| Start Time | End Time | Session Description |
|---|---|---|
| 7:00 a.m. | 5:30 p.m. | Alliance Partner Exhibit Hall Open |
| 7:00 a.m. | 5:30 p.m. | FFE Content Corner Open |
| 7:30 a.m. | 8:30 a.m. | NIC/FFE Breakfast & Networking |
| 8:30 a.m. | 9:30 a.m. | FFE Keynote Resiliency Rewind: How to Restart your Foundation Work with More Bounce Back Erin Fischer, Owner & CEO, The Leadership and Training Studio | Meet the presenter Our goal is simple. We want to have a live dialogue about the things that really make an impact on foundation staff increasing their resiliency skills. Spoiler alert, two of the biggest tips are minding your own MOVIE and your brain recorder. We will open a conversation about why we need resiliency now more than ever. Then, we will dig into the most practical advice about how to get more of that gold! This presentation is full of intriguing and true stories about the journey to a place of authentic resiliency – for all of us. |
| 10:00 a.m. | 10:15 a.m. | Networking Break with Alliance Partners |
| 9:45 a.m. | 10:45 a.m. | NIC Research Breakout Session From Research to Practice — Using Data on Member Perceptions and Beliefs to Shape Your Prevention Efforts Holly Rider, Vice President, Education Strategy, Vector Solutions In this presentation, Holly Rider will share strategic approaches to using data from the recently released collaborative research, The Role of Fraternal Organizations in Facilitating Safer Environments on College Campuses, to engage members and volunteers in targeted, evidence-based education and training efforts, support strategic planning initiatives, and communicate to internal and stakeholders about the role of fraternal organizations in the college and university community as it relates to health, safety and well-being. |
| 9:45 a.m. | 10:45 a.m. | FFE Breakout Sessions II Traditional breakout sessions with expert presenters and panelists. |
| Grants: Collaboration between Fraternity & Foundation John E. Christopher, Partner, Fraternal Law Partners; Marsha Grady, CFRE, Chief Development Officer, Alpha Chi Omega Foundation; Dan Hartmann, President & CEO, Lambda Chi Alpha Educational Foundation; Benjamin S. M. Nicol, CFRE, Chief Executive Officer, Phi Kappa Psi Foundation; & Jacklyn Olinger, Attorney, Fraternal Law Partners (Moderator) Generally speaking, fraternal foundations exist to support the educational and charitable objectives of the fraternity. A good working relationship between the two entities is vital to the success of both. All too often, these relationships break down and both organizations and their constituents suffer. One way to ensure that this does not happen is to put in place AND IMPLEMENT solid grant-making policies and procedures. This helps manage expectations around foundation funding of fraternity programming and avoid potential conflict between the two entities. This will be a panel session where we will (i) discuss the importance of good grant policies and procedures from the legal perspective and (ii) hear from groups that are maintaining good relationships using good grant-making policies. |
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| Great Brands Tell Great Stories R. Ethan Braden, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Purdue University and Purdue Global In 1994, Steve Jobs said, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” Building on Ethan’s Keynote, one thing that great brands do is they tell great stories. And the best stories are thoughtfully crafted, guided by certain objectives and fundamentals that stand the test of time. Prioritize this breakout session if you want to come away inspired and armed with a few practical tools to ensure your storytelling is powerful and never left to chance. |
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| Blended Gifts: The Three-Legged Stool of Fundraising Success Leslie Martin, Executive Director, Delta Gamma Foundation A well-rounded fundraising program must consist of annual, major and planned gifts. They are the three legs of a well-balanced stool; if we take one away, results become shaky. Blended gifts are not only the ultimate vehicle for achieving this balance but also offer donors meaningful impact today and in the future. Learn how to leverage blended gifts to achieve greater fundraising success. |
