By Selene Hur, Manager, Prospect Research, YMCA of Greater Toronto
My main goal of attending a conference is always to learn new concepts that I can put into practice. However, I never considered attending the APRA International conference before because the YMCA of Greater Toronto’s fundraising team and systems were not well-established enough. Instead, I continued to attend the great APRA Canada conferences which offered the right mix of intermediate and advanced topics.
In the past year, as a solo researcher, I was able to significantly build up our prospect research capabilities. I thought that it was the right time for me to see what the international conference had to offer so I could take prospect research to the next level at the Y. Thanks to the APRA Canada Radikha Jaggernauth Memorial Scholarship, I had the good fortune to attend the APRA International conference in July 2015.
I must admit that the experience was a bit overwhelming at first – the mass of prospect researchers from across North America, the variety of interesting sessions to choose from, and of course the New Orleans heat and ‘raw’ culture. I quickly got settled and connected with some other researchers (what a collegial bunch we are!) Also, being the advance planner that I am, I had already chosen the sessions that I wanted to attend and noticed that most were in the Relationship Management track.
Of the sessions I attended, some confirmed that I was on the right track, even at a smaller scale at the Y (i.e. pipeline management, partnerships with fundraisers). Other sessions gave me the chance to appreciate the innovative work being pursued by bigger shops. Hearing about those fascinating projects gave me the chance to reflect on areas for my personal development (i.e. should I start learning R Studio for a new challenge?) At times, there were sessions of interest that were running concurrently. Thanks to several active Twitter users, I was able to get the highlights of the sessions that I could not attend.
Speaking of Twitter, I must share one of the best (and perhaps cheesy) acronyms that I tweeted during Caroline Oblack’s presentation. She shared her successes at Oregon Health & Science University and the importance of T.E.A.M. – Together Everyone Achieves More. Whether it is working with fellow researchers or major gift fundraisers, we should always keep TEAM in mind!
Finally, I want to thank APRA Canada and the Scholarship Review Committee for making this conference experience possible for me. I highly encourage others to apply to this year’s scholarships and take advantage of this wonderful member benefit.