Anne T. Melvin

Senior Learning Consultant

124 Mt. Auburn Street
Cambridge , MA 02138
United States

AnneMelvin@DynamicFundraisingTraining.com

Anne Melvin has worked both as a volunteer and a professional in the field of development for over 30 years. She is a nationally-known speaker in the world of fundraising, presenting at fundraising conferences and training development teams nationwide through Dynamic Fundraising Training. Her passion is helping others learn how to be better fundraisers so we can all do more for the world. She specializes in donor motivation, cultivation and solicitation and has expertise in adult learning. At Harvard University, Anne is the Senior Learning Consultant to the central university fundraising operation. In the course of her 27+ years at Harvard, she has run the gamut of development teams including the annual fund, major gifts, stewardship, and gift planning, finally landing on her current passion—professional development of those who raise money. Prior to joining the nonprofit world, Anne practiced real estate law in the Boston area. She is a cum laude graduate of Williams College and holds a J.D. from the Boston University School of Law. Anne serves on more boards and volunteer committees than she currently has time for and is a lapsed rugby player with an undiagnosed gardening addiction. She races bicycles for 545 Velo Women, a cycling club in Metrowest Boston, and has more bikes than she’s admitted to her husband. As a recovering-Midwesterner from Columbus, Ohio, and a confirmed extrovert, Anne continues to talk to strangers wherever she goes, to the great consternation of her two children and husband.

Leadership Institute, CGP Conference Speaker

It’s About Time: Managing Your Most Precious Resource

Did you ever wish the day had 28 hours because you can't get everything done in 24? The endless development treadmill of doing, doing, doing can drive you crazy, and often leaves you feeling like you're doing more 'churn' with less 'return'. Get off the hamster wheel and explore proven ways to cut down on wasteful activities, increase your productivity, and get more of the important work done. You'll learn details about your personal work-style that might be contributing to your problem, and pick up tips that will help you ease time-tension in your work and personal life. Claw back valuable time in your day, allowing you to find and close more gifts. Learn how to move the dial to make the most of your most precious resource. Don't you think it's time? Learning objectives: • Understand how to work more efficiently, not harder • Determine your personal work style • Tips that allow you to cut down on unproductive activities • Ways to say 'no' to additional work that will not advance your goals and objectives

Pivoting - The Secret to Successfully Handling Difficult Donor Conversations

Every gift officer faces tough cultivation situations. Perhaps the charity makes a misstep or faces a scandal. Maybe the prospect feels strongly negative about a key aspect of the institution. Sometimes there is simply an emotional issue the donor can't get past. All of these can bring a promising gift trajectory to a screaming halt. The successful officer has learned how to handle these tricky situations with grace (if not ease!) by pivoting and reframing the situation for the prospect. This session explores some of these tough situations, breaking down the secrets of effective pivoting into several easy-to-remember rules that can apply in most situations. We will also engage in two tough situation role-plays, allowing officers to explore using his or her newly-learned skills in real-life situations so officers will be prepared the next time a prospect’s objections threatens to derail cultivation toward a major or annual gift. Learning Objectives: • How to pivot the conversation to take it in a different direction • The five basic strategies of pivoting • Ways to keep moving a prospect conversation toward a gift, when it's about to be derailed and come to a screeching halt Video interview on pivoting: http://www.amyeisenstein.com/how-to-pivot-difficult-donors-interview-anne-melvin/

The Science (and Art) of Persuasion

At its heart, fundraising is about persuading people to give away money. How the best fundraisers do it is an intangible art, but there is hard science behind the six universal principles of social influence that sway people: liking; authority; reciprocation; social proof; scarcity; and commitment and consistency. We will examine each of these, how we unknowingly use them, how we can use them more intentionally, and putting them to good use for the charities we care about. First, we’ll dive into social science experiments that underlie the six principles of social influence. Next, we’ll look at ways to apply those principles to your one-to-one interactions with prospects as well as marketing. Sometimes small changes in presentation or behavior can yield large changes – and larger gifts. Make sure you understand the subtle, unspoken language of social influence, and that you’re not accidentally “saying” the wrong thing to prospects. Learning Objectives: • Understand the six social science principles of liking, social proof, reciprocity, authority, commitment and consistency, and scarcity • Learn ways to use all of these principles in your fundraising practice with prospects and donors, marketing pieces, and volunteers • Understand the unspoken and little-understood forces that motivate all of us • Secure more gifts by understanding how to apply these principles to your daily work

Marketing/Cultivation, Case Studies

Time management , donor psychology; difficult cultivations, cultivation, solicitation, asking for a bequest and many, many more!

Anne

Melvin

AnneMelvin@DynamicFundraisingTraining.com

Please see my website for a full list of my training topics. Fees available upon request. https://www.dynamicfundraisingtraining.com/trainings

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