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| Optimize Your Giving Day: Leverage Challenges to Grow Your Major Gift Program and Raise Unrestricted Dollars Emily Karcher, Development and Engagement Manager & Jill Carrel, Director of Advancement, Pi Beta Phi Foundation Giving challenges during your annual day of giving can be an exciting opportunity to include major donors and volunteers and generate enthusiasm and participation among chapters, clubs, and your general membership. Without a well-defined major gift strategy, however, including everyone and every gift can become cumbersome to execute and confusing for your donors. This session will highlight how your organization can streamline its efforts to laser focus on unrestricted giving, strengthen your challenge gift strategy, and use your giving day to grow your major gift pipeline. |
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| Tailoring the Target: Redefining Fundraising Success through Data-Driven Goal Setting and KPI Development Meghan Grace, Ed.D., Senior Consultant, Plaid, LLC Are we hitting our target? What if we’re aiming for the wrong target entirely? This interactive workshop-style session will engage participants in discussion around creating data-driven goals and key performance indicators. Through this session, attendees will dive deep into redefining what success in fundraising looks like by developing goals and KPIs that are tailored to fit organizational interests and priorities and draw meaning from organizational data. |
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| 9:45 a.m. | 10:45 a.m. | FFE Ignite Sessions & Coffee Chat Operations - ChapterSpot: What we’re working on and how it will help you! Joe Budde, Solutions Architect & Tristan Conroy, Account Management & Product, ChapterSpot - How Might AI Change the Face of Your Investments? Emily Musser, Vice President, Client Relations & Dan Cravitz, VP & Institutional Investment Advisor, AMG National Trust Bank - Food Contracts Without a Termination Clause, Steven Troge, Fraternity Director of Sales, Greek House Chefs - SendGrant - Electronic Scholarship & Grant Payments, Robert Davis, President, SmarterSelect - Do More for Your Mission - Digital Tools to Enhance - Board Management, Zach Tsuleff, Senior Customer Success Manager & Sandy An, Senior Account Manager Boardable - Fraternity & Foundation Management Software - An all in one solution: GreekTrack.com, Tony Schmidt, CEO and Founder, GreekTrack |
| 10:45 a.m. | 11:15 a.m. | Networking Break with Alliance Partners |
| 11:15 a.m. | 12:15 p.m. | NIC Research Breakout Session Plaid Research — A Deep Dive on Recent Research on Collegiate Member Experiences Meghan Grace, Ed.D., Senior Consultant, Plaid, LLC. This session will provide a deep dive into the findings from the NIC’s recent research initiatives related to peer accountability and junior/senior member engagement. Participants will gain greater understanding of the undergraduate membership experience through data-driven insights and small group discussion to identify meaningful implications for their organization. |
| 11:15 a.m. | 12:15 p.m. | FFE Breakout Sessions III Traditional breakout sessions with expert presenters and panelists. |
| Coaching Your Team — Coaching Volunteers to Successful Fundraising Kyle Yarawsky, Vice President, Pennington & Company In a time where costs are increasing and budgets are tightening, how can we do more with less? This session will focus on scalable tactics for volunteer fundraising teams of all sizes through the philosophy of coaching. We will review coaching principles from some of the great coaches throughout history and apply these lessons to tangible practices with your volunteers. |
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| Collaboration for the Cause: Promoting Scholarship Applications Melissa Hammer, Associate Director of Communications, Kappa Delta Foundation & Heather Matthews, Director of Marketing and Communications, Kappa Delta Sorority Scholarships are one of the most important ways our foundations offer support to members. It would seem that “free money” would be easy enough to get members to apply for, yet every year our organizations struggle to get the applications we need to award the scholarships dollars we have. This session will be part case study and part working session. In small groups, we'll attempt to develop skeleton communications plan your foundation can use to collaborate with the sorority/fraternity to promote scholarship applications – this can even be scaled up for other types of applications: internships, leadership conferences and more! Come prepared to discuss roadblocks that have held you back in the past and to brainstorm ideas with your peers to garner future success. If we work quickly, you'll leave with a workable communications plan where all you need to do is create content specific to your organization. |
