Food For The Poor

Lisa Van Giesen from Billhighway shares 10 low-cost donor engagement strategies and five peer-to-peer fundraising tips she gleaned from the second annual Engage Conference.

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Do you understand what it means to be donor-centered? Really? Angel Aloma has learned a thing or two about making donors feel special in his work as executive director of Food For The Poor. I met Angel at the FundRaising Success Engage Conference in Philadelphia, where he and his team presented on how Food For The Poor went from being a small charity with a big dream to a $1 billion-a-year charity fighting extreme poverty in 17 countries.

It's finally here. It's been roughly 11 months since our inaugural Engage Conference, and after such wonderful response and participation last year, we here at FundRaising Success knew we had to keep it going. And now the day is finally just here, with the second annual Engage Conference all set for tomorrow at the WHYY building in Philadelphia.

What I love about the roundtables is that they are almost completely attendee-driven. The moderators say a quick hi and share an overview of the topic, but then the discussion is steered by the questions posed by the guests at the table.

Not only do speakers at Engage reside over our in-depth cases studies and delve deep into attendees' concerns and questions, but they're available all day long to chat and further explore whatever it is the audience is looking to explore.

At the DMA Nonprofit Federation's 2012 Washington Nonprofit Conference, Gretchen Littlefield, president, nonprofit and government, at Infogroup, and Angel Aloma, executive director of Food For The Poor, discussed postal and tax topics and urged each and every fundraiser in attendance to take action and make his or her voice heard. Aloma, ever the passionate speaker, really drove his point home: "The biggest sin of all is the sin of doing nothing."

At the DMA Nonprofit Federation's 2011 New York Nonprofit Conference, veteran fundraising consultant Tom Gaffny provided 10 timeless keys to fundraising success that he's crafted over the past two decades during his session, "The 10 Commandments: 10 Ageless, Irrefutable, Non-Negotiable Keys to Optimizing Your Fundraising Success."

At the DMA Nonprofit Federation's 2011 New York Nonprofit Conference, veteran fundraising consultant Tom Gaffny provided 10 timeless keys to fundraising success that he's crafted over the past two decades during his session, "The 10 Commandments: 10 Ageless, Irrefutable, Non-Negotiable Keys to Optimizing Your Fundraising Success."

We're bringing the popular Engage Conference back to Philadelphia on April 10. Once again it will be held in the shadow of the Liberty Bell at WHYY in Old City. And once again it will offer a great lineup of scintillating speakers, roundtable discussion, and lots of opportunities to network and get your questions answered.