Prepare for Major Gifts Success

Staupell FIT Conference

Come to the In-Person FIT Conference and Optimize Your Major Gifts Portfolios

October 13-15, 2025 - Springfield, MA

Featured Workshops Tailored for Different Roles in Your Organization

Prepare for Major Gifts Success

Attend the Staupell FIT Conference and...

Network with professionals in your field.

Identify, manage, and solicit more major gifts for your nonprofit.

Learn new strategies for maximizing gifts from your prospect pool.

Participate in an expert-led workshop with hands-on exercises.

Small workshop size giving you personal attention to your questions.

Leave with actionable results for your organization.

Choose Your FIT Workshop

Creating a Power BI Dashboard for Major Gifts

Presenter: Marianne Pelletier

Ideal for Business Intelligence, Data Science, Prospect Development, or Major Gifts management teams to build a major gifts dashboard that analyzes and shows major gifts totals, portfolios, visit metrics, and other necessary results for giving your major gifts team the best information possible, including mapping your constituency for visit planning.

About 90% of nonprofits are great at collecting data, but only half fully use the data they collect. Dashboards bring data in summarized and graphic form to your desktop so that you can make immediate, actionable plans.

You don’t have be a big fundraising department to reap the benefits of implementing solid data science practices. This 2-day workshop walks you through the steps of extracting and using your own organizational data to create better fundraising plans and strategies.

Workshop Agenda

Day 1

  • Walking Around in Power BI
  • Loading and Formatting Data Tables: Gifts, Cultivation, Constituent Data
  • Shaping Data to Make Good Analysis
  • Summaries
    • Merging Columns from Two Tables
    • Appending Data to a Table
    • Check-In: What You Can Accomplish Right Now
  • Data Table Summaries
    • Visualization Table: Creating a Matrix of Giving Totals
    • Creating and Using Filters
    • Building Your First Summary Table
    • Exercises
  • Wrap Up Discussion/Questions

 

Day 2

  • Graphs
    • Bar Graphs with Colors, Labels, Tooltips: Portfolio Management
    • Fundraising Graphs
      • Funnel: Shape of the Pipeline
      • Donut: Prospect Capacities
    • Exercises
  • Drill Downs
    • Building a Prospect Scorecard Summary Table
    • Drill Down to Prospect Scorecard from Portfolio Management
    • Exercises
  • Expressions and Maps
    • DAX Expressions
    • Exercise
    • Adding a Prospect Map with Capacity Ratings
    • Exercise
  • Wrap Up
    • What next?
    • Final formatting, filters, DAX expressions

How to Build Your Prospect Management System from Start to Finish

Presenter: Ruthie Giles, bCRE-PRO

Ideal for Prospect Management, Operations Management, and Prospect Development teams to build out an optimized prospect management system for immediate implementation at your shop.

The process of prospect management allows you to better manage your fundraiser’s portfolios for highly effective and efficient fundraising. You can see how prospects are moving through the pipeline and create strategies that help bring in gifts.

You identify how prospects should be prioritized for optimal results that move your entire fundraising team towards their goals. Prospect management allow you to manage all the moving parts to the process, which can otherwise quickly become overwhelming.

This 2-day workshop will help you learn how to effectively implement a new prospect management system or improve on your current prospect management system for your organization.

Workshop Agenda

Day 1

  • Illustration and Discussion of PM Theory and Place in the World
  • Needs Assessment Discussion
  • Exercise on Implementation Steps
  • Pain Points
  • Who to Survey & Needs Assessment Reports
  • The Definitions Game
  • Glossary Exercise
  • Wrap Up & Questions

Day 2

  • Discussion of Donor Cycle
  • Portfolio Management
  • Practice Exercises
  • Reports and Dashboards
  • Build a Dashboard Exercise
  • Project Plan
  • Practice Exercise
  • Implementation of the Project Plan
  • Staying on Track
  • Group Idea Exchange & Wrap Up

Major Gifts Revolution: Blueprint for Renovating a High-Impact Program

Presenter: Anna Schlia

Perfect for senior advancement and nonprofit professionals, including VPs, AVPs, and mid-career to senior-level fundraising staff in leadership roles or those aspiring to these positions. Ideal for those seeking to optimize major gifts strategies and boost team performance.

This two-day workshop offers actionable strategies to revitalize and strengthen major gifts programs, even amid budget cuts, closure talks, and fundraiser turnover. Participants will learn to manage programs effectively, collaborate with partners, and enhance gift officer performance using proven frameworks and practical applications.

Key Areas:

>Structuring a successful major gifts program
>Evaluating and enhancing gift officer performance
>Advanced donor engagement and retention strategies
>Applying proven frameworks to practical fundraising challenges

By the end, participants will have a clear, actionable plan tailored to their organization, ready for immediate implementation.

Workshop Agenda

DAY 1

  • Structuring a Successful Major Gifts Program
    • Discover essential components of a major gifts program, including goal setting, donor identification, and solicitation strategies. Ensure program integrity and effectiveness despite financial and organizational instability.
    • Participate in donor engagement scenarios, develop stewardship plans, and review success stories. Create communication plans to reassure and engage donors.
  • Evaluating and Enhancing Gift Officer Performance
    • Discover methods to assess and improve gift officer performance. Topics include setting realistic performance metrics, conducting effective evaluations, and fostering professional development.
    • Participate in role-playing exercises and use performance evaluation templates to refine your management approach. Implement strategies to boost morale and performance.

