Associate Director, Planned Giving High Museum Atlanta
Exceptional fundraising leaders don’t just manage teams—they build ecosystems where mentorship, coaching, and sponsorship are woven into the culture itself. This session challenges seasoned executives to move beyond informal mentoring and toward intentional frameworks that develop future leaders, increase retention, and strengthen organizational resilience.
Drawing on two decades of fundraising leadership and real-world case studies, Ken Miller, CFRE, explores how executives can strategically integrate mentorship and sponsorship into the organization’s structure—aligning talent development with mission and measurable outcomes. Participants will learn how to create feedback loops between development and marketing teams, identify and empower internal coaches, and cultivate sponsorship pathways that elevate diverse emerging leaders.
Attendees will leave with actionable strategies and diagnostic tools to assess their current leadership culture, build sustainable mentorship pipelines, and ensure their strategic plans reflect the evolving realities of today’s nonprofit workforce. This is not a theoretical discussion—it’s a leadership blueprint for embedding mentorship as a driver of performance, inclusion, and long-term sustainability.
Learning Objectives:
By attending this session, participants will learn to define the strategic differences between mentorship, coaching, and sponsorship—and apply each intentionally to strengthen leadership capacity, equity, and organizational sustainability.
By attending this session participants will learn to identify and evaluate internal systems, structures, and behaviors that either support or hinder a culture of professional development within fundraising and advancement teams.
By attending this session participants will learn to develop and implement a practical roadmap to embed mentorship and sponsorship into the organization’s strategic plan, leadership succession framework, and performance management practices
