All over, Apra chapters are organizing events that highlight industry innovation, information and connection. Check out what Apra chapters have been doing this quarter, and discover upcoming events you can pencil into your schedule.
Apra Australia
It has been a busy start to 2022 for our Apra Australia chapter, which welcomed four new board members, elected at the end of 2021; they will join two returning board members. The board remains committed to providing our members with a robust program of professional development opportunities, networking events and opportunities for our growing community.
Some highlights from the past few months include:
- Our quarterly newsletter featuring industry news, events and a spotlight on useful resources.
- The new board hosting its first virtual meet-up for the year. The use of breakout rooms with pre-defined topics, such as due diligence and support for single or small teams, was a hit. The smooth running of the tech also contributed to the positive experience and feedback received.
- Our successful mentoring program is currently in its second year and we look forward to hearing and learning from the participants.
And something to look forward to . . .
After two years of offering virtual conferences, we are excited to be planning for a return of our annual in-person conference later this year.
Apra California Advancement Researchers Association (CARA)
We at the California Advancement Researcher’s Association (CARA) have been hard at work this quarter planning multiple learning and networking opportunities for our members.
CARA Connect
Our inaugural virtual networking event was held on June 10 and had a fabulous turnout. The event allowed participants to connect directly with peers in breakout sessions in an innovative format of guided conversations. Topics of the day transitioned between due diligence (challenges and best practices), favorite research tools, and sharing of individual career experiences and learnings. Members of the CARA Board of Directors were also in attendance for a virtual meet-and-greet to talk about some of the exciting things going on with CARA in 2022.
CARA Virtual Conference
Our annual conference will be held online again from June 28-30. In recent years, our conference has transitioned completely online with much success. The board has met multiple times to identify and remove obstacles to attendance, by lowering the cost of the event to spreading it out over three days to facilitate participation. The keynote address will be provided by Meenakshi (Meena) Das of NamasteData. CARA wishes to extend our thanks to our sponsors: DonorSearch, Insightful Philanthropy, IWave and the Helen Brown Group (DAFinitive). Thank you for your support!
Future Webinars
Watch our website for announcements about coming events. We have educational webinars, happy hours and virtual networking opportunities in the works. Everyone is welcome!
Apra Carolinas
Networking
We provide networking events that are open to anyone in the prospect development community. April focused on data analytics, and in June we have DonorSearch leading a discussion around AI and wealth analytics. Join us for the next event!
Educational Content
Check out our blog to catch up on the latest and greatest in Prospect Development. In April, Membership Chair Dan Moody wrote a great post about the results of our 2022 Membership Survey. In May, North Carolina Regional Representative Amy Jackson demystified Foundation Research & 990s. Also in June, we have a webinar hosted by iWave, focused on helping you find the best prospects.
Mid-Atlantic Webinar
Collaboration at its finest! Apra chapters from the Carolinas, Virginia, Metro DC, Maryland and Pennsylvania joined forces to host 2022 Virtual MARC, which was free to members of each chapter. Five days of content with one session per day — it was a fantastic spring event!
Newsletters
Our newsletters come out once a month with updates on our chapter, as well as offerings from other chapters — all with fun memes and gifs to serve up bite-sized bits of information with links to learn more.
Apra Metro DC Chapter
Apra DC had an exciting second quarter in 2022! We bid a fond farewell to Programming Director Alex Heyer and External Relations Director Christopher Hackman, and welcomed two new Directors: Christa Helsabeck, Development Operations Analyst at International Justice Mission, as Programming Director; and Amanda Carroll, Prospect Research Analyst at Smithsonian Institution, as Membership Director. (By the way, we’re still seeking an External Relations Director and welcome applications!)
We held our annual business meeting in April, and President Catherine Flaatten represented the chapter with a well-received presentation on onboarding for the Apra Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference in May. In June, we were thrilled to award our 2022 Daniel H. Greeley Memorial Scholarship to Apra DC member Emilio Valcarcel, Assistant Director of Prospect Research at Georgetown University Law Center! Emilio will be leveraging his scholarship to attend the Apra PD conference in Atlanta this summer.
Next up: the Board of Directors will hold a strategic planning retreat in July, with programming to pick back up around August. More to come!
Apra Georgia
Recent Event
Apra Georgia hosted its virtual spring conference in May. We had lively discussions and stellar feedback from all who attended.
Our keynote speaker was Ben Porter, associate dean and chief fundraiser, from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Ben presented “Principal Gift Checklist: How to Cultivate and De-risk Gifts of $5M-$100M.” He is also the author of a CASE book with the same title.
David Friedman, co-founder of WealthQuotient, presented “Understanding, Accessing and Engaging Your Next Principal Donor.” He explored the three biggest mistakes to avoid and best practices for constructing a systematic and scalable strategy for engaging and cultivating principal donors.
