Apra Carolinas 2024 Fall Conference in Review

Written By: Jenny Bunn

This October, prospect research, development, and nonprofit professionals from across the Carolinas met at Clemson University for a one day conference. Held at the Madren Center on Clemson’s campus, the conference was chock-full of compelling speakers balanced with time for fellowship and networking. 

I appreciate that the Apra Carolinas conference features sessions led by both nationally known speakers and local colleagues. It is a way to hear both big picture ideas and creative, practical applications on an institutional level. After a warm welcome from Brian O’Rourke, VP of Advancement at Clemson, the conference kicked off with a session from Jim Langley. In his session - It’s About Meaningful Interactions, not Moves Management - Jim spoke about maintaining consistent elements in a donor’s biography or record so that a relationship could be managed by anyone. It was an a-ha moment for me - my VC has encouraged our team to know the answers to a list of 10 questions for our donors - but we don’t actually record those answers into a shared action, note, or bio. So what if we did? How might that impact the way we are able to interact with our donors over a length of time, even if individual staff members don’t remain with our institution? I was furiously scribbling notes - arrows pointing to new thoughts, words with boxes drawn around them - whatever I could do to attempt to solidify my thoughts so that I could effectively communicate them later to my team.

Chris Copsey’s session made it seem easy - or at least attainable! - to create a custom AI chatbot. Katalina Williams and Kayla Ly discussed remote onboarding strategies, which I need to revisit as I work on updating some elements of our training guide. During Cecelia Poplin and Marianne Pelletier’s sessions, both of which focused on the potential benefits of AI in prospect research, my takeaways included using AI to automate alerts and to summarize family relationships from obituaries, marriage announcements and company bios. 

I very much enjoyed the built-in networking activities. Not only was I able to meet new people in our shared field, I was able to learn about the work of other non-profit organizations in the region, including one dedicated to conservation in the area where I grew up. Over breakfast and lunch, I learned who was an EMT, who was a Weird Al fan (surprisingly - or not! - there were more than a few of us), and who was baking with apples for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Since I mainly see my Apra colleagues over Zoom, it was really quite wonderful to be together in-person and to be surrounded by people who are working hard to make the world a better place.

And speaking of making the world a better place, it was announced that a portion of the conference fees would be donated to non-profit organizations in the Carolinas working to mitigate the destruction in our region of Hurricane Helene. As we face a long recovery from this devastating storm, the board and membership of Apra Carolinas stepped forward with thoughtfulness and constructiveness to be a part of the solution. 

Thank you to Apra Carolinas for a fabulous Fall Conference - already ready for the next one!