NEDRACon 2025 Encore Session #4 Managing Up and Across Panel
Thursday , November 6, 2025
1:00PM- 2:00PM ET
Online
Unlock the secrets to enhancing your current role and advancing your career (psst..it’s building and maintaining strong professional relationships) with this interactive session tailored specifically for professionals in the field of prospect research and development. Join your NEDRA colleagues for an insightful discussion where you’ll learn strategies to effectively communicate and collaborate with leaders and peers, better positioning yourself as a knowledgeable, trusted, and valued partner.
We will discuss:
PRESENTERS:
Bruce Berg, Northeastern University Bruce is currently Senior Director, Prospect Development at Northeastern University. In this role, he has welcomed the challenge to build a well-run and effective advancement program; one that supports the researcher-as-consultant model, and gives research staff ownership and responsibility of their work. He began his advancement career as a member of the Harvard University Development Office. Before this, he pursued a career in classical music and served as Principal Percussionist for both the New World Symphony and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. An active musician and researcher, he freelances throughout the Boston area and is Principal of DonorIQ, a research consulting firm. Bruce is considered a valued and trusted mentor and a manager who truly cares about his team and their career growth and professional development. As part of his own professional development path, Bruce served as treasurer on the NEDRA board for seven years from 2008-2015.
Renana Kehoe, Bellforge Arts Center Renana is currently leading the Development department for the Bellforge Arts Center. Previously, she was head of the Gift Management and Prospect Development & Research departments at the Harvard Business School. She also served on the HBS External Relations' Racial Equity Working Group as a Co-Lead of the Volunteers subgroup, focusing on diversifying the school's boards, committees, and volunteers. Prior to HBS, Renana led department operations for Institutional Advancement at the Harvard Art Museums, with a focus on membership, audience development, fundraising strategy, prospect management & research, financial administration, and data analysis. Before Harvard, Renana was Director of Development Operations and Prospect Research at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. In recent years, she has chaired the Brookline Commission for the Arts, led tours at the Institute of Contemporary Art, and taught Art History and Arts Management courses at Lesley University and Suffolk University. She has served as Board President of the New England Development Research Association (NEDRA) and as a Board Member of Mother Brook Arts & Community Center, where she led the search to find/hire the new Executive Director.
Barbara Moore, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Facilitator)Barbara is Assistant Vice President II at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of the leading cancer research and care centers in the country. She directs a team of 12 engaged in prospect research, management, and analytics, and serves as a strategic partner to colleagues across Dana-Farber’s 300+ person fundraising organization. Barbara joined Dana-Farber in 2001 and been a key contributor to the Division of Philanthropy’s growth from $80M to $400M+ in annual revenue. She values her role as a mentor and takes tremendous pride in seeing current and former members of her team advance in the research profession. Barbara is a graduate of Wheaton College and earned a master’s degree in library science at Simmons University. She served on the NEDRA Board from 2009-2012, including as President from 2009-2010, and was the recipient of NEDRA’s Ann Castle Award in 2024.
Elana Pierkowski, Dana-Farber Cancer InstituteElana is an Associate Director at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she develops strategic research products for the Institute’s President and its Chief Philanthropy Officer and is also a close collaborator with other senior Philanthropy staff. Prior to joining DFCI as a Senior Research Analyst in 2015, she was a Development Services and Prospect Manager at the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts and a Director of Advancement Operations at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Previously, she worked at MIT Sloan. Before her career in non-profits, Elana was a consultant in Web design and content management. She has B.A. degrees from Wesleyan University in English Literature and in Spanish Literature. Elana previously served on the NEDRA Board, including two years as Vice President. Her Golden Retriever, Lilly, thinks Elana is the absolute best at throwing tennis balls in the park, but Lilly says that about everybody.
COST:
$25 Members
$50 Non-Members
LOCATION:
This program will be held as a Zoom meeting. Attendees will receive a Zoom link a day before the event. The program will not be recorded.
DEADLINES:
Deadline for registration will be Wednesday, November 5 at 3PM.