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| How Leading With Heart Leveled Up Practices to Sustain Alpha Phi Foundation's Success Kelly Wesley Taylor, Co-Founder, Trek Advancement; Rebecca Zanatta, Chair, Board of Directors, Alpha Phi Foundation Campaign success is about more than just the dollars raised, it's also about elevating the entirety of the organization for sustainable success long after the campaign celebration. As Alpha Phi Foundation celebrates the impact of their $43 million Leading With Heart comprehensive campaign, learn how they leveled up their development practices in the following areas: - Benchmarking and evaluating fundraising success - Team development and transitions - Collegiate giving and giving through chapters - Blended asks - Data driven decision making - Communicating the call to action in a noisy, fragmented environment Both Kelly and Rebecca are fundraising consultants working with a variety of clients across the United States. |
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| Key Discoveries from a Record-Breaking Campaign – Interfraternal Giving Tuesday Challenge Ryan Collett, Chief Development Officer, Pi Kappa Alpha Foundation; Wes Holtsclaw, Senior Director of Print & Digital Media, Sigma Chi Foundation; Steve Mitchell, President & CEO, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation; Liam Moore, Vice President of Fraternal Partnerships, CrowdChange On November 29th, 2022, the Sigma Chi Foundation, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation, and Pi Kappa Alpha Foundation came together to raise over $500,000 in a single day during the 2nd annual Interfraternal Giving Tuesday Challenge. In this session, we’ll be hearing from representatives of each organization who come armed with their on-the-ground experiences of this record-breaking campaign. The presenters will lay out their richest learnings and most effective tools and tactics used to rally their supporters, communicate a potent case for support, and engage donors (both new and loyal) at every giving level and generational category. Come prepared with your own questions & experiences to share in the discussion and expect to leave with an array of proven practices to add to your fundraising toolkit. |
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| Shared Loss, Shared Purpose: Transforming “In Memoriam” into Meaningful Engagement and Fundraising Ali Briggs Carvalho, CEO & Co-Founder, LifeWeb 360; Kelby Dolan, Director of Communications & Alumni Engagement, Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity; Dan Hartmann, President & CEO, Lambda Chi Alpha Educational Foundation Join Dan Hartmann, Lambda Chi Alpha Educational Foundation’s President & CEO, and Kelby Dolan, Sigma Alpha Mu’s Director of Communications & Alumni Engagement, as they discuss the importance of honoring members who have passed away and providing opportunities for meaningful engagement within the fraternity after a loss. Discover new ways to gather first-hand histories from your members, tap local chapter affinity to drive national fundraising efforts, share underutilized fraternal resources, and create opportunities to reinvest in the fraternity during moments of shared loss. Additionally, Ali Briggs Carvalho, Co-Founder & CEO of LifeWeb 360, will share insights on how to transform the traditional "In Memoriam" section of your magazine into dynamic, community-driven digital spaces that prompt reflection and appreciation for your fraternity, as well as inspire financial support. Don't miss this interactive opportunity to learn from the experts and strengthen your membership’s affinity and engagement! |
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| It's Not You, It’s Your Data Silos Elizabeth Wojcik, Director of Client Strategy & Development, CSI While data silos can be frustrating for your staff, they are likely negatively affecting your fundraising goals. A Single Source of Truth is crucial for Foundations to effectively use data, provide personalized resources to donors, establish data integrity and trust, and decrease turnaround time when responding to requests. Learn how to remove the data silo hurdle and achieve a single source of truth. |
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| 11:15 a.m. | 12:15 p.m. | FFE Coffee Chat Finance |
| 12:15 p.m. | 1:30 p.m. | FFE Lunch & Keynote Our State of the Industry — By the Numbers Patrick Alderdice and Aaron Parker, Pennington & Company | Meet the presenters Pennington and Company has researched, compiled and evaluated IRS Form 990 filings for Greek foundations for the last 20 years. They will deliver the findings of this year’s research and share identified trends from administrative and donor perspectives, while providing their analysis on the challenges and opportunities Greek foundations face in their operations and fundraising. This session provides baseline data on the state of the industry in regard to assets, dollars raised, dollars granted, and various expenses. It also provides comparisons to other philanthropic giving in higher education and public and private foundations for benchmarking purposes. |
