I’m looking forward to joining a small, bright band of nonprofit execs, consultants, editors and other assorted members of our fundraising tribe on May 9^th in Philadelphia for Fundraising Success magazine’s first Engage Conference.

The format of the conference is quite different from the usual DMA, AFP, DMFA gatherings. First of all, it’s deliberately small so folks can actually discuss the subject matter and do some serious networking. Second, it’s focused on case studies, with the aim of illustrating the steps a few organizations — Operation Smile, The American Bible Society, and The Human Rights Campaign — took to create truly breakthrough fundraising programs.

For those Agitator readers based in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, its location in Philadelphia makes it easy to get there on Amtrak. As a special inducement, Agitator readers receive a $75 discount on the conference fee. Just use the Discount Code “Agitator 75” when registering. You can register here.

I’m going to kick off the conference with a conversation on what I call “Fairy Tale Fundraising” — the body of myths, misguided metrics and everyone-does-it practices that virtually assure failure in today’s world.

Specifically, I’ll identify the major land mines and trends that threaten today’s and tomorrow’s success; explain what fundamental changes in Mindsets, Methods and Metrics are essential for growth; and suggest why and how most organizations should re-organize immediately.

Most of all, I’m looking forward to — at last! — personally meeting folks whose blogs I’ve read and whose work I admire. Folks like Pamela Grow, Kivi Leroux Miller, Marc Pitman and Nancy Schwartz.

To top it off, lots of contributors to Fundraising Success will be there — Jeff Jowdy, Tom Harrison, Karin Kirchoff, Kevin Schulman, Jo Sullivan — and of course Fundraising Success’ own Chief Editor Margaret Battistelli Gardner and Managing Editor Joe Boland. You’ll find mug shots and bios of the cast of characters right here.

If possible I hope you’ll attend, and I also urge you to take advantage of the Agitator discount when you register today.

Roger

P.S. As an added bonus on May 8^th there’s a Pre-Conference Direct Mail Workshop led by Pamela Barden with a panel of Fundraising Success experts. This promises to be a fast-paced, highly interactive workshop where participants will learn what’s working and what’s not in direct mail fundraising and get suggestions on how to improve their packages, as well as get an up close and personal look at what your peers are doing.

You may also use your “Agitator 75” discount code for this session and register for both the dm workshop and the Engage Conference with an All Access Pass.