Please join us at Western Carolina University on October 10 and 11, 2019 for our fall conference! We'll begin with a happy hour and welcome reception on campus from 5 to 6:30 PM on Thursday, Oct. 10, then return refreshed for a great day of content on Friday, Oct. 11.

Both the happy hour and conference sessions will take place in the Sunset Room of Brown Hall; please refer to the WCU campus map for assistance in locating the building. Parking information will come soon.

After your registration is submitted, fill out this RSVP form for your beverage of choice at Happy Hour, and sign up for a FREE Professional Headshot!

This year's session lineup:

The University of Georgia's Holly Weimer will present Stepping Away from Cleanup and Focusing on Meaningful Conversations:

Leadership likes to use the phrase “strategic discussions”, but what does that mean and how do you accomplish it? Learn how we moved away from clean-up focused Prospect Management meetings and transitioned into a more meaningful conversation with Development Officers about their portfolio and prospects.

From Best Friends Animal Society, past Apra Carolinas board member Vicki O'Brien will talk about Prospect Development on a Shoestring:

Best Friends Animal Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing about a time when there are no more homeless pets. They build community partnerships with animal shelters and rescue organizations across the nation and provide these partners with access to a variety of professional resources and mentorship opportunities. Among those resources will be a forthcoming “prospect development on a shoestring” toolkit to help those partners who don’t have a sophisticated development team to raise dollars. Vicki will share their toolkit of prospect research and management resources for smaller non-profit organizations on a limited budget. She will discuss free library resources and open source software, how to leverage volunteers’ expertise, and much more.

And Ginger Cole from Lexis-Nexis will tell attendees about 5 Ways to Find Hidden Gems in Your Prospect Research:

In this session, LexisNexis Prospect Research Consultant, Ginger Cole will share tips on how to expand your prospect research efforts—whether it be to find new donors or to maintain and grow existing donors. There are a wealth of resources available in the market that can help you strategically find and research individuals and companies who meet your target donor profile. Many of these resources are underutilized, but can open a door into new donation opportunities. In this webinar, you will learn some tips such as how to stay better connected with donors, applying a personalized approach to prospective donor outreach, identifying companies with donation matching programs, developing a prospect list based on zip codes and more!

And back by popular demand, a networking extravaganza! This interactive session will separate conference participants into small groups to explore answers to questions regarding common issues in the development world. This will be an opportunity to share your knowledge and learn how others are addressing similar issues.

If that weren't enough, this year, we are extremely excited to be able to offer attendees the opportunity to get professional headshots! A photographer will be on-site before breakout sessions begin to take a great photo for your Apra directory or LinkedIn page. A signup sheet for headshots will be available after registration.

Apra Carolinas will also be giving away a registration for Apra PD 2020, scheduled to take place in Washington, DC next summer, and a registration to the Apra Carolinas Spring 2020 Conference!* You must be present to win, so register soon!

Early bird registration is Thursday, August 15 - Sunday, September 8:

Member fee - $60

Non-member fee - $75 (includes a chapter membership for 2019!)

After September 8, regular registration will be $70 for members and $85 for non-members.

Registration fee includes all conference sessions, a hearty breakfast, lunch, and parking.

We encourage you to book lodging early! We have reserved a block of rooms at the Comfort Inn in Sylva, but they will fill up fast. Call the Comfort Inn at (828) 477-4950 and tell them you are with Apra Carolinas to get a room in the block.

Other hotel options in the area include:

Blue Ridge Inn, 6.1 miles from the university

Quality Inn, 7.3 miles from the university

Holiday Inn Express & Suites, 8.5 miles from the university

Microtel Inn & Suites, 8.6 miles from the university

We also encourage you to check out AirBNB and VRBO in the area.

Cancellation policy: Registrations cancelled up to 2 days before the conference (October 9thth) will be refunded 50% of the registration fee. After that date, there will be no refund for a cancelled registration. You can transfer your registration to another person at any time.

Apra Carolinas would like to thank our sponsors:

LexisNexis

DonorSearch

Bentz Whaley Flessner

iWave

*Raffle is for registration only; no travel, lodging, or food costs will be covered. Board members and vendors are not eligible. You must be present to win.