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Presentations are offered on a wide variety of topics and the ability to customize to your particular need is the hallmark of an NPC speaking engagement.  A selection of Melanie J. Norton's current presentations is listed below.  Typical presentations range from 50-90 minutes unless otherwise noted.  Additional presentations on a variety of topics are available upon request. 

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Create Meaningful Volunteer Opportunities for Your Major Donors and Advocates

Volunteers are essential to the success of a campaign, but unintentional “busy-work” can often have a negative effect on those donating their time. Explore ways to engage your volunteer committees and create meaningful opportunities for a deeper connection to the institution’s mission (and often lead to larger gifts and more enthusiastic donors), while not monopolizing your advancement staff’s time.
 

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Executing a Campaign in Today’s (and Tomorrow’s) Environment

 This guided working session explores the “behind-the-scenes” of successful campaign elements.  Who are your stakeholders?  How would you describe your audience, and what should you do to wow them?  What would you do to engage without budget constraints, and how do you scale for the resources available? Answer relevant questions to begin your workshop blueprint for how to execute a campaign, beginning with budgeting, for your specific audience.

 

Completing the Puzzle - Planned Giving Solutions that Fulfill Comprehensive Financial, Charitable, and Life Plans

Crafting a thorough plan that incorporates purpose and accomplishments during one’s life can be messy.  Especially when fitting together all pieces of a financial and charitable plan when client priorities and goals don't seem to snap into place. By solving one puzzle are they creating another? Maybe they want a solid retirement income, but they also want to support their favorite charities beyond what cash flow currently allows.  And perhaps now or in the future, they want to provide financial support to their children or grandchildren while also providing significant support to their charities of choice. The right mindset, team, and planning tools can help the puzzle fall into place. A comprehensive plan requires puzzle pieces from multiple areas that, when fit together, create a solid foundation for providing income in retirement, support for heirs, and philanthropic support for your client's most beloved charities. This interactive presentation is provided by Melanie J. Norton CFRE, and Dr. Eric D. Motycka CFP®  and explores unique opportunities that can help donors and clients self-actualize their dreams and vision through philanthropy and intentional planning.

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When Donor Passion Meets Institutional Priority...Or Not!

The absolute best gifts occur at the intersection of donor passion and institutional priority. Those are the magical gifts desired by all and the stuff from which legends are born.  They are gifts that speak to our highest needs, can be successfully executed, and allow both the institution and donor to experience the inspiring synergy that comes from shared purpose. How do we manage, however, when the gift equation is out of balance?  Or, when the organizations we serve seemingly operate as if everything is a priority?  This interactive session will help build your skillset for recognizing and crafting win-win gifts by exploring common institutional challenges:

• Declining gifts that don’t serve our purpose – Avoiding the “gifts that take” before disaster hits

• Executing gifts that we should have declined – Creating better outcomes when gift execution becomes a challenge

• Managing internal expectations for uninspiring needs – Educating that not all needs are created equal where fundraising is concerned

• Navigating a lack of institutional focus – Building the case for funding priorities and greater institutional involvement

Get clear about the pathways to greater gift and organizational success!

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Business As (Un!) Usual: Finding the Silver Linings During Stressful Times

Pick up your phone or turn on the TV and it only takes seconds to feel hopelessness, despair and downright disbelief.  Our lives have changed in what seems like a matter of minutes, and we are left to pick up the pieces, navigate the unknown, and still show up for our families, friends, employers...and ourselves!  The most challenging of times also brings out the best in some of our fellow humans.  Stories of selflessness, determination, kindness and action inspire us.  In the midst of the very darkest days there are those who still seem to find the silver linings and choose to focus on what fills the tank and the difference they can make in the world.  How do we adjust our lens during times of extreme stress to stay inspired?  How can we identify what we need most to not only be there for others, but also for ourselves?  Join us for an informative session where presenter Melanie J. Norton uses the principles of fundraising success to provide perspective for everyday life during these stressful days.  Tapping into what we already know about our craft may also help us see the alternatives and focus on what really matters.

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Hitting the Trifecta:  Three Core Strategies for Fundraising Success in and Beyond the Pandemic

2020 was positioned to be a year where the opportunities for raising funds and commitments had arguably never been greater.  Then a global pandemic hit the scene and threw the best-laid plans out the door.  Many organizations – and the people within them – turned the calendar to 2021 with high hopes for a sunnier forecast and a return to fundraising “normal.”  In the best of circumstances, a number of factors impact an organization’s capacity for fundraising success including competing interests for your donors' attention and dollars as well as available time and program resources. Now managers must calibrate program activities for a “new normal” and unconventional ways to connect their prospects and donors with the mission despite an unprecedented amount of communication noise and confusion.  In this “back to basics” presentation, Melanie will use relevant research to highlight the three key strategies to focus on for short- and long-term fundraising and fund raiser success.  