| 1:30 p.m. | 1:45 p.m. | Networking Break with Alliance Partners |
| 1:45 p.m. | 2:30 p.m. | FFE Alliance Partner-Executive Speed Dating Speed dating offers intentional, focused time between Alliance Partners and key decision-makers from fraternal foundation. The format for this event involves short, timed face-to-face sessions during which time both participants may discuss whatever they like. During the “dating” sessions, participants should collect contact information and take notes on how the partner and member might work together in the future. |
| 1:45 p.m. | 2:30 p.m. | FFE Content Corner Open |
| 2:30 p.m. | 2:45 p.m. | Networking Break with Alliance Partners |
| 2:45 p.m. | 3:45 p.m. | FFE Breakout Sessions IV Traditional breakout sessions with expert presenters and panelists. |
| Harnessing the Power of Board Recruitment: A Cultural Cornerstone of Moves Management Joe Budde, Solutions Architect, ChapterSpot & Phil Fernandez, Chief Foundation Officer, Beta Theta Pi Foundation Looking for ways to level up your foundation’s moves management? (Always, we know.) Have you considered looking at your board recruitment process? Recruiting board members allows you to cultivate meaningful connections and build long-term commitments with your largest donors. In this session, you’ll discover strategies that’ll help your staff thrive in board recruitment and learn how you can effectively use spreadsheets and databases to track staff progress, engagement, and interactions.You’ll also learn how you can extend board recruitment beyond your staff and explore techniques to maintain ongoing engagement with potential board members. Come join us (we invite you to bring your ideas and organization challenges) and unlock this new avenue to your foundation’s growth! |
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| Strengths-Based Teams Drive Engagement, Productivity and Wellbeing Ashley VanDewark, Executive Director, Foundation for Fraternal Excellence Overwhelmed with turnover, underperformance or challenging team dynamics? Spending more time putting out fires than driving next level growth? You're not alone - and this session may be for you. Did you know... organizations are failing to create workplaces of high engagement and high wellbeing with only 36% of U.S. workers reporting being engaged at work? Furthermore, managers - through their strengths, their own engagement and how they work with their team every day - account for 70% of the variance in team engagement. Join us for a discussion about the four things that highly productive teams have in common and get an insider look at Gallup research which finds that people who know and use their talents and strengths are more engaged at work, more productive in their role, and happier and healthier. We'll also spend time peer-to-peer learning as we crowdsource ideas/strategies to increase your team's engagement and improve your staff retention. |
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| Asking Styles – What’s Yours and How Do You Leverage It? Lucy Love, Major Gifts Officer, Alpha Delta Pi Foundation; Cindee Riordan, Major Gifts Officer, Alpha Delta Pi Foundation & Alpha Omicron Pi Foundation Whether you’re new to fundraising and curious about asking strategies, mid-way through your career and want to be more effective or are a seasoned professional looking for a way to switch up your donor interactions, your Asking Style can help. Join us for an interactive session where we help you uncover your personal Asking Style as coined by Brian Saber, President of Asking Matters. Together we’ll explore what your asking style means for your donor interactions, discuss the way different styles interact, and share how to best use your style for success in communicating your case for support. |
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| Stewardship at Every Turn Mariah Bockbrader, Programs Manager; Susanne Kondracke, Donor Relations Specialist; Laura Stillman, Assistant Executive Director & Director of Donor Relationships, Delta Gamma Foundation Having a comprehensive stewardship plan is instrumental to fostering strong relationships with members, organizations, potential donors, and existing donors. Every staff or volunteer interaction is a stewardship opportunity! Likewise, everyone, whether a brand-new staffer or a seasoned board member, is invited to be part of this session. A team from the Delta Gamma Foundation, recipient of the 2022 FFE Best Stewardship Effort, will share their recent successes and provide a forum for dialogue among those in attendance. We invite attendees to bring examples of their work and we'll bring ours! |
