2022 Updated Curriculum & Certificate

As of January 2022, the curriculum of the Certificate in Fundraising Management features updated and revised strategies to reflect new trends and current best practices in fundraising. We have new instructors with fresh content and more flexible requirements.

Our Certificate in Fundraising Mangement includes taking 10 courses. You will earn six hours of graduate credit, and the Certifcate is discounted from taking singular classes.

The current curriculum offers these courses for 2022. Additional courses are in development.

• Understanding the Nonprofit Sector
• Fundraising Intelligence
• Annual and Sustainable Gifts; Donor retention, acquisition and upgrading
• Planned & Major Giving
• Grant Writing, Reporting & Management
• Corporate Partnerships
• Donor Stewardship and Events
• Managing Volunteers
• Public Relations & Marketing
• Fundraising Campaigns

Requirements & Details

To earn the UNO Certificate in Fundraising Management you need to complete a total of 10 classes. You will also receive six hours of graduate credit from UNO School of Public Administration.

You may also attend an individual course or any combination of courses you choose if you would like to upgrade your skills in a specific area but not complete all of the Certificate requirements.

There are no prerequisites for these fundraising management courses.

Classes for 2022 are two days. Class meets from 8:30 A.M. to 5 P.M.

DISCOUNT!

Sign up for the entire course schedule of 10 classes, and pay the discounted rate of $2600.

The registration for a single class is $299, which includes materials and parking.

Our Certificate is recognized by the CFRE National Organization.

Certified Fund Raising Executive

Full participation in a CFM class is applicable for 8 points in Category 1.B – Education of the Certified Fund Raising Executive International application for initial certification and/or recertification. Documentation of participation will be provided upon successful completion of a class.

MORE INFO: Ellen Freeman-Wakefield, MPA, Director Professional Programs
402.554.2636 (direct) | 402.554.2625 (office) | 402.669.2272 (cell)
efreemanwakefield@unomaha.edu

REGISTER NOW

2022 Certificate in Fundraising Management Courses in Detail

2022 Proposed Schedule and Updated Course Descriptions

Planned & Major Giving – Thursday, April 28 and Friday April 29

Description: Attendees will learn the positive and lasting impact a major donor/gifts program has on a nonprofit organization and within the fundraising department. The course will review the necessary steps to creating a new and/or improve an existing major gifts program. Participants will review the necessary steps to creating a successful program that engages donors to the fullest in an organization.

Instructor: Hillary Nather-Detisch

Registration Deadlin: April 25

Learning Objectives:

• Develop an understanding of major giving including how it can serve organizational outcomes, how major donors can influence mission drift, and how honest fundraisers should be with major donors when discussing organizational priorities.
• Participants will be able to define a major gift level for their organization and learn how to prospect for these gifts.
• Participants will learn the multitude of cultivation techniques available to customize for their organization/donor base.
• Participants will learn how to make a face-to-face solicitation as well as the cultivation and meeting strategy that needs to be in place before soliciting.
• Participants will learn the importance of stewarding and the various tools available to be successful.
• Participants will review the logistical components of a major giving program including gifts agreements, recognition and giving vehicles.
• Participants will review the basic planned giving vehicles and easy steps to creating a first-time planned giving program.

Grant Writing, Reporting & Management – Thursday, May 26 and Friday, May 27

Description: Attendees will learn the grant writing and management process start to finish; from becoming ‘grants ready’ to reporting to funders. This course will highlight best practices in grant research and writing, as well common pitfalls to avoid. Participants will receive tools and templates they can put to use in their own grant writing practice and have the opportunity to create a basic grant proposal.

Instructor: Rosey Higgs

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will have an understanding of how grants influence nonprofit operations and priorities, and which grants benefit which kind of nonprofit structures and sizes.

• Participants will identify grant research tools and how to use them
• Participants will assess grant opportunities and the degree to which they are appropriate to their project &/or organization
• Participants will practice telling the story of their organization through a case statement, budget, and narrative
• Participants will create a plan to demonstrate performance of grant-funded projects through program evaluation.
• Participants will develop a system for grant tracking & reporting

Corporate Partnerships – Thursday, June 23 and Friday, June 24

Description: Attendees will learn the evolution of corporate social responsibility and how businesses are adapting to societal and employee needs. The course will highlight best practices in engaging employee resource groups, workplace giving campaigns and corporate match programs. Participants will be provided with templates and examples to create their own comprehensive corporate partnership plan.

• What is the evolution of corporate social responsibility?
• Corporate match programs
• Dollars for Doers’ Program

Donor Stewardship and Events – Thursday, July 28 and Friday, July 29

Description: A solid stewardship and engagement plan will focus on attracting and retaining donors by fostering engagement and providing exceptional donor experiences. This course will cover basics from donor acknowledgment to technical details such as proper gift compliance protocols. In addition, it will dive into event management, both in-person and hybrid models and determine metrics to measure the success of event beyond headcount. You’ll also learn tips for impact messaging to enhance your donor communications. By the end of the session, you will walk away with skills to tell the unique story of your organization in a deeper way, to help donors truly understand their impact, and to recognize and inspire them to engage in a way that is meaningful to them.

