Speaking
The following list highlights Bill's recent and notable speaking engagements and reviews. See the home page for upcoming speaking engagements.
- Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits, Washington, DC, October 3-5, 2011: "Improving Communications by Avoiding Common Mistakes with Mailings from The Raiser’s Edge" (rating of 3.9/4 on "The speaker was knowledgeable about the subject and clearly communicated the information") and co-presenter on "The Business of Fundraising"
- Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits, Washington, DC, October 20-22, 2010: "Creating Effective Policy and Procedure Documentation for The Raiser's Edge" (links for the session materials: the Powerpoint slides, handout of example 1, handout of example 2, the presentation on YouTube as recorded by Blackbaud) and co-presenter on "The Role of the Database Administrator in the Development Shop" (click here for the slides) (Top rated External Speaker, with one session's score 3.99/4)
- AFP Golden Gate Chapter Fundraising Fundamentals, San Francisco, CA, April 16, 2010: "For Fundraisers Too!: Development Mailings and Your Fundraising Database (Not Just for Database Administrators)" (click here for the slides)
- AFP International Conference on Fundraising, Baltimore, MD, April 14, 2010: "For Fundraisers Too!: The NON-Technical Knowledge a Fundraiser Should Have to Interact with and Manage the Fundraising Database Staff" (speaker rating 6.46/7, average speaker rating 5.66/7) (click here for the slides)
- Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits, Charleston, SC, November 15-18, 2009: Speaker on “Creating Doable and Usable Policies and Procedures Documentation for The Raiser’s Edge” (Top 10 speaker for the 8th consecutive year; part 2 of session rated 3.96/4 and speaker knowledge 4.0/4)
- AFP Fundraising Day, San Francisco, CA, May 2009: co-presented on “The Care and Feeding of Donor Databases” (speaker rating 4.69/5) and “Mega Mailing Mania” (speaker rating 4.38/5)
- Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits, Charleston, SC, November 16-19, 2008: “Successful Mailings in The Raiser's Edge” (click here for a copy of the slides), “Creating Doable and Usable Policies and Procedures Documentation for The Raiser’s Edge,” and pre-conference session (3.5 hours) on “Reports You Should Run” (Top 10 speaker at the conference)
- Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits, Charleston, SC, November 11-14, 2007: “Getting the Best Success with Mailings from The Raiser's Edge” (highlighted speaker and session in Blackbaud marketing materials for this conference), “Reports You Should Run” and pre-conference session (3.5 hours) on “Achieving Perfection: Setting up the Ideal Raiser’s Edge Database” (Top 10 speaker at the conference)
- Blackbaud’s Canadian Conference for Nonprofits, Vancouver, BC, May 31-June 1, 2007: “The Roles and Tasks of a Raiser's Edge Database Administrator” (overall rating, 3.88/4, evaluation comments of “best,” “great,” “excellent” and “FABULOUS” [sic]) and “Integrating The Raiser’s Edge with Your Accounting Software” (speaker knowledge and presentation ratings, 3.82/4)
- California Advancement Researcher’s Association Conference, Costa Mesa, CA, October 2006: “Major Gifts, Major Data—Major Headache?: Managing Data for the Major Gifts Process in Your Fundraising Database” (Session Evaluation Forms averaged “Excellent” with comments of “Excellent Public Speaker, Expert on Topic,” “very good at explaining,” “good ideas,” “good call to action on a powerful approach to philanthropy,” and “really wonderful.”)
- AFP National Philanthropy Day Conference, Honolulu, HI, November 2005: “Taming the Beast: The Seven Most Common Mistakes Made with Fundraising Databases” and “Turn Your One-Time Annual Gifts into Recurring Gifts” (“Your sessions were among the most well-received and rated among the highest.”)
- AFP Fundraising Day, San Francisco, CA, June 2005: “Using Technology to Implement a Recurring Giving Program”
- AFP International Conference on Fundraising, Baltimore, MD, April 2005: “Implementing a Recurring Giving Program” (overall rating, 6.52/7; speaker knowledge, 6.82/7)
- Blackbaud’s 2004 European Conference, London, November 2004: various topics (Top 10 Speaker)
- Blackbaud’s Conference on Philanthropy, Charleston, SC, October 2000-2004: various topics (Top 10 speaker every year)
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There is honestly nobody I can recommend more highly than Bill Connors. He took us from a clumsy system to The Raiser’s Edge. It seemed like nothing less than a miracle that he was able to convert our data, which was admittedly a mess (!), into The Raiser’s Edge, and give us a working system that we all love. He is a Raiser’s Edge EXPERT, in the truest sense of the word. He has deep knowledge of every aspect of RE.
In addition to knowing the system inside and out, he is a great person. We all enjoyed working with him, and we miss him! Bill is also extremely organized – doesn’t waste a minute of your time and money. Our CFO – a very tough customer – felt completely at ease that we were getting more than our money’s worth from Bill.
I’ve worked with many consultants over my years in Development, and Bill is by far the best I’ve ever encountered.
You’re lucky to have found him, and you’ll be smart to hire him!
Director of Development
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