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| Lessons from Million-Dollar Giving Days Dan Hartmann, President & CEO and Katie Kowalski, Engagement Officer, Lambda Chi Alpha Educational Foundation; Heather Matthews, Former Chief Communications Officer, Sigma Phi Epsilon; Director of Marketing and Communications, Kappa Delta Sorority Dedicated, themed Giving Day campaigns have become standard in fraternal and higher education annual fundraising. Last year, Sigma Phi Epsilon Foundation and Lambda Chi Alpha Educational Foundation topped the $1-million and $2-million dollar marks respectively during their Giving Day efforts. Learn more about their campaign planning, structure and organization, as well as the secrets to their success in this interactive panel session with the architects behind these million-dollar Giving Day efforts. |
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| Grant Management and the Donor Experience Alex Goodman, MNM, Grants and Scholarship Manager & Sharyn Taylor, Major Gifts Officer, Alpha Phi Foundation Donors are integral to our fraternal foundations, but how do they play a role in grant management? Alpha Phi Foundation will provide detailed insight into their grant management process, including their scholarships, emergency financial assistance grants, and external institution grants. They will share best practices in their grant processes from opening an application to distribution of funds. Additionally, they will also discuss how to keep donors engaged and invested with grants and funding priorities throughout the donor cycle, including initial prospecting, volunteer opportunities, and stewardship. |
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| 2:45 p.m. | 3:45 p.m. | FFE Ignite Sessions & Coffee Chat Fundraising - Unleashing the Power of GivingDNA for Data-Driven Fundraising, Lisa Stenholm, Director Technology Solutions | Software Platform Sales/Marketing, Pursuant + GivingDNA - Ignite your Campaign with a Donor Think Tank, Mandi Young, Development Officer, Phi Mu Foundation - Delta Gamma Foundation’s Cream Rose Tribute Giving, Samantha Mogab, Annual Giving Manager, Delta Gamma Foundation - PIKE Legacy Funds (our version of a donor advised fund), Ryan Collett, Chief Development Officer, Pi Kappa Alpha Foundation - Leveraging Wealth Intelligence, Kyle Curry, Senior Director of Nonprofit Sales, Windfall |
| 3:45 p.m. | 4:00 p.m. | Networking Break with Alliance Partners |
| 4:00 p.m. | 5:00 p.m. | FFE Breakout Sessions V Traditional breakout sessions with expert presenters and panelists. |
| Engaging Your Donors in Fundraising Ashley Byrd, Executive Director; Carly Loth, Director of Development; & Kath Conver, Board President, Alpha Omicron Pi Foundation Have you ever felt like you had more donors to approach than time in the day? Grow your donor base by engaging donors in the work of making asks for your Foundation. AOII Foundation will share the work of their Fundraising & Development Committee which has developed a series of trainings for donors to become part of the ask process. |
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| Thriving Brand, Shared Vision: How to Leverage a Shared Brand for Greater Support Jen Magro Algarotti, Ph.D., Director of Strategic Communications & Natalie Knapp, Assistant Director of Communications and Creative Strategies, Delta Gamma Foundation; Melissa Hammer, Associate Director of Communications, Kappa Delta Foundation Our organizations face many challenges when communicating our case for support; getting members to understand the importance of their support; fitting in many different programs and ideas; communicating to varied and diverse audiences; distinguishing between Foundation and Fraternity initiatives; and much more. When separate entities have one brand and need to share common brand elements, the challenge can be even greater. But a shared brand can also lead to greater support and increased synergy when done strategically. As part of this session, we will examine how Delta Gamma Foundation and Kappa Delta Foundation share a brand with their Fraternity counterparts, all while remaining distinct philanthropic organizations with successful fundraising outcomes within shared communication outlets. A variety of topics will be covered, including the development of a brand strategy, crafting unique content using shared brand messaging, the use of logos and graphic elements, a visual hierarchy system, social media accounts, and website presence. We will leave time for Q&A and best-practice sharing. |
