2026 ADRP Northeast–Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference

Session Information

Breakout Sessions 1 | Breakout Sessions 2 | Breakout Sessions 3

Breakout Sessions 1

Streamlining Stewardship: A Data-Driven Approach to "Disengaged" Donors
Sara Emmenecker, Associate Director, Stewardship Reporting, Brown University

Donor relations teams devote significant resources to creating custom impact reports, yet engagement metrics often reveal a hard truth: many reports are never accessed. This presentation details the "Disengaged Stewardee Project," a successful initiative designed to address this inefficiency. The session will outline a methodology for identifying disengaged recipients using longitudinal digital report access data, giving history, and other relevant data points. Attendees will learn how Brown University implemented a phased "opt-in" outreach strategy that streamlined the reporting roster — removing more than 400 inactive stewardees and 195 reportable funds (and counting!). The discussion will cover how this reduction allowed for the reallocation of resources toward higher-ROI stewardship efforts and improved data hygiene, all while maintaining donor relationships through careful communication.

Better Together: Team Stewardship, Data & Gifts
Gary Laermer, Senior Consultant, DBD Group

Stewardship is more than a process—it’s an experience that shapes a donor’s lifelong relationship with your mission. This can’t-miss session reframes stewardship as a development office–wide strategy that fuels long-term philanthropic growth. We’ll challenge the outdated divide between “thanking for the last gift” and “asking for the next one,” and introduce a unified, forward-looking approach centered on the donor’s past, present, and future engagement. You’ll learn how to build a powerful “Better Together” team that aligns stewardship, data/CRM, and frontline fundraisers to strengthen major donor relationships. Discover practical strategies to move beyond transactional acknowledgments toward experiential appreciation, compelling impact storytelling, and data-informed prospecting. We’ll also explore how evolving donor expectations—personalized giving, transparency, and values-driven engagement—are reshaping philanthropy. Walk away with a clear, actionable roadmap to deepen commitment, elevate retention, and accelerate major gift growth. If you’re ready to transform stewardship into a strategic engine for campaign success, this session belongs on your schedule.

Breakout Sessions 2

Stewardship by Design, Not by Default
Safia Al-Sadoon, Senior Associate Director of Donor Relations, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

How can donor relations teams move from reactive reporting to proactive strategy? This session shares how Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia operationalized a vision for proactive stewardship through structured portfolio reviews, pipeline governance tools, and data-informed engagement strategies. Learn how recurring alignment meetings, gift audits, and forward-looking tracking systems helped anticipate reporting needs, smooth production cycles, and strengthen cross-functional trust. The session also explores how digital analytics and AI-assisted narrative refinement support continuous improvement. Attendees will leave with practical tools and a strategic framework to elevate stewardship from fulfillment to partnership.

NRDC's Digital Stewardship Transformation
Elizabeth Maguire, Associate Director, Donor Stewardship, Natural Resources Defense Council
Remy Erkel, Associate Account Executive, Ovrture

NRDC's small stewardship team doubled their report output in one year and finally got data back on how their donors are engaging. In this session, NRDC's Elizabeth Maguire and Ovrture's Remy Erkel tell the honest story of going from Word documents and static PDFs to web-based stewardship reports. You'll hear what worked (modular content, audience segmentation, engagement analytics), what didn't (a 20% open rate that taught them the importance of gift officer follow-up), and what they'd do differently. Elizabeth will share how a 2.5-minute average donor viewing time mitigated internal arguments about report length, and how analytics are now shaping stewardship strategy for entirely new donor populations. Practical, experience-based advice for any organization considering digital stewardship platforms. Bring your questions.

Fractional, Consultant, Freelancer, Part-Time: How to Get What You Really Need
Kathleen Diemer, Founder & Owner, KM Diemer Consulting
Debbie Meyers, Writer/Editor, Rutgers University Foundation | Chief Inspiration Officer, EDiT!, Rutgers University | EDiT!

Almost every donor relations and stewardship shop needs more help, but very few get more budget. While everyone is focused on using AI to lighten the load, there are many aspects of our work that require human analysis, experience, and knowledge. So how do you get the people and work product you need without breaking the bank? What sort of human resources are out there that can help? Knowing what types of support are available and when to use each can increase the capacity of your team without destroying your budget. Learn more about the various types of support, how they operate, and when to consider each for your team’s needs.

Breakout Sessions 3

What We Wish We'd Known Before Going Digital
Jenna Antenucci, Director of Stewardship and Donor Relations, Sienna College
Kate Frinton, Assistant Director, Stewardship Donor Relations, Siena University

Over the past few years, Siena University's two-person donor relations team has printed and mailed reports by hand, navigated a digital platform that didn’t deliver what they needed, and spent a full reporting cycle manually collating and emailing PDFs before finally finding a digital platform that actually works for them. In this session, Jenna Antenucci and Kate Frinton share the full arc of that journey, from snail mail to a fully digital stewardship program that produces personalized, photo-rich donor reports at scale. You'll hear what drove each transition, how they evaluated and selected tools, what it took to get leadership buy-in (side-by-side template comparisons were key), and what they'd do differently. Practical, candid, and directly applicable for any team weighing a change. Bring your questions, and expect to leave with actionable advice on how to best evaluate your options.

Fund and Scholarship Stewardship Practices in a Decentralized Environment
Lauren Jesmer, Assistant Director of Stewardship Impact Reporting, The UConn Foundation, Inc.
Shannon Dowling, Director of Fund Administration, The UConn Foundation, Inc.

Fund stewardship is essential to nurturing trusting relationships between our organizations and donors. But how do you ensure the information you’re sharing is accurate and timely when it’s coming from all over the place? This session will share strategies and tips for building relationships between key stakeholders, including finance, donor relations, and the units that distribute and/or benefit from the funds, to create a structure for fund administration and stewardship reporting that shows impact and fosters transparency.