Elisa Schoenberger, research consultant from the Aspire Research Group, presented “Disruptive Philanthropy: A Discussion to DAFs,” explaining what they are and why they matter.
David Jones, vice president for fundraising operations from the Food Bank for New York City, encouraged us to use our words in “Fundraising and Wordsmithery: Persuasive Writing for Development.” David shared examples of action-driven and persuasive appeal in fundraising materials.
We had an engaging and informative panel discussion hosted by Ruthie Giles, associate director of advancement services at Westfield State University, who moderated the discussion “Feeding the Pipeline: Tracking and Managing the Lifecycle of a Prospect Referral.”
Apra Prospect Development 2022
Apra’s Prospect Development 2022 is in Atlanta this summer! Please be sure to ask our board members for their personal Atlanta favorites from local restaurants to fun spots!
Apra Minnesota
Apra Minnesota (Apra-MN) views 2022 as a time for investment, growth and revitalization. In the first two quarters of 2022, Apra-MN has taken reserve dollars and invested in our chapter to grow our membership base, merging our mentoring program with membership to create a buddy system for new members, revamp our grants and professional development criteria and offerings. Earlier this spring, we also collaborated with neighboring chapters to co-host the Apra Midwest Conference.
Looking toward Q3 and the end of 2022, Apra-MN is transitioning to Google Space for Nonprofits, which provides more flexibility for Apra-MN to organize ourselves administratively, while also being able to host and offer content to our members. We continue to explore opportunities to collaborate with and support our sister chapters. Apra-MN is currently exploring opportunities with Apra Great Lakes on the possibility of sharing content between chapters.
Apra-MN is excited to host our first in-person conference since the pandemic began. Our conference will be on October 13 at the Wilder Foundation in Saint Paul, MN. Our programing committee is hard at work to secure speakers and presenters that will provide stimulating discussions and professional growth opportunities. We would welcome all Apra members to attend, learn and grow professionally, and experience some Minnesota hospitality.
Apra New York
After a highly attended and free March 2022 Virtual Conference (in thanks to our wonderful sponsors), with presentations focused on industry topics such as CRM transition, Tableau and AI, Apra-NY remains one of the most active chapters in the nation. This spring, APRA-NY has been proud to continue its free monthly webinars as part of its commitment to affordable professional development. In June 2022, BWF Director of Business Intelligence Reed Tyler and APRA-NY Board members Emily Marcason-Tolmie and Joe Stabb led an engaging lunchtime round table discussion with more than 200 attendees on visualizations for leadership. Looking forward, free webinars will continue over the summer, as will the next book in the chapter’s popular book club series. The APRA-NY Board is excited to continue bringing top-notch programming to its nearly 300 members and beyond.
Apra Utah
Apra Utah held our first conference of 2022 on April 22, with many chapter members virtually sharing their must-have resources as our keynote speaker. We received great feedback from members about our content, with one long-time chapter member saying, “It was the most helpful/useful conference I’ve been to in all the years of Apra Utah!”
Our next semi-annual conference will be in October, during which Apra Utah will celebrate its 25th anniversary as a chapter! We are excited to convene in-person as a chapter for the first time since our October 2019 conference. It has been far too long, and our chapter has thankfully grown in size by continually welcoming new members. We have a variety of fun activities and special moments planned to celebrate our silver anniversary.
In late June, several Apra Utah members, including President Tim Wilson and Vice President Masha McFadden, presented at Apra Rocky Mountains’ spring conference at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, Colorado. Other members of our chapter participated virtually. We appreciate our cross-chapter collaborations and meeting Apra Rocky Mountain members.
Our Apra Utah board, composed of four officers, will rotate off after December 2022 after we vote on a new slate of officers in the fall. We are excited about the future Apra Utah and cross-chapter content ideas and collaborations.
Apra Wisconsin
Apra Wisconsin has continued finding ways to connect virtually in 2022. Chapter trivia remains a fun way to meet new members, engage and learn a few facts along the way. Thank you to Erin Olson, director of programming, for continuing to be our trivia host! Trivia is on hold for the summer months but will be back later in the year.
In addition to trivia, Apra Wisconsin also started having informal networking opportunities with time to discuss a variety of prospect development topics. Our next one will be in early August. All of our upcoming events are listed in the events tab of our website.
A highlight of the year so far was a presentation by Reggie Jackson about the impacts of segregation, with a focus on Milwaukee. As many of our members are changing the ways their organizations measure capacity, this was a timely reminder of some of the issues with prioritizing constituents through asset data. By hosting this event virtually, attendees were able to join from around the country, which further enhanced the conversation.
Apra Wisconsin members have also written blog posts this quarter about attending Apra Midwest and NEDRA. You can check out these posts and more on our website. Job announcements, events and industry news are shared on our LinkedIn page as well.