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| Pace Yourself: Multiply Outreach & Revenue Impact with Multi-Channel Portfolios & AI Marsha Grady, CFRE, Chief Development Officer, Alpha Chi Omega Foundation & Ali Hay, Customer Success Manager, Raise from Gravyty Individualized donor engagement has moved beyond major gifts. Personal connection with donors of all levels is swiftly becoming a best practice — and donor expectation. In this session, gain valuable insights about developing portfolios across entire teams, gauge outreach and pacing recommendations to meet full portfolio saturation, and glean how AI and tech support fundraisers in efficiently multiplying meaningful outreach. AXO’s Marsha Grady will speak firsthand to the impact adopting new technology and practices has made on her team — including significant improvement in portfolio penetration, donor retention + re-engagement and upgraded giving! |
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| Engaging Gen Z and Gen Y as Young Alumni Vincent Russo, Senior Director of Advancement and Chelsea Sheridan, Director of Advancement, Delta Tau Delta Foundation How many times have you seen a member get to the end of their undergraduate experience only to view it as the end of their experience as a member of their fraternal organization? What if there was a way to provide meaningful avenues for our upperclassmen to feel engaged with our organizations before they even graduate? How do you capture the attention of young alumni who haven't remained engaged with the organization since graduating? This program will dive into some of those ideas and more, looking at what is important to Gen Y and Gen Z and how to capture it through our efforts to engage our younger generations of passionate young professionals (and those who are soon to be!) who are looking to impact societal change on a large scale. |
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| FFE Data as a Tool in Your Leadership Toolbox: How Good Questions Enhance Conversations Around Data Emily Musser, Vice President, Client Relations, AMG National Trust Bank; Kelly Wesley Taylor, Co-Founder, Trek Advancement; & Karen White, Chief Executive Officer, Tri Delta One of the best things about FFE member foundations is that they come in all shapes and sizes. However, if you’ve ever reviewed the FFE Industry Survey or other comparative data and tried to compare across organizations, you may notice it’s a little bit like comparing apples to oranges; yet, once you’re able to identify what data is relevant to your organization, you can prepare for the future by having a spate of good questions to ask that enhance conversations around available data. In this session we’ll dive into organizational data, foundation financial data and campaign data, and arm participants with relevant questions to reflect on as they consider how data can drive KPIs and decision making, and lead to collecting and understanding the right data to continue the process. Ultimately, data is only helpful if we’re using it in the right way to drive ourselves to good decision-making. |
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| Creating & Building a Planned Giving Program David Carico, Principal and Scott Sikes, MBA, CFRE, FAHP, CFP, Principal, Columns Fundraising Discover how easy it can be to introduce your donors to planned giving. In this session you’ll learn how to start and build a basic planned giving program, including marketing, policies, and – most importantly - simple ways to integrate a planned gift conversation into almost any donor discussion or solicitation. Leave confident and ready to build a new planned giving program - or enhance an existing one - and to include a planned gift ask during your next donor visit. |
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| 4:00 p.m. | 5:00 p.m. | FFE Ignite Sessions & Coffee Chat Communications - Student-Focused Segmentation: Beyond Variable Data, Ben Ford, Marketing & Communications Director, Sigma Phi Epsilon - Compelling Ways to Personalize Communications, Heather Matthews, Director of Marketing and Communications, Kappa Delta Sorority - Is your alumni communications program “Kenough”? Bob McKenney, President, Pennington & Company - Recognizing and Engaging Famous Alums, Ben Ford, Marketing & Communications Director, Sigma Phi Epsilon - Donor Cultivation through Affinity-Building Communications, Heather Matthews, Director of Marketing and Communications, Kappa Delta Sorority |
| 5:00 p.m. | 5:30 p.m. | Networking Break with Alliance Partners |
| 5:30 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. | FFE Awards of Distinction Reception Held at the Indiana Roof Ballroom |
| 6:30 p.m. | 9:00 p.m. | FFE Awards of Distinction Dinner & Seminar Closing Session Held at the Indiana Roof Ballroom |
