Chapter Leadership Brief 7.12.18
By President-Elect Steve G. Jacobson
Were you one of the 1,777 people who attended Fundraising Day in New York, our chapter’s signature event, on June 22nd? If you were, you were able to choose from 11 different tracks of superb educational content. Our speakers represented some of the brightest and innovative thought leaders in our industry. And they came from such forward thinking development shops as NYU Langone Health, the ACLU, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Human Rights Watch (just to name but a few…).
But perhaps you didn’t come for the 43 stellar educational sessions. Maybe workshops were your thing – a bit more hands-on training to take back to your organization. Yes, we had an afternoon chock full of those, too. Oh, and did I mention career mentoring? Perhaps you were one of the 80 or so participants who received career advice from some of the top development professionals that New York has to offer.
Or maybe it was something else that led you to come to Fundraising Day? It certainly could have been the inspiring keynote address given by Kendra Sinclair, the Partnerships Manager for Social Good at Facebook. Or the Top Ten Tweets of 2018, presented tongue-in-cheek by industry guru John Winkleman. Or was it the to-die-for chocolate mousse dessert that our longtime host and partner, the Marriott Marquis, served to top off an exquisite luncheon?
For me, Fundraising Day is all of this – but it’s a whole lot more. It’s about being surrounded by people who do what we do. People who understand what we do and why it’s so important. There’s an incredible energy that you feel. Whether it’s due to first-timers who are so excited to be a part of a tremendous event or seasoned professionals who are keen to share their vast knowledge and experience, you just feel it. And, I can assure you, as someone who has just experienced his 27th Fundraising Day, it never gets old.
But our chapter’s work doesn’t end with Fundraising Day. We have some truly great professional advancement programs planned for the second half of this year. And we know how to have fun, too! Please join us for AFP NYC’s Summer Happy Hour on Thursday, July 19th at 6:30pm at the Royalton Park Avenue. And don’t forget to register for our next professional advancement event, Event Hidden Treasures: Mobilizing Your Board and Volunteers Before, During and After the Event on
Thursday, July 26th at Scandinavia House. See you there!