demonstrates outstanding commitment through financial support and through encouragement and motivation of others to take leadership roles in philanthropy and community involvement.

Two categories: 

• 100 employees and greater 
• 99 employees and fewer

Outstanding philanthropist: 

This award honours an individual or family with a proven record of exceptional generosity who, through direct financial support, demonstrates outstanding civic and charitable responsibility and whose generosity encourages others to take philanthropic leadership roles on a community, national, and/or international level.

Outstanding volunteer fundraiser: 

This award honours an individual or family that demonstrates outstanding skills in coordinating and motivating groups of donors and volunteers for fundraising projects for the benefit of charitable organizations. The recipient must have demonstrated exceptional leadership skills in coordinating groups of donors and volunteers for major fundraising projects for more than one non-profit organization.

Award for outstanding fundraising professional: 

This award honours an outstanding individual fundraising professional who works for a non-profit charitable organization. Nominees must have a minimum of 15 years’ experience as a professional fundraiser.  They must also be a current AFP member.

Orientation for new trustees

Each September, the Office of Advancement participates in an orientation session for new trustees to prepare them for their role. Deanna Bennett wanted to share the presentation we prepared for this purpose. Here it is (Note: some slides have additional presenter notes denoted by a speech bubble).

CASE awards

When I think about all the great work we’ve done over the last year, I’d say we’ve all earned a few accolades. So let’s make it official.  CASE District II is accepting submissions for its annual Accolades Awards, and we want to enter as much of our work as possible.

Categories we’re eligible for include:

• Alumni Relations
• Alumni Services
• Community Relations Projects
• Digital Communications
• Events
• Fundraising
• Magazines
• Marketing
• Videos
• Writing
• One-time COVID Pivot Initiatives

Check out the CASE website for more information.

Deborah and Ellen are once again handling the submissions, so if you haven’t heard from them by the end of the week, feel free to contact them.

Jobs with Advancement

We need your recruitment help. Know great talent that would be a good addition to our team? If so, please promote the vacancy below with your networks and let’s find some amazing new team members.

Applications (including a cover letter and resume) must be submitted through CareerQ. For additional information on this posting, please reach out to either Katelyn, Carla, or the hiring manager for the position you are interested in.

Available Position:

Fun fact

Donor Relations social(ly distanced) gathering

After nearly six months of virtual meetings, the Donor Relations team had a physically distanced meet up. It was good for the soul to see real faces of those we normally see every day and enjoy a wee bit of sunshine, conversation, and tea. We were able to meet in person our newest team member, Deanna, along with our two newest furry members, Penny and Marcy too!