Speaking Engagements

Launching and Leaping: Strategies for Developing Your Career

CASE District I Conference

Westin, Copley Place, Boston, MA

March 11-13, 2020

In this interactive session, we'll discuss strategies to launch, transition, and manage your career. Learn how to develop your personal brand - how to create, communicate, and present your value to the world in an authentic way. We'll explore how to find the right culture, team, and leaders to match your values. Learn tips for getting your resume noticed, how to connect with potential employers, and dos and dont's when interviewing. We'll go a step beyond the traditional here and offer a deeper dive into identifying and capitalizing on your strengths; the difference between getting a job and developing a career; and what managers are really looking for in the hiring process. We'll challenge you, help you, and facilitate your connection to your authentic self.

Recent Speaking Engagements

Alumni and Volunteer Engagement

Community Colleges of New England Conference, CASE District I

Friday, October 25, 2019 11:00am - 12:30pm

Mt. Wachusett Community College, Gardner, MA

Reflecting on your own volunteer experiences helps you understand the personal values you assign to volunteering. Your personal values and those of your college in relation to engaging others (volunteers) in your social contract with alumni, parents and friends will inform the type of culture that either ignores, tolerates or fully embraces the role of volunteers. When you understand the difference between an efficient versus a responsive culture, you will begin to build sustainable systems to recruit, train, engage, and steward your volunteers. When you achieve this level of understanding and cultural shift, you will significantly reduce employee dissatisfaction and volunteer apathy and turnover.

Understanding the Field of Advancement and How All of the Players Work Together for the Win

New to Educational Advancement Pre-Conference Session

CASE District I, Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 11:30am - 1:00pm

Featured Speakers: Theresa Lee, Founder & CEO, TJL Partners, Mary Gene Clavin, Founder & CEO, Advancement Advisors, Lindsay Roth, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Annual Giving, UMass Dartmouth, Linda McIntosh, Executive Director, Advancement Information Systems and Prospect Research, Boston College

Fairly new to the field of Advancement? This session will help acclimate you to the various areas of practice and how it all works together. Learn strategic elements and best practices for a strong Advancement program. Whether you’re working in a small shop or you’re one of dozens raising funds for your institution, this session will help you understand how everything fits together – including you and your role.

Using Data and Analytics Track: A Road Map to Profitability: How College Fundraising Can Apply Data Science to Increase the Bottom Line

     Featured Speakers: Theresa Lee, Founder & CEO, TJL Partners, Lisa Corvese, Practice Lead, Archetype               Consulting, Cheri Sullivan, Director of Advancement Services – St. Edward’s University, TX

     eduWeb Digital Summit, Monday, July 23, 2018 at 4:30pm - 5:15pm, Westin Gaslamp Quarter

     To register: http://eduwebconf.com/register-schedule/

Tableau in Action: Higher Ed Analytics

Featured Speakers: Theresa Lee, Founder & CEO, TJL Partners, Lisa Corvese, Practice Lead, Archetype Consulting

Tableau Webinar, Tuesday, July 10, 2018 at 2:00pm - 3:00pm 

From artificial intelligence to big data, buzzword after buzzword is hitting the higher education industry. Today, education and nonprofit professionals are struggling to effectively weave through industry trends in efforts to unearth effective data solutions, leading to the next level of data visualization. In this webinar, we will explore Tableau case studies and provide key takeaways, backed by scientific data, to help enhance higher ed and non-profit ROI. Attendees will discover where to pinpoint their team’s effort so their higher ed and non-profit clients can be more efficient and effective.