 

DAY 2

  • Advanced Donor Engagement and Retention Strategies
    • Explore techniques for engaging and retaining major donors during organizational change. Build long-term relationships and enhance donor loyalty through personalized communication and stewardship.
    • Participate in donor engagement scenarios, develop stewardship plans, and review success stories. Create communication plans to reassure and engage donors.
  • Integrating Proven Frameworks into Fundraising Practice
    • Learn how relational dynamics between donors, beneficiaries, and fundraisers enhance charitable giving.
    • Analyze key frameworks, discuss practical applications, and develop strategies to improve interactions among donors, beneficiaries, and fundraisers. Implement donor segmentation plans and targeted campaigns.

FIT Conference Pricing

When registering for the FIT Conference, you will choose which workshop you’ll be attending. Each workshop is limited to 15 attendees. 

We highly encourage multiple members from your operations team to attend and select different workshops for a comprehensive experience, covering every aspect of your fundraising efforts from major gift identification to the ask.

SUPER Early Bird Price

$699

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS SPECIAL SUPER EARLY BIRD PRICING BETWEEN MARCH 1ST – JUNE 30TH.

Early Bird Price

$799

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS EARLY BIRD PRICING BETWEEN JULY 1ST AND AUGUST 31ST.

Standard Price

$997

STANDARD PRICING APPLIES FOR PURCHASES BEGINNING SEPTEMBER 1ST.

REGISTRATION CLOSES FOR EVENT OCTOBER 1ST

Breakfast and lunch are included in your conference registration. We’ll have a welcome reception Sunday evening and there will be plenty of networking opportunities to connect with your colleagues during workshop breaks.

Three or more planning to come from your nonprofit? Email [email protected] and inquire about group rates.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE - OCTOBER 1, 2025

We understand emergencies happen. However, no refunds can be issued after September 13, 2025.

Accommodations

Sheraton Springfield Monarch Place Hotel
One Monarch Place
Springfield, MA 01144

This in-person workshop is held at the Sheraton Springfield Monarch Place Hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts. You will be responsible for booking your room and travel to attend the event. The hotel is conveniently located just 18 miles from Bradley International Airport (BDL). There is a special block of rooms the hotel is holding for this event until September 12.

$159.00/night +tax
Deadline for reservation, Friday, September 12

Overnight guest parking is $19.95 per night per vehicle.
Day Guest Parking: $10/day

Schedule

Sunday, October 12, 2025

6:00 PM: Welcome Reception

Monday, October 13, 2025

8:00 AM: Breakfast (included)

9:00 AM: Workshop Morning Session

12:00 PM: Lunch (included)

1:15 PM: Workshop Afternoon Session

3:00 PM: Day 1 Workshop Wrap-up

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

8:00 AM: Breakfast (included)

9:00 AM: Workshop Morning Session

12:00 PM: Lunch (included)

1:15 PM: Workshop Afternoon Session

5:00 PM: Day 2 Workshop Wrap-up

REGISTRATION DEADLINE - OCTOBER 10

About Your Presenters

Marianne Pelletier

​Marianne Pelletier has over 35 years of experience in fundraising, with the majority in prospect research and prospecting. She is one of the first adopters of donor modeling and data mining techniques, and is now a world-renown leader on this segment of the research profession. Her prospect research positions include analyst and department head for Harvard University, Lesley University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Cornell University.

Pelletier’s career also includes running an annual giving program with average increased revenues of 27% per year and providing software consulting through the Datatel Corporation, teaching clients both how to use their new software and assisting them with better analysis and more efficient processing.

A recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the New England Development Research Association and a Woman of the Year designation by the National Association of Professional Women, Pelletier has served as a volunteer for both election campaigns and social service agencies. She most recently served on her local chapter of Habitat for Humanity and ended her board membership with the Finger Lakes chapter of AFP as president.

Pelletier is a graduate of Rockford University, and earned her MBA at Southern New Hampshire University. Her recent workbook, Building Your Analytics Shop: A Workbook for Nonprofits, is available both on Amazon.com and on this website.

A thought leader in the field of prospect management, Ruthie has worked in prospect research and prospect management since 2000. She has spoken on the topic of prospect management at APRA, CASE and NEDRA conferences, as well as to regional nonprofit professional groups.

Ruthie has held positions at the University of New Hampshire, Westfield State University, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Harold Grinspoon Foundation, The Loomis Chaffee School, and the Williston Northampton School.  She is a member of the New England Development Research Association’s board of directors. She is the former Board President of the AIDS Foundation of Western Massachusetts and the former Board Vice President for Women in Philanthropy of Western Massachusetts.
​
Ruthie holds a BA from Smith College, a MBA from University of Massachusetts at Amherst – Isenberg School of Management, and a MS in Nonprofit Management and Philanthropy from Bay Path University. She is also a graduate of the Leadership Institute for Political and Public Impact, through the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts.

Ruth M. Giles, bCRE-PRO

Ruth M. Giles

Anna Schlia is a Ph.D. student at the University of Rochester studying Philanthropy and Education. Through her work as a consultant, frontline fundraiser, and researcher of donor behavior, Anna brings an understanding of the intricacies of nonprofit institutions and the individuals who support them. As a fundraiser with 18 years of experience, Anna excels at principal and major gifts, crafting collaborative proposal strategies, building effective programs, and leading solicitation teams to success.

Anna is a recognized presenter in the fundraising arena on topics related to donor motivation, fundraising ethics, and research-based stewardship practices.

Anna holds a Masters of Education in Institutional Advancement from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University and has a B.A. from Loyola University New Orleans.

​She lives in Rochester, NY with her family and volunteers with the Alliance for the Great Lakes. 

Anna Schlia

Registration

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FIT Conference 2025

Original price was: $997.00.Current price is: $699.00.

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Enhance your nonprofit’s fundraising operations by focusing on every critical stage, from major gift donor identification to the ask.

This event aims to sharpen the skills of your entire fundraising team, offering featured workshops tailored to different roles within your nonprofit.

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