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Simply Irresistible:  Demonstrating the Value of Gift Planning to Decision Makers

This presentation explores different ways to articulate the relevance of gift planning to those who may be less familiar with the intrinsic benefits of a robust program and effort.  Attendees will glean creative tools to better understand the stressors decision-makers face when resourcing an operation, and help gift planners "speak the language" when relating to supervisors, boards and others who impact program support.  This program investigates options for measuring program and gift planner success (metrics) and develop a narrative that will help build long-term investment in gift planning as an essential part of any comprehensive development program.

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Stuck in the Middle with You:  Donor, Planner, Business Officer

Artful negotiation doesn’t apply only to the closing of a great gift. Sometimes, negotiating a complex, blended or even standard gift with internal partners can be an equal challenge. This interactive session explores the important aspects of the gift process from the lens of the person making the gift, the person closing the gift, and the partner on the inside tasked with counting the gift. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of the key concerns important to each partner, and helpful tips to “bridge the GAAP” between the donor and the business office. Learn how a better understanding and artful negotiation can turn adversaries into advocates, better supporting your organizational/institutional goals and creating a more rewarding work environment.

 

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Qualifying Planned and Major Gift Donors in One Easy Visit

Do you want to quickly get to know the capacity and interests of your prospective donors? This presentation focuses on employing the structured interview process to efficiently determine who may be a major gift prospect for your organization. Learn how to use this intentional question format to get your foot in the door with a new prospect, capture information about what prospects like or dislike about your organization, uncover issues that may affect giving decisions and identify the pertinent donor information fundraisers need to know.

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Who’s Giving, What Motivates Them, and How Gift Planning Enters the Conversation

Most development operations are challenged in terms of time, budget and resources. How do you focus your efforts, maximize resources, and increase philanthropic dollars for your organization?   How do you weave gift planning into the conversation to make certain you are taking advantage of the largest and most impactful gifts a donor may make? This session will explore the latest trends in giving and cover tips to help you make the most of your precious time and resources in prospect solicitation and cultivation. 

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Understanding Fundraising in the Context of Higher Education

The world of development and alumni engagement is often a mystery for campus and other constituents not commonly involved in the fundraising process.  What are the steps involved in securing a gift?  How are the campus priorities determined?  Who influences the donor's area of interest?  And how can the development office raise more money for my program?  These common questions are addressed in this presentation designed to educate campus, board and other advocates about the way fundraising works and gift prospects are moved to donors.

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Fundraising 101:  How it Works and How You Can Help

Asking for money can seem like a daunting process for those who don't do so on a daily basis.  How does fundraising really work?  What are the steps from a viable concept to an enthusiastic and happy donor?  This presentation takes the listener through the life cycle of a gift and helps debunk the mysteries of the process, equipping fundraising operations with enthusiastic advocates who better understand how the process works and how they can help within their comfort zones. 

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Weaving Planned Giving into Your Donor Conversations

We've been there before.  We  have courted and know - or should know - our annual and major gift donors really well.  However, we may come to realize that we've never approached the subject of an estate or planned gift and are not sure how to do so now without feeling awkward.  In this presentation, the listener learns the techniques that afford an easy transition to what will often be the largest and most impactful gift a donor will ever make.  As the massive transfer of wealth begins in earnest over the next two+ decades, organizations that leave gift planning out of the conversation will be leaving money - and potentially the future security of the organization itself - on the line.

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Strategic Gift Planning:  What We Need to Know to Serve Those Who Give

This three hour session is designed to cover the various components of the traditional planned giving infrastructure to determine how best to combine the key elements of a donor or client’s personal and philanthropic goals with the best giving vehicle to achieve maximum flexibility within the confines of trust law and/or state regulation.  The concept of using “blended gifts” as a strategy is gaining in popularity and will be discussed – along with practical examples for advisers – so that the donor or client can achieve current gifting goals in addition to testamentary or legacy objectives.  Finally, this session will contain an overview of best practices in interacting with the nonprofit community with the ultimate goal of building and maintaining a team approach to good philanthropic practice. 

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Additional topics include:

Board Roles and Responsibilities, Planned Giving 101, Marketing, Donor Cultivation, Vision/Mission/Passion, Determining Fundraising Priorities, and many more.

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Contact for availability and pricing: Melanie@NortonCounsel.com

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