Crescendo celebrated its annual Practical Planned Giving Conference on September 17 and 18 in Orlando, Florida. It was Crescendo's largest user conference in Orlando attended by friends from all across the nation. They gathered to hear keynote speakers Gail Perry and Elizabeth Ayers and an excellent line-up of the nation's top presenters. At the Monday luncheon, GiftLegacy Award winners were announced.
Congratulations to Karla Aho, Director for Gift Planning at Michigan Technological University who received the coveted Emarketer of the Year Award. The university has used Crescendo's GiftLegacy tools and services for over 17 years and in the past three years has raised over $129 million in gifts!
The Best GiftLegacy Website Award was presented to Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. Their planned giving website features a clean and modern look with good use of images, dynamic content and branding. Congratulations also to Calvert Marine Museum and Furman University who received Honorable Mention in the website category.
The Best GiftLegacy Literature Award was presented to the University of Georgia for their beautifully branded suite of marketing materials. Honorable Mention in this category was awarded to The University of Tampa and Elon University.
At the Tuesday luncheon, Russell James received the 2018 GiftLeader Award for his outstanding leadership in Philanthropy. Dr, James is a professor in the Department of Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech University, the leading researcher on bequest and planned gifts in America, a popular author and a positive force in field of philanthropy.
Crescendo Interactive President & CEO Charles Schultz also announced Crescendo's newest innovation for 2018. CresPro Software is now fully cloud-based and includes programs to help close major, blended gifts and planned gifts. Combine CresPro with Crescendo's GiftLegacy Pro marketing service to gain access to the new magazine-quality donor proposals and impress your donors with customized, four-page, color presentations that can be fully branded to reflect your unique mission.
Did you attend this year's Practical Planned Giving Conference? Click the images to take a look back at PPGC 2018:
“Many thanks for another outstanding Conference! We left the conference with a bunch of positive take aways that we'll review this month. Again, thanks for your Gift Planning leadership, best tool bag in the industry!”
“As a seasonal Major Gifts Officer I've "outgrown" other fundraising conferences. I found my 1st PPGC incredibly educational, informative, organized and fun. Thank you for helping me expand confidence with sharing blended gift opportunities with our donors.”
“It was hard to pick from the sessions because they were all good and of interest to me.”
“Always comprehensive and thought out for a variety of topics with great speakers.”
“This was my first Crescendo event. I look forward to another.”
“Thanks for a great conference. You've given me a lot to think about!”
“The conference was focused, relevant, inspiring. I love the spirit of the leadership and staff.”
“Speakers in workshops were interesting, knew their subjects and made it applicable... Donor stories were helpful.”
“The location was perfect and many seminars were related to my job description.”
“What I liked most about PPGC was the education, networking and industry view.”
“I learned advanced and new ways to secure blended and planned gifts.”
“I so enjoyed my experience. I was very impressed with the newest Crescendo tools and am grateful for your efforts and leadership.”
“I appreciated the detailed information in each sessions that was immediately actionable when we get back to work.”
“The Blended Gift emphasis is very appropriate for my situation right now with our $10M campaign.”
“The conference was very well-planned, credible, with knowledgeable speakers and a welcoming atmosphere!”
“The format/schedule was great. Speakers were very knowledgeable and it was a good mix of topics. The other attendees were great to talk to. Thanks for a great conference.”
“PPGC provided ample opportunity for content that was advanced and best in class.”
“Fabulous conference! I love that Crescendo's mission is to make our donors successful.”
“The conference gave me a lot of info to take back and a lot of nuggets on different topics to help me really get going.”
“Sessions had fantastic speakers with substantive info.”
“Overall, I had a fantastic experience.”
“This was super conference! The content, speakers, food and facility were superb.”
“Thanks for the great information and timely content!”
We look forward to seeing you at next year's Practical Planned Giving Conference. Please mark your calendar and plan to join us for PPGC 2019 on September 23 -24 at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center in Chicago.
