We’re excited to announce our member summit, Redefining the Donor Value Proposition, from May 24-27, 2021. All ABA members are invited to engage with us around the data, insights and best practices we’ve unearthed as part of our six-month exploration of donor motivations for giving (and giving more). We’re especially excited to share our ground-breaking quantitative analysis with the membership.
Anyone from ABA member organizations is welcome to join, and there is no limit to the number of attendees per organization.
There are three components to the summit:
Two research seminars where we will share key insights and best practices, offered as a series at 9AM EDT or 5PM EDT to accommodate your time zone,
Two supplementary sessions where we look closer at case studies and our first-of-its-kind donor survey, and
A private discussion group on Slack where you can ask peers more detailed questions.
We recommend participating in all three components of the summit, but all sessions are opt-in; choose the sessions and approaches that work best for you from the registration options below.
All sessions will be recorded and summarized with materials available to the membership after the session’s conclusion. If you need any help with registration, email info@advisoryarts.com.
Research Seminars
Opening Plenary: Redefining the Donor Value Proposition
Shifting donor motivations from transactional to philanthropic
Accelerating donor velocity through the pipeline
Monday, May 24, 9-10:30 AM EDT/ 2-3:30 PM BST or 5-6:30 PM EDT/ 10-11:30 PM BST
Closing Plenary: The Path Forward for Accelerating Contribution Growth
Practical tools for refocusing donor activities
Showcases of effective donor communications, planning methods and events
Thursday May 27, 9-10:30 AM EDT/ 2-3:30 PM BST or 5-6:30 PM EDT/ 10-11:30 PM BST
Want to attend the two sessions at different times? Contact us at info@advisoryarts.com
Additional In-Depth Sessions
Join the in-depth sessions for a closer look at best practices and data.
A: Member Case Discussion
Small-group discussion featuring Q&A with Development Directors of member case companies
Tuesday, May 25, 12:00 - 1:00 PM EDT/ 5:00 - 6:00 PM BST
B: A Closer Look at Donor Data
Deeper analysis of our ground-breaking global survey of donor motivations and behavior
Wednesday, May 26, 12:00 - 1:00 PM EDT/ 5:00 - 6:00 PM BST
Slack Discussion Group for Summit Participants
Slack is a platform that enables private messaging as well as group topic-based online conversations. This channel will be the best place to ask specific questions around development strategy, planning, messaging, and more. This group will be maintained through August 6 unless the participants vote to continue.
A Global, Arts-Wide Articulation of Donor Motivations
During the pandemic, our reliance on very large donors increased, accelerating a decades-long trend. As we transition to the ‘new normal,’ our financial health depends on accelerating contribution growth from deeper within the donor pool.
Our traditional cultivation tools face challenges at this next level down. Benefits-driven approaches emphasize personal benefits over philanthropic motivations, so may actually impede advancement to higher giving levels. Relationship-driven approaches are difficult to scale deep into the organization and place a large burden on donor officers to diagnose and satisfy multiple motivations in the moment. We need new, systemic ways to appeal to various philanthropic motivations among mid-level donors.
Among the questions we’ll address in the summit include:
- Around which donor motivations should we organize cultivation efforts?
- How can we transition donors from benefits-based giving to more philanthropic motivations?
- What are the most effective ways to activate existing donors to cultivate new donors?
In early 2021, ABA launched a global survey of donors who gave the equivalent of $250+ once in the past three years, up to but excluding board level donors. Exceeding 5,000 responses, this may be the largest quantitative analysis performed looking specifically at donors in the arts. We will explore the data over the course of the summit – first with synthesis of key insights and implications, then digging further into donor segments and motivations.