Are You Missing Out on Mid-Level Donors?

Alia McKee is a veteran online communications and fundraising strategist with strategic chops and practical “in the trenches” experience developing brand-perfect integrated marketing and fundraising campaigns. Clients have included: National Audubon Society, The Wikimedia Foundation, Amnesty International USA, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Environmental Defense Fund, Conservation International and the International Rescue Committee among others. Alia has authored two ebooks — Homer Simpson for Non Profits and Lisa Simpson for Non Profits — that explore the scientific principles of behavioral economics and the psychology of persuasion as they relate to non profit fundraising and marketing. She earned her masters in Public Affairs from the LBJ School at the University of Texas at Austin and her masters in Social Work at UT Austin as well. In 2013. She co-founded Lifeboat, a revolution of people redisovering deep friendships and released the first-ever State of Friendship in America Report.

Over the course of his 30-year career, Mark has advanced and helped to reinvent cause-based communications and public engagement. At the Roosevelt Center for American Policy Studies, Mark designed role-playing simulations to engage the public and elected officials on burning issues of the day. As Vice President for Communications at World Wildlife Fund, Mark dramatically expanded awareness of WWF and the urgent conservation causes it works on. As an Internet communications guru since 1999, Mark has helped shape pioneering strategies and tactics for Environmental Defense Fund, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Sierra Club, Southern Poverty Law Center; Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation; the Nature Conservancy; Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union; and many others. He is a passionate diver, is in love with sharks, and is especially committed to marine conservation issues.

Nick is a development professional with six years experience in donor relations, major gifts and planned giving. In his third year at the Rainforest Alliance, Nick supervises mid-level donor appeals and manages the planned giving program for the Major Gifts team. Prior to joining the Rainforest Alliance, Nick was a donor relations associate at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, where his duties included proposal development, donor management and cultivation events. Nick began his career in development with grant writing and prospect research internships at Jewish Home Lifecare and City Futures Inc.