Jill A. Pranger, ACFRE
Jill A. Pranger, ACFRE, is widely sought after as a speaker, trainer, and presenter — regionally, nationally, and internationally. Her interesting and exciting presentations are filled with information you can use today…and well into the future.
She established her firm, Pranger Philanthropic, in 2003 after a two-decade career as a fundraising professional. Her client list includes the United Way of Greater Rochester, Stepping Stones Learning Center, Flower City Habitat for Humanity, Webster Montessori School, Home Headquarters of Syracuse, Center for Disability Rights, and the Monroe County Bar Association.
Jill is an AFP Master Teacher and was the recipient of the 2006 Fundraising Executive of the Year Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals Genesee Valley Chapter, Rochester, New York. As a volunteer, Jill is a Board member for AFP International, Leadership Rochester, and Big Brothers Big Sisters, as well as continuing her 32-year volunteer career with the American Red Cross as a CPR/First Aid Instructor Trainer and Water Safety Instructor. Jill is also a member of Toastmaster’s International, Lilac City Chapter.
William F. Bartolini, Ph.D., ACFRE
William F. (Bill) Bartolini, Ph.D., ACFRE, is Chief Development Officer at Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D), a national nonprofit with 21 offices that engages 7,100 volunteers annually in the recording of 6,000 textbooks. In 2007, RFB&D served 185,000 individuals in 8,900 schools and circulated over 500,000 recorded books annually.
Prior to taking on the challenge of building RFB&D’s national fundraising presence, Bill was Vice President for Development at Northeastern University in Boston, where he was responsible for sparking the final push to complete a lagging $200 million campaign. He came to Northeastern from Kent State University, where he was executive director of development. There he helped build the fundraising success of the development officers assigned to the colleges and schools. He was part of the leadership team that just completed Kent State’s first-ever $100 million comprehensive campaign – a campaign that raised $121.9 million. The campaign received the 2004 AFP/Campbell and Company Award for Fundraising Excellence in recognition of this achievement.
Bill joined Kent State after working for Bellflower Center for Prevention of Child Abuse in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was responsible for the development efforts. He has also worked with the University of Illinois and Ball State University on fundraising and marketing programs for public broadcasting.
Bill holds the designation of Advanced Certified Fundraising Executive (ACFRE), AFP’s certification for senior professionals that signifies an advanced level of leadership and management expertise in fundraising. In 2009, he will serve on the international board of the Association of Fundraising Professionals as Vice Chair for Professional Advancement. He has chaired the Diversity Committee, the Task Force on the Licensing of Fundraisers, and co-chaired the Collegiate Chapter Task Force. He has written a number of articles including “Using a Communication Perspective to Manage Diversity in the Development Office” for the journal, New Issues in Philanthropic Fundraising. He has presented workshops and luncheon programs to AFP chapters and fundraising organizations in Arizona, Iowa, Texas, New Jersey, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states.
Bill received his undergraduate degree in Speech and Theatre from Ball State University. After a brief career in retail, he earned a masters in Theatre Theory and Criticism from the Indiana University. Bill received his Ph.D. (doctorate) in Communications from Kent State University. His dissertation was Prospective Donors’ Cognitive and Emotive Processing of Charitable Requests.
Susan Dantona Jolley, CFRE
Sue Jolley is Director of Donor Relations at Wilkes University. She is a graduate of Wyoming Seminary, Dickinson College and Bloomsburg University. The Association of Fundraising Professionals of Northeastern Pennsylvania honored her in 1999 as the Outstanding Fundrasing Executive of the Year. She also served as the chapter’s third president. Sue is a member of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
She has presented on a variety of fundraising and leadership topics at various conferences from a local to an international scale.
A graduate of Leadership Wilkes-Barre, Sue previously worked in the advancement offices of WVIA Public Broadcasting and Wyoming Seminary.
Davida Isaacson
Davida Isaacson is a Principal and Senior Consultant with Myerberg Shain & Associates. Formerly she served as Executive Director of the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest, where she raised $12 million in major and planned gifts in 18 months.
She is perhaps best known as the former Director of Planned and Major Gifts for WNET/New York where she later served as Director of Endowment and Planned Gifts. Her responsibilities included the $65 million Campaign For Thirteen, the largest capital campaign ever undertaken by a public television station, approximately $30 million of which came from planned gift initiatives. Highlights of her tenure at Thirteen included the winning of a CPB Future Fund grant for a Bequest Identification Campaign utilized by a consortium of stations, of which she was a leader within the consortium, plus her hands-on development of articles, advertisements, on-air presentations, and print pieces on major and planned gifts. She and her WNET team won numerous PBS Development awards for planned giving including national and system-wide honors.
Ms. Isaacson was chosen to present live and videotaped lectures on major gifts as part of a comprehensive training program for PBS stations nationwide and has been a popular presenter of educational seminars at PBS Development conferences. With the support of WNET management, Davida provided her expertise on many occasions to public television stations around the country. She is a nationally recognized lecturer on major gift and planned gift topics and is an adjunct professor at the George H. Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising at New York University. The university awarded Ms. Isaacson an “Award in Teaching Excellence” in February, 2004 and recognized her ten year teaching tenure in April, 2008. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Ms. Isaacson is the faculty coordinator for the Center’s summer intensive certificate program. In this role she is responsible for creating the schedule of classes and finding competent faculty and special speakers to participate in the month long program.
Ms. Isaacson has served as officer, including President, of the Planned Giving Group of Greater New York and on the Board of the National Committee for Planned Giving. While serving on the NCPG Board Ms. Isaacson headed the Research Committee which conducted a premier study of the motivations of planned gift donors. She continues to lecture extensively for charitable organizations, including the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York, WQED/Pittsburgh, American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science, the National Kidney Foundation, and American Technion Society among others. Ms. Isaacson has been quoted on relevant fundraising topics in Business Week, Practical Account, Currents, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Her philanthropic endeavors extend to her current service on the boards of the Mountainside Health Foundation and JSDD (Jewish Services for the Developmentally Disabled).
Prior to her work in the not-for-profit industry Ms. Isaacson was a trust and estate banker for twenty years. While a Vice President at National State Bank in Summit, NJ she served on the bank’s charitable gift committee and oversaw grantmaking from the bank’s discretionary charitable gift fund.
David Shanton
David Shanton has been Executive Director of Development at Baruch College since 2004, where he oversees leadership giving, annual fund, planned giving, alumni relations, prospect research, advancement services, stewardship and special events and serves as a key member of the campaign steering group. He served as Acting Vice President of Development at Baruch from September 2008 until January 2009. Prior to joining Baruch, David was a senior consultant for Marts & Lundy, assisting over 75 clients in creating and implementing campaign readiness, major gifts and annual fund strategies for both individual prospects and targeted segments. He began his career in philanthropy at St. John’s University where he served for 15 years first as associate director of development and later as director of research and donor relations.
Along with his strong background in prospect research and management, David has significant experience in campiagn planning and building major gifts and reunion giving programs. He currently serves on the APRA Board of Directors and is a prolific speaker, giving presentations throughout the country at conferences for APRA, CASE, AFP, the Foundation Center and the King Baudouin Foundation United States. David is a graduate of Utica College and has his MA from the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers Unviersity and an MLS from St. John’s University. A native Pennsylvanian, he currently resides in Brooklyn, NY but maintains his Pennsylvania roots at a weekend home in Susquehanna County.