125: #CareerCurious with Devon Villa Gessert: The Path to Leadership

Working across many areas of higher education, Aisha Maddox shares how her genuine curiosity led her to a fulfilling career in prospect development. In this episode, she shares the power of asking questions, the impact of community through APRA, and the many hats she wears as Director of Research and Relationship Management at Rollins College. Resources Mentioned Connect with Aisha: LinkedIn Learn more: Rollins College Advancement Join the Village: APRA Florida | APRA International

Bethany Morley, Director of Prospect Strategy and Research at West Chester University Foundation, combines frontline fundraising experience with genealogical expertise. She reveals how targeted portfolio adjustments yielded significant results, including a $1.5M planned gift. Connect with Bethany: LinkedIn Learn more: West Chester University Foundation  

Janet Weimar shares how the University of Iowa reimagined qualification and major gift portfolios for greater clarity and collaboration within the entire team. Connect with Janet: LinkedIn

Janna Lee shares top tips for keeping prospects engaged during staff turnover

For Carol Horner philanthropy is about more than making a donation, it’s a lifestyle. Connect with Carol: LinkedIn | Spiral of Accountability book | Synchronicity Website Connect with Rotary: Rotary International | Rotary of Council Bluffs Noon | The Rotary Foundation  

Ruthie Giles explains the route from organized chaos to managed portfolios.

Devon Villa Gessert shares how she made the leap from doing to planning.  >> Read More on the Learning Edge Blog

Raul Peralta, CEO and Founder of Kaleidoscope on making it easier to research financial filings. Additional Resources Connect with Raul Peralta: LinkedIn | Website Towards Data Science | https://towardsdatascience.com | Blog: “The world’s leading publication for data science, AI, data analytics, data engineering and ML professionals.” MarkTechPost Media | https://www.marktechpost.com Bindu Reddy on X | https://x.com/bindureddy | She talks about her company, Abacus.ai a lot, but she posts a lot of great content on AI and LLMs. Apra PRSPCT-L | You need to create a free account with what is now officially the Apra Exchange forums, but it originated as an old fashioned list-serv called PRSPCT-L. You’ll find an Read more

Learn how Sarah Cadbury brought value with automated insights Connect with Sarah Cadbury | LinkedIn | GGA Bio Prospect Development: Rethink How You Categorize Prospects | Sarah Cadbury | Grenzebach Glier and Associates | 2023 Breaking up Is Hard to Do: When Your Organization and Industry Best Practices Grow Apart | Sarah Cadbury | Apra Connections | 2024 Read more

Meta Stange shares how INN manages and leverages the NewsMatch program for its nonprofit news members. Additional Resources Connect with Meta Stange | LinkedIn Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) | A network of 450 nonprofit newsrooms dedicated to providing independent, nonpartisan news coverage as a public service. NewsMatch | NewsMatch is a collaboration of funders, supported through the Fund for Nonprofit News, an open collaborative fund at The Miami Foundation, managed by the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), and learning partner, News Revenue How Funders Support Journalism with Ease and Precision | Chronicle of Philanthropy | 10/27/2023  How This Nationwide Matching Gift Campaign Galvanizes Support for Nonprofit News Outlets| Inside Philanthropy | 10/30/2023 | Requires subscription “A Pathway to Restoring Local News.” Field Leader Sue Cross on the State of Journalism Philanthropy | Inside Philanthropy | 10/24/2023 | Requires subscription Read more