Keep an eye out for more information on our panelists as we get it!
Panel: What Makes a Good Portfolio?
Wednesday, June 8th @ 1:00-2:30 CST
Building on the success of the 2021 panel, "What Makes a Good Prospect," this free panel 90-minute turns its attention to prospect management, asking "What Makes a Good Portfolio?" Featuring prospect development professionals from higher education (small and large), healthcare, and arts/culture/human services organizations, panelists will discuss what makes a good portfolio.
Discussion will focus on portfolio optimization, fundraiser metrics, portfolio reviews, reporting tools, and a host of other issues relevant to providing fundraisers with strong portfolios for their organizations.
If you have questions for our panelists, please send a note to ApraIllinois@gmail.com. We will try to include as many registrant questions as possible.
Higher Education Panelists
Michael Adzovic has been serving as the Senior Director of Operations and Annual Giving at Northern Illinois University for one year. In his role, he oversees NIU’s prospect development and research; reporting and database operations; and annual giving. Prior to his current role, Michael served as NIU’s director of annual giving and got his start in development at NIU as a student in their call center. He is a proud alum from the class of 2002. Michael has also worked in annual giving roles at Wheaton College and Harper College.
Kristine Lo is the Senior Associate Director of Prospect Management at the University of Chicago. She has been with UChicago since 2015, when she joined the team as a Prospect Management Analyst. In her current role, Kristine is the primary liaison to the Senior Leadership Team, keeping them up to date on progress towards key metrics, trends in productivity, and potential roadblocks to achieving ARD’s fundraising goals. She also manages a team responsible for the creation and implementation of Prospect Management policy and completes ad-hoc analyses focused on strategies to improve ARD’s results. Outside of her typical Prospect Management duties, Kristine is heavily involved in UChicago’s upcoming CRM conversion to Salesforce Ascend, working to connect business processes across the organization. She’s a proud alum of UChicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and enjoys spending her free time reading and playing with her twin boys and cats.
Melanie Pozdol has been in her role as Assistant Director, Prospect Management at Northwestern University since October 2019, where she manages relationships with a portfolio of fundraising teams in Alumni Relations and Development (ARD). Melanie provides guidance to gift officers on portfolio management, assists with formulating prospect strategies, helps to plan and execute prospect pool analyses, and works closely with fundraisers to ensure they are effectively moving prospects through the fundraising pipelines. Melanie is also passionate about data analysis and visualization in Tableau and is a member of several Tableau User Groups, including the HETUG, the Advancement TUG, and the ARD TUG, which she created for Tableau users across ARD at Northwestern. Previous roles include serving as Project Manager for data analytics and DonorScape at Grenzebach Glier + Associates and serving as the Principal Oboist of the Great Falls Symphony Association in Great Falls, MT. In her free time, Melanie can be found playing principal oboe in the Lakeview Orchestra, training for her next marathon (she recently ran her first Boston Marathon!), or spending time outside.
Healthcare Panelists
Justin Bergquist is a senior prospect development analyst at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Foundation. He previously served as director of research and prospect management at the Art Institute of Chicago. He received a BA and MA from Loyola University of Chicago.
Molly Freed is Manager of Prospect Research and Development at Northwestern Memorial Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Northwestern Medicine, in Chicago, Illinois. For over 10 years, she has worked in prospect development, events, and campaign management for healthcare and environmental organizations. Prior to Northwestern Memorial Foundation, she was the Individual Giving and Campaign Manager at The Morton Arboretum and coordinated fundraising events for the American Cancer Society. Molly holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from North Central College.
Dan Zarlenga is the Director of Prospect Development at the American Cancer Society where he oversees the prospect research and prospect management functions for ACS’s nationwide philanthropy team and principal gift fundraisers. Prior to ACS, Dan spent nine years at Northwestern University, most recently as the Senior Associate Director of Prospect Research and Management (PRM). In this role, he led the prospect research functions of the PRM team and conducted proactive prospecting for Northwestern’s Principal Gifts department and Vice President’s office, as well the Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Prior to Northwestern, Dan was a prospect researcher at Opportunity International, a global microfinance organization that provides loans, savings, and insurance to entrepreneurs in over 20 countries. He received his BS in Finance from Elmhurst University and enjoys hiking, learning new songs on his ukulele, and trying to convince his daughter to become a Star Wars fan.
Arts/Culture/Human Services Panelists
Keli Jonas is the Manager of Prospect Development at the Greater Chicago Food Depository. She joined the organization early this year and is passionate about the Food Depository’s mission to end hunger. Keli’s career in fundraising has included positions at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Marquette University. She is also a past chair of the Programming Committee of APRA-IL. Keli earned her BA in International Affairs and French Language and Literature from Marquette University.
Chelsea Southwood serves as Associate Director, Philanthropy at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she secures restricted and unrestricted major gifts from individuals to support the museum’s exhibitions, acquisitions, operations, endowment, capital campaign, and special projects. Chelsea enjoys nurturing sincere relationships with an engaged portfolio of donors by matching their philanthropic interests with key museum priorities and executing highly tailored cultivation and stewardship plans. Prior to her time at the Art Institute, Chelsea spent six years at Lyric Opera of Chicago with the Women’s Board, where her role encompassed board management, fundraising campaigns, special event and gala planning, and international donor travel. With a lifelong passion for the arts, Chelsea holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from Millikin University.
Steph Venskoske is the Assistant Director of Prospect Development at the Shedd Aquarium. They were introduced to fundraising as a gift officer before diving headfirst into the sea of prospect development at Shedd Aquarium. In 5 years at Shedd, they’ve built systems that help colleagues meet their goals, and brought Shedd Aquarium’s iterative processes to prospect management and portfolio building. If Steph was any animal at Shedd, they would be a shark, because they never stop moving.
Moderator
Peter Kotowski is the Associate Director of Prospect Management & Research at Loyola University Chicago, where he is also an adjunct professor in the Department of History. Prior to joining Loyola Chicago, Peter began his career in prospect development at Loyola Academy. Peter earned a bachelor's degree in History and Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh and a PhD in History from Loyola University Chicago. He is the President of Apra-IL and is excited to bring this discussion to everyone!