• Stewardship – recruitment, retention, growth
• Donor appreciation events/activities
• Acknowledgements
• Compliance
• Understanding the tax laws/guidelines
• Writing for donor Impact
• Recognition; Impact
• In-person, Virtual and Hybrid Events (both recognition and fundraising events)
• Pre and Post evaluation of Event

Managing Volunteers Thursday, August 26 and Friday, August 26

Description: A strong volunteer engagement plan will focus on attracting and retaining volunteers to enhance the mission of your organization. This course will range from volunteer identification and recruitment to volunteer engagement. You will learn how to build a volunteer pipeline to assist with board development and how to craft a conflict-of-interest policy for volunteers. Identifying board giving expectations and board structure will also be covered. In addition, you’ll identify clear volunteer/board expectations and how to break up with a volunteer/board member who is not holding up their end of the bargain.

• Board and guild members
• Everyday volunteers
• Recruitment, retention, and growth
• Board expectations – give/get commitments, structure

Public Relations & Marketing – Thursday, September 22 and Friday, September 23

Description: Attendees will learn how to craft impactful messaging, craft an organizational identity, and manage relationships with media partners. The course will highlight best practices in public relation efforts and social media strategy. Participants will be provided with tools and templates to create a marketing plan, news release and social media scripting.

• Creating an identity
• Various marketing mediums
• Marketing and social media plan outline
• Media relation

Fundraising Campaigns – Thursday, October 27 and Friday, October 28

Description: The goal of a fundraising campaign is to turn dreams in a strategic plan into realities. Campaigns are a specialized way of raising large amounts of money in a concentrated amount of time and they push organizations to think bigger and deepen relationships with donors and future donors. There are many important steps needed for a successful campaign, this session will define the various phases of a campaign and the tools needed to be successful each step of the way from analyzing your donor pool, understanding team and volunteer roles, messaging a campaign, recognizing donors, and evaluating the work.

• Budget and staffing
• Strategic planning
• Feasibility study internal and external
• Goal Setting – donor pyramid – general
• Messaging, Visioning, Communication for Campaign
• Recognition

Presentations – Thursday, November 17 and Friday, November 18

PAST COURSES: Look forward to these courses in 2023

FUNDRAISING INTELLIGENCE: Description: Keeping your donor pool dynamic is vital to an organization’s success. To increase individual donor giving you need to better understand your donors and the impact they want to make in order to fully engage them with your organization. To do all those things well, you need to be flexible and strategic with focus on managing the right prospects.

This course will focus on identifying top prospects to your organization, how to manage them throughout the solicitation cycle and record interactions with them. We’ll discuss ways to use outside research and your own internal database to support the work. Participants should leave the course able to determine the top prospects, create solicitation plans for them and have a general understanding of key data points to record in a database.

Key Topics

• Budget and where the funds come from
• Putting together a development plan
• Fundraising pipeline
• Identifying prospects
• Managing portfolios
• Donor strategies and solicitation plans
• Solicitation cycle
• Managing donor data in database
• Prospect research

Description: Not all of our donors will be able to give at transformative levels. However, when we bring the many together through fundraising, we can secure vital resources for our nonprofits and build a more engaged and robust community of supporters. This course will cover annual and sustainable gifts – which are often the lifeblood of nonprofit organizations. In this session, you’ll learn about they many forms a robust annual giving program takes, how to develop an effective annual giving program, and what the future looks like for our fundraisers and loyal donors in the digital age.

ey Topics

• What make annual giving unique
• Unrestricted v. restricted
• Traditional and grassroots annual giving campaigns
• Donor motivation
• How to create ask
• Audience segmentation
• Giving days - #GivingTuesday, etc.
• Traditional, online and multi social media
• How to write case statement
• Crowd funding
• Events and range of gift/donation
• Performance evaluation
• Personal solicitation
• Recognition

Click on the Instructor for more information:

Instructor: Lisa Sock, integrated fundraising + advocacy consultant

Instructor: Hillary Nather-Detisch, MPA, CFRE, director of development, Joslyn Art Museum.

Instructor: Haley Armstrong, Senior Communications Specialist of External Affairs, Kiewit

Instructor: Joel Gehringer, Director of annual campaigns, University of Nebraska Foundation.

Instructor: Amy Turbes, Senior Director of principal gift operations

Instructor: Liz Clark, Director of prospect management, Creighton University

Instructor: Angela Altamore, Senior Director of stewardship and donor engagement, Kansas State University Foundation

2022 January Classes for future planning: Understanding the Nonprofit Sector, January 2022

Description: What is nonprofit fundraising and development? There are about as many definitions as there are nonprofits in the world. In this course, you will discover the commonalities that bind nonprofit development programs, fundraisers and philanthropists together. This course will establish foundational knowledge about the sector, define important terms and concepts, and provide you will the tools you will need to approach subsequent courses, in which you will systematically create a comprehensive development plan for you and your organization. This fundamental course is required of all students within the program and is designed to be the first course you complete.

Key Topics:

• Giving Structure, who gives and who benefits
• Define Terns (will be used throughout)
• Ethics and the law
• The Impact of trusts and wealth on US civil society
• Resource dependency and mission drift in relation to fundraising
• Top down v. grassroots and community centric fundraising models
• Budget and where the funds come from
• How to put together a development plan
• Psychology of why people give
• Overview of what is coming up