Apra-IL Fall Symposium 2025

Apra-IL Fall Symposium

Friday, September 12th, 2025, 9:30 AM CT

2025 Symposium Schedule

9:30 AM	Conference registration & refreshments
10:00 AM	Apra-IL President's remarks
10:15 AM	Where Insight Meets Impact:    Turning Dashboards into Dollars   Ron Eisenstein, EverTrue
11:00 AM	Break
11:15 AM	In-person networking activity
12:00 PM	Lunch (provided by DePaul Catering)
1:00 PM	From Ancestors to Assets: Unearthing   Connections Through Genealogy and   Prospect Research   Rachel Hammond, The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago
1:45 PM	Portfolios in Different Area Codes:   Building a Location-Focused Approach to   Assessing Capacity from Real Estate   Lee May, The University of Chicago
2:30 PM	Break
2:45 PM	In-person roundtable discussions
3:30 PM	Alumni Engagement Scores: A Kellogg Case Study    Liam Sexton, Northwestern University   Kellogg School of Management
4:15 PM	Final remarks
4:30 PM	Happy hour (more information to come)

Session Overviews

Dashboards shouldn’t just look good -- they should do good. In fundraising, the most effective dashboards are not only visually engaging but also deeply embedded into the daily rhythm of your organization. They drive action, support strategic decision-making, and empower people -- not replace them. By embedding best practices directly into the dashboards themselves, you create tools that guide behavior and elevate performance. In this session, Ron Eisenstein shares insights from his 25 years of experience in fundraising analytics to explore how great dashboards blend design, functionality, and the human touch. You’ll learn how to create dashboards that generate gifts, integrate into business processes, and change the way you work.

Speaker Bio: Ron Eisenstein has worked in data systems and nonprofit fundraising for over 20 years. Currently, he is the Senior Engineering Manager for EverTrue, a fundraising software company based out of Boston, MA. Previously, Ron co-founded the Solas Group, a boutique fundraising analytics firm that was a pioneer in using data engineering and predictive for higher education advancement before its acquisition by EverTrue in 2022. Ron also spent 17 years in the advancement department at DePaul University, where he held roles such as Assistant Vice President of Advancement Services and Senior Director of Advancement Data Systems.

Ron is a seasoned conference speaker, having spoken at major fundraising events such as Apra PD, CASE V and CASE DRIVE, the aasp Summit, CAISD, and more. A two-time Tableau Ambassador, Ron regularly creates and guests in official Tableau webinar content. He is the co-founder and leader of the Advancement Tableau User Group, which brings together over 500 fundraising analytics professionals to share ideas, best practices, and strategies for visualizing advancement data in Tableau. He is also a co-founder of the Association of Advancement Services Professionals (aasp).

Genealogy is more than a personal pastime—it’s a strategic asset in the prospect researcher’s toolkit. In this session, we’ll explore how tracing family history can reveal critical relational insights, uncover hidden philanthropic patterns, and strengthen the overall quality of donor intelligence. Attendees will gain clarity on who can and should undertake genealogical research, when it is most appropriate and impactful, and why it matters within the broader context of advancement strategy. We’ll examine the natural intersections between genealogy and prospect research, including how each discipline informs and enhances the other. The session will also cover the specific types of data to pursue—such as legacy affiliations, intergenerational giving, and family networks—and introduce tools and resources that support the discovery and mapping of family trees. Whether you’re new to genealogy or looking to refine your approach, this session will equip you with practical insights to turn ancestry into actionable advancement outcomes.

Speaker Bio: Rachel Hammond is the Donor Research Coordinator for the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. Starting her career in advancement services at her alma mater, Hammond learned the importance of donor cultivation, retention, and engagement as a student caller, call center manager, and advancement intern. As a student caller, she raised funds for scholarships by establishing relationships with alumni and friends of the college, instilling in her a passion for cultivation. After one year of being a student caller and securing the largest gift during the spring giving season, she was promoted to be the student call center manager, where she assigned calling pools, trained students in the calling program, and mentored them as they finished out their college careers. Learning the value of retention in this role, Hammond strived to see her college colleagues succeed just as she did and continue the legacy of the student calling program.

