June is Pride Month! We are proud to celebrate the progress that has been made for our LGBTQ+ community and members this Pride Month. The AFP Chicago LGBTQ+ Affinity Group advances conversations and learning throughout the year to raise awareness and allyship.

Join the AFP Chicago LGBTQ+ Affinity Group for a Pride Social on June 14th!

Welcoming Our New Members

If your name is not included, please contact Shawn Jezak at shawn@afpchicago.org.

In my position at Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, I assist in all development efforts including maintaining the donor database and creating acknowledgment letters/emails. I am transitioning into taking the lead as the main contact and recruiter for our Bank of America Chicago Marathon running team. I create reports to reconcile online donations with bank statements, maintain communications with monthly donors, produce bi-annual engagement reports for the Associate Board members, and respond to general inquiries through the website and social media.

I am new to the fundraising profession. One of my career goals is to bring in more monthly donors. Even though I am currently focusing on maintaining monthly donors, I am eager to learn more and curious to learn about the things I do not know. Because I am so new to fundraising, I expect this fellowship to help me uncover pipelines to potential donors and help with peer-to-peer fundraising techniques.

Let’s enjoy the start of summer with our fellow AFP Chicago members! Meet us in the Healing Garden at UCAN, 3605 W. Fillmore Street in Chicago, for some great face-to-face conversation and relationship building. This event is open to members and non-members, so bring a friend! Read More

As fundraisers navigate their careers during this era of great transformation, we often hear from recruiters representing clients both near and far. What are best practices for working with these firms? How can you maximize the influence of these professionals to find your next opportunity? If you have these questions, and more, please join AFP Chicago for our first-ever IDEA career event.

Open to members and non-members, this two-part virtual event will feature a panel discussion of recruiters followed by networking breakouts led by search firms. We hope you’ll gain some insight on how to work with these impactful partners. Fundraisers from communities underrepresented in leadership roles are highly encouraged to attend.

Greater Chicago Food Depository

4100 W Ann Lurie Pl, Chicago, IL 60632

Join AFP Chicago's LatinX Affinity Group on Saturday, July 9th from 1:00 - 3:00 pm to volunteer with the Greater Chicago Food Depository. We are looking forward to seeing each other in person and helping out our local communities. Non-members are welcome to join. Read More

According to the article Transformational Leadership: Guide Your Nonprofit to Success, “transformational leadership is a style of management that hinges on communication and emotional intelligence to transform existing structures to be better for workers as opposed to making workers conform to the outdated structures.” James MacGregor Burns, in his seminal book, Leadership, further explains that leadership is “relational, collective, and purposeful.” In most organizations, leading with the mission is the essence of transformational leadership.

Jen Bokoff: I was thrilled to speak about "Fundraising for Disability without ‘Inspiration Porn’ or Exploitation" at AFP ICON. We had over 60 people in our session with a wide range of disability fundraising experience—and many attendees themselves identified as disabled. My co-presenter Danielle Kempe and I met on Twitter a few years ago, so this was our first time actually meeting IRL! Toward the end of the presentation, we shared writing tips which included: 1. Avoid ableist words and phrases, 2. Ask people how they want to be identified and follow their lead, 3. Use first-hand quotes and stories with authenticity and transparency, 4. Move from seeking pity to underscoring rights, 5. Contextualize disability as 1 in 4 adults in the US, 1 in 7 people globally, 1 in 5 women globally—it can be anyone at any time, 6. Acknowledge intersections with all other identities and issues, and 7. And please please PLEASE use the word disability! Shout out to my AFP-Chicago mentor Ray Crosland, who attended the session and made some great comments during the interactive portion!

Marisa Castillo, Chamberlain Scholar: I have spent the past few days reflecting on my experience at AFP ICON. Receiving an additional scholarship from AFP Chicago to help cover my airfare and housing during ICON is exactly what equity is. As I sat in on various workshops on some of the best practices in fundraising, I realized how important scholarships are in professional development. To keep it short, there is absolutely no way I or my employee could have afforded to send me to ICON. I thought of all my fundraiser of color friends who are in the same boat, who like me, deserve to be in the room learning new best practices on how to do our jobs better. I am so grateful to have been given the resources to attend AFP ICON so that I can develop the tools I need to be a better fundraiser and colleague. I can't wait to share what I've learned with my colleagues and start putting these new ideas into practice. Thanks AFP Chicago for believing in me!

Kimberly Vann: This was the third AFP ICON I attended and was thrilled to see more diverse panelists and attendees. I appreciated the variety of topics and look forward to hearing recordings of the workshops I missed. An added bonus was the informal but equally important networking that occurred in between sessions.

David J. Koo of Roundtable Healthcare Partners Elected Shedd Aquarium Board Chair

Shedd Aquarium’s Board of Trustees has elected David J. Koo as the organization’s new Board Chair. Koo is a Senior Advisor at RoundTable Healthcare Partners – a firm he has worked for since its inception in 2001 – and serves on the board of several other non-profit institutions.

Dr. Omar Lateef named CEO of Rush University System for Health

Effective July 1, 2022, Dr. Omar Lateef will serve in the system-wide role of president and CEO of RUSH, while continuing as president and CEO of RUSH University Medical Center.

AFP Chicago now offers on demand workshops! These are previously recorded workshops that offer full CFRE credit. Available to AFP Chicago members and non-members. Visit the AFP Chicago website for more information and to register. Once you complete your registration you will receive a link to watch the recorded webinar.

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If you have news to share relating to the fundraising industry please email your story and a photo to shelbi@afpchicago.org. Submissions will be subject to approval.