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Session 7A

Disaster Fundraising: Standing Strong in the Storm

Lea Witkowski-Purl and Melissa Landry

Friday, September 23
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM (MT) 

About the Session

Whether a storm, a pandemic or some other unexpected emergency, having a plan is half the battle. This presentation details our digital plan for emergencies, walks through important metrics to track and gives tips on taking care of your team and yourself. This presentation highlights the way we applied our plan to Hurricane Ida and how that plan helped us raise more than $160,000 within three weeks of the storm despite the devastation to southern Louisiana. This presentation also talks about the importance of keeping donors and prospective donors engaged and informed during emergencies and how that can benefit the organization in the long run.

Learning Objectives

In this session, we will explore these three ideas based on our experience fundraising through several major disasters:

  • Being calm and strategic gives you a massive advantage.
  • People don't perform their best in emergencies, they perform their training.
  • Knowing everything isn't important. It is more important to be honest and connected.

Keywords: 

Donor Experience, Donor Retention, Metrics, Relationship-Building, Reporting, Social Media, Strategy, disaster fundraising, digital fundraising

Who Should Attend?
   



 
 

Any organization in the reach of a disaster

Suitable for any size shop

Suitable for all levels

  
 
About the Speakers

Lea Witkowski-Purl
Director of Donor Relations
Ochsner Health

Lea Witkowski-Purl has been a donor relations professional since 2009, working first in academia and now in healthcare for the past eight years, always with a focus on stewardship and donor retention. She has two bachelor's degrees from Louisiana State University and an MBA from Tulane University. Lea has a particular interest in donor analytics and optimizing data for fulfilling organizational missions.

Melissa Landry
Director of Digital Philanthropy
Ochsner Health

Melissa G. Landry has a BA and an MBA from Tulane University in New Orleans and has worked in Philanthropy at Ochsner Health since 2015. Since 2020, her focus has primarily been digital philanthropy. She is passionate about working for non-profits because of the good they do for their communities.