Holiday Fundraising and Public Relations Panel at the Conference

Hello, everyone! Happy Election Day!

The planning for the conference is still going very well. Over the next couple of weeks, leading up to the conference, I will be spotlighting some of the workshops and panels that will be going on during the conference.

During the first morning session, we are going have a panel discussion on Fundraising and PR during the Holiday Season - always an important topic but especially in light of the current economy. We're very excited that our Marketing and Fundraising Coordinator, Cassina Sanders is moderating the panel discussion of proessionals from the media, PR, and fundraising wings. Gordon Mayer, who is vice-president of the Community Media Workshop, will be speaking as a representative of the media community and also of Columbia College, where Community Media Workshop is located.

Also, my good friend Anna Ashbaugh, a client executive at the Public Relations Firm, Burston Marsteller, will be speaking representing corporate PR. Anna's a great fit for this panel because in college, she studied corporate social responsibility as part of her Anthropology Degree and is now a tutor/mentor here at Cabrini Connections.

Finally we have Shane Caterino, who is the Director for Individual and Foundation Giving at the Academy for Urban School Leadership.
Before working at AUSL, Ms. Caterino worked at HSBC and has the dual perspective or working in both the for-profit and not-for-profit realms.

I'm very excited about the great discussion that this panel will generate. At the last conference, many people talked about the lack of workshops or panels on fundraising and I think the conference being on November 21st, the week before the Thanksgiving Holiday is an absolutely opportune time to discuss this.

On another note, I want to remind everyone to vote, no matter who your candidate is. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that many of my peers are voting for the first time in realization of what a momentous election this is. But, most of all, I am absolutely heartened by our Cabrini Connections kids bouncing into the office announcing that they have registered to vote. Hopefully, our new president will be an advocate for kids and will help raise awareness about giving service in a variety of ways both here and abroad.