As the advancement intern, Hammond harnessed her passion for engagement and development as she built the in-house calling program, implemented the student philanthropy association, and learned about each role in advancement services. This experience led her to the position she holds today at Moody, where she harnesses all the skills she learned at her alma mater, as well as the ability to uncover key wealth indicators and harness her research skills to find hidden gems in the CRM.

Hammond also has a passion for serving the APRA community! She is the secretary and Communications Chair for the APRA Indiana Board of Directors and the chair of Apra International's Education and Professional Development (EPD) committee. She loves giving back to the APRA community as they have poured into her for the past three and a half years!

• Portfolios in Different Area Codes: Building a Location-Focused Approach to Assessing Capacity from Real Estate
  

A $1M property may be a lavish mansion in one location and a tiny shoebox apartment in another, with each owner likely feeling very different about their personal level of wealth. In the current era of housing bubbles and rising prices, using the same approach to assessing capacity from real estate value for both owners presents several pitfalls.

This presentation will articulate why an organization should factor differences in location, specifically local or regional real estate markets, into how they assess capacity from real estate value. It will use the University of Chicago’s current efforts to evaluate and update our methodology as an example, including detailing the impetus and rationale for the review, the University's approach, and preliminary outcomes. Finally, it will present suggestions for how organizations can evaluate their current methodology through this lens, as well as highlight datasets and metrics that organizations of all sizes and resource levels can use to structure a location-focused approach.

Conference attendees should join this session if:

- Their gift officers or stakeholders have ever pushed back on or questioned how they assess capacity from real estate in different markets.

- They're looking for ways to balance doing more researcher-driven capacity ratings faster while still providing thoughtful, actionable analysis.

- They're interested in factoring location into how they assess capacity from real estate or expanding an existing approach, but aren't sure where to start and/or have limited resources available.

Speaker Bio: Lee May has nearly a decade of experience across a variety of roles and functions within the fundraising industry, including prospect development, frontline fundraising, direct mail, membership programs, events, and corporate relations.

He is currently an Associate Director, Research with University of Chicago Advancement, where he leads a team providing prospect development support, insights, and analysis to the University’s academic divisions, professional schools, and arts and culture units. Lee was previously a Senior Analyst on the team, working directly with the arts and culture units.

Prior to joining the Research team, Lee was an Assistant Director on the University’s Foundation and Corporate Relations team as well as a Major Gift Officer with the Museum of Science and Industry (now the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry). He got his start in the advancement industry at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, where he held positions ranging from part-time intern to leading the organization’s development office.

Lee has a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor’s Degree in History and Political Science from Michigan State University.

• Alumni Engagement Scores: A Kellogg Case Study

For the last two years, Liam Sexton has worked on an alumni engagement model scoring process to measure the level of engagement among Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management alumni. This score sums engagement levels along many different datapoints, producing a single engagement metric which we use to identify an alumni's perceived level of engagement with the school. Building on this metric, Liam has built and implemented a probability model for the likeliness of a Kellogg alumnus to engage in student support activities - including admissions calls, admissions interviews, committee participation, event speakers and hosts, and more.

Speaker Bio: Liam Sexton is a Senior Business Analyst on Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management's Advancement Analytics team, with over eleven years of alumni relations and development experience. As a trained data scientist, his role focuses on data capture, modeling, and governance efforts. Prior to his current role, he supported Prospect Management and IT services at Northwestern University and at  Indiana University Foundation. He holds a Master’s degree in Data Science from Northwestern University and is currently finishing his MBA at University of Illinois. When not writing code, he enjoys watching Hoosier and Wildcat football games.