Relationship Risk: Managing Prospects Who Are Misaligned with Organizational Values
Monday, November 17, 2025
2:00PM- 3:00PM ET
How does your organization manage relationships with prospects whose behavior or ideology is more problematic than their source of wealth? Have you ever wished there were recorded best practices to safeguard our organizations from problematic donor relationships? You're in luck! Join us for this session to learn more about Apra's new best practice guidelines for 'Relationship Acceptance' that ensure a safe and equitable way for these values misalignments to be captured in our CRM and be addressed by relationship management policies. This new guidance centers on the well-being of our staff and our organizations, across all industries, incorporating an element of organizational risk that is consistently top of mind. Members of Apra's Ethics & Compliance Committee will share the new guidelines, as well as the resources being developed to help you implement them at your organization. You'll also hear from colleagues about how they went about implementing their policies for addressing prospects whose values are misaligned with organizational values, and what they learned in the process. We'll end with time for Q&A, and recommendations for how to go about creating your own "Relationship Acceptance" policy!
Kate McConnell (she/her/hers) most recently served as the Director of Prospect Management for the Prospect Research, Identification, and Management team at City of Hope, where she managed the prospect management function at City of Hope and led the implementation of an effective and scalable program to support continued growth. Prior to joining City, Kate implemented the first prospect management program for Planned Parenthood Federation of America and for Yeshiva University, where she began her nearly 15-year career in prospect development. Kate serves as chair of Apra's Ethics & Compliance committee and is a member of Apra GNY's DEI committee. In her free time, Kate is a superfan of musical theatre, BTS, and feminist podcasts, and serves on the Board of Directors of Phi Sigma Pi, a gender-inclusive Honor Fraternity committed to social service through scholarship, leadership, and fellowship.
Stephanie Huggins (she/her/hers) is a Senior Associate Director, Investor Relations at the END Fund, a global health organization working to end neglected tropical diseases. With over 15 years of non-profit experience, she works with the Investor Relations team to drive prospect research priorities and expand the investor pipeline. Stephanie came from NYU, where she was a Senior Research Analyst in Prospect Research. In that role, she led projects and research focused on data integrity and piloted new research and data policies. Before joining NYU in 2016, Stephanie was the manager of corporate partnerships at Orbis International, an international health non-profit that works with blindness treatment and prevention. Stephanie is passionate about global public health and international humanitarian work. Stephanie holds a BA in International Affairs from the George Washington University and an MS in Global Affairs from the Center for Global Affairs at the School of Professional Studies at NYU. Outside of the office, Stephanie is an avid traveler, Great British Bake Off-obsessed baker, themed party planner, and Halloween enthusiast.
Deadline for registration will be November 17 at 11AM.
Researching UK Based Donors & Prospects
Monday, December 8, 2025
11:00AM - 12:00PM ET
Have you been tasked with researching UK donor prospects but are not sure where to start? Are you interested in finding out of there are people in the UK who might make good donors to your cause? While prospect research techniques are universal, the information available in the UK may not be what you are used to having access to on your US prospects. Data protection regulations also impact what you can do and how you do it. In this discussion, we will explore themes such as:
PRESENTER:
Kerry Rock has over 30 years’ experience in research, policy and management. She joined Prospecting for Gold in 2012 and currently leads on prospect research consultancy and data protection work. She also runs their training programme, sharing her expertise in webinars and seminars.
Kerry has written hundreds of user-friendly reports and presented to wide-ranging audiences at national and international conferences, seminars and board meetings.
Kerry volunteers both within the charity sector and in her local community. She is a trustee of Cure Parkinson’s (Chairing the Board’s Fundraising & Marketing sub-Committee) and the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust and sits on the Chartered Institute for Fundraising’s Consultants Special Interest Group committee. She is a member of the Market Research Society and president of the UK branch of the University of Melbourne’s Alumni Association. Closer to home, Kerry is a volunteer citizen scientist, helping to protect her local river, the Chess.
This program will be held as a Zoom meeting. Attendees will receive a Zoom link a day before the event. The program will NOT be recorded.
Deadline for registration will be Friday, December 5 at 4PM.
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