Nonprofit Fundraising Certificate
The Elective Learning, Nonprofit Fundraising Certificate was developed by five experienced fundraisers to teach the foundations of philanthropy in the United States and the fundamentals of professional fundraising. We will cover the proven best practices of fundraising, along with practical advice and strategy for Annual Giving, Major Gifts, Planned Giving, Foundation Relations, Grant Writing and Corporate Relations.
These are universal practices that can be used by any organization, no matter the size, scope, or mission. This certificate is designed for individuals looking to begin or transition into a fundraising career, university faculty, nonprofit and higher education leadership, social entrepreneurs, and current development staff.
The Fundraising Certificate is organized into nine courses, each containing sections that cover different aspects of professional fundraising. Courses are followed by a quiz that focuses on lessons learned in the course.
The Fundraising Certificate is 100% online, self-paced, and should take under seven hours to complete.
The Fundraising Certificate is CFRE accredited and approved for 6 hours of continuing education credit. Founded in 2001, CFRE International is an independent nonprofit organization whose sole mission is dedicated to setting standards in philanthropy through a valid and reliable certification process for fundraising professionals.
Instructors
Marian Stern
Marian has over 35 years of experience in philanthropy and fundraising. As the principal of Projects in Philanthropy, she has worked with a wide variety of organizations, providing management and fundraising services, with particular emphasis on fundraising planning, board development and training, strategic planning, meeting facilitation, and professional coaching. She also works with funders to define and implement charitable giving policies. Marian has also been an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising at New York University, a faculty member in the Fundraising Management program at Columbia University and an Adjunct Professor in American Studies at Rutgers University. Marian has a Master’s in Public Administration from the Robert Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Rutgers University.
Adrian Matthys
Adrian Matthys is the Assistant Vice President for Annual Giving at the Oklahoma State University Foundation and has been working in higher education development for 20 years. In addition to his work at OSUF, Adrian has experience at both small private and large public institutions, as well as other nonprofit organizations outside of higher education. Adrian‘s skill sets include direct marketing, reunion giving, leadership annual giving, alumni relations, as well as many other best practices for building top-performing annual giving teams, tactics, and campaigns. Adrian has a passion for annual giving and a great appreciation for educating development teams about the importance of strong sustaining giving programs.
Leighton Wilson
Leighton has over ten years of professional fundraising experience, focusing on major gift development. He is the Chief Development Officer for the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He has worked for the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, LSU Health Shreveport Foundation and Centenary College of Louisiana. Leighton has a Master of Science in Philanthropy and Fundraising from the George Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising at New York University, a Master of Arts in Communication from Baylor University, and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University.
Davida Isaacson
After a successful career in trust and estate banking, Davida became the Director of Planned Giving and Endowments for WNET, the New York public television station. While at WNET, Davida produced training videos for distribution to the public broadcasting stations and began teaching planned giving at New York University. Her teaching career spanned 20 years until retirement in 2018 and included joining the faculty at Columbia University in addition to her being assistant professor at NYU. She has been a nationally recognized speaker on all aspects of planned giving. She served on the Board of the National Committee on Planned Giving and is now President Emeritus at the Philanthropic Planning Group of Greater New York (PPGGNY) from which she received an award for achievement in the planned giving community. In addition to continuing to present to development professionals, Davida is the Senior Philanthropic Advisor for The Seeing Eye, Inc. in Morristown, NJ.
Lily Cabrera
Lily is a professional coach and writer with two decades of nonprofit management experience (diversified experience in higher education, academic medicine, healthcare, and policy). Lily is an experienced nonprofit professional with a track record of developing innovative strategies for donor engagement. Lily possesses a strong background in all facets of development work including major gifts, campaign planning and execution, annual giving, planned giving, institutional giving, special events, prospect research and management, and operations. She is a proud alumna of Dartmouth College and holds an MBA from Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business. Lily completed professional coach training through Coaches Training Institute (CTI).
Certificate Reviews
“The Certificate in Fundraising provides an exceptional education in topics most important to nonprofit development. The lessons presented both a primer on the wide range of fundraising avenues as well as examples that fundraisers can use in their own work. I have applied the examples to my own work in university development and have found success.”
– Kyle Conover, Higher Education Major Gifts, Corporate Relations, and Foundation Relations
“As a small nonprofit, we tend to focus more on daily operations rather than on fundraising. However, we cannot function without funds, and this course gave us numerous practical, usable ideas on how we can more effectively generate the donations that help us accomplish our mission.”
– Ashley Sanchez, Nonprofit Founder