Apra-NW Presents: Getting to the Bottom of Donor Advised Funds

Presenters: Emily Fondaw and Zanne Gerrard from the University of Washington      

Description

Donors to our institutions are increasingly giving to us through donor advised funds, organizations like Fidelity and Schwab Charitable or community foundations. These funds are an attractive and convenient option for our donors, but they aren’t always the smoothest giving experience at our institutions and can be difficult to track. Is your organization prepared to react to this giving trend?

In this session, we’ll cover the basics of donor advised funds, why they’re popular giving vehicles, what information you can uncover (and what you can’t), and what opportunities exist to best cultivate and steward donors who give to your organization this way.

Zanne and Emily have delved deeply into the topic of donor advised funds: trends in these gifts nationwide, how the University of Washington accepts and stewards these gifts, as well as identified pain points (and recommended solutions) for various roadblocks within the UW process. Using the UW as a case study, we’d like to share what we’ve learned to highlight how gifts like these can be accepted and acknowledged gracefully, and even be used as a flag for further engagement of these special donors. 

Speaker Biographies 

Zanne Gerrard and Emily Fondaw work in Donor Relations at the University of Washington, and together represent over 10 years of experience in donor relations. Zanne is the Assistant Director for Donor Relations and Stewardship for the College of the Environment and oversees stewardship activities for the College, including donor acknowledgements, major gift and grant stewardship, and endowment tracking and reporting. Emily is the Assistant Director of Lifetime Giving Programs on the UW Donor Relations team, charged with recognition and engagement of the University's most generous donors. 

Linfield College

900 SE Baker St.

Dillin Hall President's Dining Room (located on Linfield Ave)

McMinnville, OR 97128

Parking: Parking on campus is free but Kristen (contact details below) can provide a map if needed.

Contact: Kristen Kreskey (503)883-2244 kkreskey@linfield.edu