Linda is one of fewer than 100 professionals worldwide to hold the Advanced Certified Fund Raising Executive designation. In her twenty years as a philanthropic consultant, Linda has managed capital campaigns, helped hundreds of nonprofit organizations achieve their development goals, and trained more than 22,000 development professionals in Canada, Mexico, Egypt and the 50 United States.  

A graduate of Alvernia University and AFP’s Faculty Training Academy, she is a Master Teacher. Linda is the author of Recruiting and Training Fundraising Volunteers; The Development Plan; Fundraising as a Career: What, Are You Crazy?; Capital Campaigns: Everything You NEED to Know; Raise More Money from Your Business Community; Fundraising for the GENIUS, a contributing author to The Fundraising Feasibility Study - It's Not About the Money, co-editor of YOU and Your Nonprofit and The Nonprofit Consulting Handbook and co-author of The Essential Nonprofit Fundraising Handbook and What's Wrong With Your Fundraising…And How You Can Fix It.  

In addition to her consulting and training practice, Linda serves as Acquisitions Editor for CharityChannel Press and For the GENIUS Press.

Ellen Bristol has worked with hundreds of nonprofits for the past seventeen years, helping them improve their fundraising results using systematic disciplines and metrics.  She says "We bring in the science that makes the art of fundraising possible."  She is the developer of the firm's flagship methodology Fundraising the SMART Way®, an evidence-based model for managing the fundraising effort on the basis of continuous improvement and its accompanying software utility SMART Way™ Scorecard 2.0.

At the conclusion of this session, participants will:

Explain and understand impact of evolving trends and innovations on business-community partnerships today and the role of multiple partners for collective impact and greater value;

Apply techniques to develop proactive and effective business-community partnerships;

Design a strategy from internal preparation to external execution; and

Understand how to manage implementation and execution of partnerships.

Target Audience 

Mid-level and senior fundraisers who have responsibility for corporate giving;

Senior leaders who are looking for innovative ways to achieve mission goals while raising critical dollars for support;

Board members who oversee fundraising and need to understand evolving trends and practices.

Ted Hart, ACFRE

About the Presenter:

After several years in healthcare administration, Mike, a Chicago native, began his nonprofit career as the program administrator for Washington workshops, in Washington DC. He then moved to a public foundation in Los Angeles and later spent time as an executive director of development at UCLE and as the VP of development & marketing at Special Olympics Southern California.

Since moving to Houston, Mike has been a director of development/team lead for Rice University, the chief development officer of the Houston food bank and is now a director of philanthropic resources at MD Anderson.

In addition to being past president of the association of fundraising professionals (Greater Houston Chapter), he is also a member of AFP international’s political action committee (PAC) board, a member of their committee on directorship (2012-2013) and chair of their US government relations committee. He is vice chair of the development committee for the space center Houston board of directors, a member of the Fall Creek Elementary PTO, an AFP certified master trainer and a fellow of the Paul Harris rotary international foundation. Mike and his very patient wife Yvette Money enjoy an above average eight year-old daughter Caroline Fiona.


Chris Kasavich has been a professional fundraiser for eleven years, serving in a variety of positions and nonprofit sectors.

He began his career in fundraising at Rice University as their first Leadership Giving officer for Annual Giving before joining their Major Gifts team. After four years he joined the Houston Symphony as Director of Corporate Relations, where he managed the Corporate Relations team in engaging and stewarding new and existing corporate partners.

Currently he is a Director of Development at Baylor College of Medicine, and is responsible for college direct response (annual fund, employee giving, and alumni scholarship giving), grateful patient programs, and major gift fundraising.

Chris earned his CFRE in 2009, and graduated with honors from the University of Houston Bauer College of Business with an MBA in 2010. He is a past Board Member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals-Greater Houston Chapter, and is a past chair of the AFP-Houston Ask the Experts professional development conference.

Through AFP and the Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Rice University he has presented seminars on corporate giving, annual giving, donor pipeline management, and the employment of professional marketing strategy in fundraising and annual campaigns.

About the Presenter:

Penelope Cagney, MA, CFRE, President of The Cagney Company, has more than 20 years experience as a nonprofit management and fundraising consultant on three continents and has helped clients achieve several multi-million dollar goals. She is the author of “Nonprofit Consulting Essentials: What Nonprofits and Consultants Need to Know” (Jossey-Bass 2010).

About the Presenter:

As CEO, Derrick provides overall leadership for Achieve. He is responsible for providing strategy to clients, overseeing the creative development of client work, and leading the full execution of fundraising efforts for clients. He leads the research team on the Millennial Impact – a project to understand Millennial engagement in the nonprofit sector. When not working closely with Achieve clients, he is a speaker and author on the latest trends in fundraising, online engagement, and Millennials. Derrick is the author of Cause for Change – The How and Why of Millennial Nonprofit Engagement published by Jossey Bass.