Conference Sessions

May 17, 2022 MAC West

7:30 to 8:30 am. – Registration and Continental Breakfast

Program line-up 

8:30 to 9:30 am. – High Propensity Donors

Speaker: Eddie Thompson, Ed.D., FCEP, Founder and CEO – Thompson and Associates

About the presentation: This session will reveal the fourteen characteristics of high propensity donors.

Speaker bio: By creating a unique values-based model at Thompson & Associates, Eddie and his team have established a way for people to dedicate the necessary time to consider important life decisions and to engage in thoughtful discussion that leads to optimal results for all. Eddie speaks to organizations from coast to coast on successful fundraising techniques, nonprofit management and charitable estate planning and has garnered many honors during his distinguished career. He will address the 14 characteristics of high propensity donors and best methods and techniques, which high propensity donors find attractive.

9:30 to 10:30 am. – How to Ask for a Planned Gift

Speaker: Carol Weisman, MSW, CSP President – Board Builders

About the presentation:  There are many taboo subjects in our world. Death is certainly a part of that list. Ask any pro at planned giving if it is a conversation about dying. They will tell you it is about living, leaving a lasting legacy and making changes for good even if a donor has passed. But how to have this conversation. We will explore the words to use, the person you might want to take with you, how the conversation would flow. This will be a highly interactive session. 

Speaker bio: Carol Weisman has a new business card: It reads “Retired professional speaker, author and social worker. Available for pickleball, bridge, pro bono nonprofit consulting, improv comedy and other assorted shenanigans.” 

After 28 years of consulting, 11 books, serving on 42 boards and working with clients around the world, Carol is coming out of retirement to join us at our conference.

10:30 to 10:50 am. – Break

10:50 to 11:50 am. – Wealth in America

Speaker: William R. Emmons, PhD., Assistant Vice President and Economist – Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

About the presentation: Household wealth exceeded $140 trillion in mid-2021, having doubled in less than a decade. Relative to national income, wealth is at an all-time high.

Yet, even as many Americans struggle to live healthy, fulfilling lives, wealth is distributed very unevenly across the population.

Along with far-sighted public policies, private philanthropy can play an important role in improving the lives of those who are less fortunate. There can be no better time to bring all of our national resources to bear on these goals than now, in a time of plenty.

Speaker bio: William R. Emmons is lead economist in the Division of Supervision, Credit and Learning at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and serves as an Adjunct Professor of Finance in the John M. Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. He co-founded and served as the lead economist in the Center for Household Financial Stability from 2013 to 2020.

12:00 to 1:00 p.m. – Lunch