Join us for this complimentary webinar to learn how to:

  • Pinpoint ways for an institution to increase enrollment and membership

  • Find differentiations in your institution’s data to help position your organization against competitors

  • Create a stronger donor acquisition and retention strategy

  • Raise more capital by understanding your donor population and their patterns

Don't miss this opportunity, register today!  www.fedresults.com/solutions/tableau 

Feel the Love: Stewardship in the Modern Age

Presented by Beth McGonagle, Director of Operations, New England Center for Children and Theresa Lee, Founder, TJL Partners

Association of Fundraising Professionals, Wednesday, April 11, 2018 at 11:30 am - 1:30 pm, The NonProfit Center, 89 South Street, West Room, Boston, MA

For more details and to register, http://www.afpmass.org/Event_Calendar

Stewardship is the obligation that we assume when we pursue and accept the philanthropy of those who respond to our mission, core values, and purposes. 

Nothing is more important for retaining your donors than a sound stewardship plan. Whether you are a large research institution or a small non-profit, making your donors “Feel the Love” ensures that they will stay with you for the long haul.

Much emphasis is placed on strategies and initiatives for soliciting new donors and upgrading existing donors. And in this session, we will focus on strategies for improving your donor retention rates, using tried-and-true methods and best practices in stewardship and engagement.

Discover Powerful Lessons to Improve Your Major Gift Work

by Ana Alvarado, Tom Flynn, Carlisa Brown, Theresa J. Lee

CASE District I Conference, Thursday, March 15 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Essex NWC

Mentors, leaders and top-notch practitioners – these advancement professionals will share from their more than 80 years of experience in major giving and advancement leadership. Hear from this esteemed panel as they share what qualities and skills you need to be a successful fundraiser and advancement leader. Persistence, hard work and creativity all factor into their success, and they will tell you how they got there – the strategies they used to overcome some of the biggest challenges they faced. They will share how they prepare, how they work to build relationships, overcome objections, turn lingering situations into action, and how to reset the dialogue with donors. They will also share what they look for when hiring and how communication is critical to everything we do as advancement professionals. Questions from the audience are encouraged.

The Magic of the Mundane: How Data Science can be Applied to College Fundraising and the Bottom Line

 Theresa J. Lee, Jason Webster, Lisa A. Corvese, Israel Kloss

CASE District I Conference, Thursday, March 15 10:15 am-11:15 am Newbury

Data science is not only cool but analytics is now in a hype cycle where its impact on Advancement Services increases our productivity and return on investment in the donor engagement process. It helps us to achieve real progress in moves management so our fundraisers can spend less time identifying and qualifying donors and more effort on timely conversation. According to a 2016 study called “Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP)” by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), universities & colleges lose $4.2 billion annually. By borrowing website technology from online retailers, the awareness of online abandonment and the ability to act upon it can help development teams recover lost donations at a rate of 30-40%. This presentation tells the story of best practices to use data science tools to recover approximately 30% of lost donation capacity by contacting donors who abandoned the online giving process. It will show you how to take the mundane mission of increasing revenue and reducing costs and highlight where and how data science is impacting Advancement Services performance in sometimes "magical" ways.

Professional Speaking Experience

  • Annual Giving Basics, Association of Fundraising Professionals Basics Course, 2008, 2014, 2015 & 2017

  • The Makings of a Good Leader, CASE District I Regional Program Series, 2016

  • Developing Your Career: Panel for New to the Profession, CASE District I Conference, 2016

  • Mentoring and Career Development, CASE DI Conference, 2015

  • Annual Giving 101, Association of Veterinary Advancement Professionals Conference, 2015

  • Annual Giving Trends, CASE District I Conference, 2015

  • Faculty, CASE Fundraising Newcomers Conference, Austin, TX, 2014

    • Annual Giving

    • Annual Leadership Giving

    • The Art & Science of Solicitation

    • Advancement Career Development

  • Effective Stewardship and Donor Relations, CASE District I Breakfast Series, 2014

  • Developing an Annual Giving Program, Association of Catholic Admissions & Advancement Professionals, 2013

  • Program Profile: Leadership Giving Programs, Educational Advisory Board, 2015

  • Developing an Annual Leadership Giving Society, Eduventures, 2012

  • Annual Giving Overview, Trustee Committee on University Advancement, Boston College, 2014

  • Annual Giving Marketing, Women in Development, 2013

  • Reunion Giving Models for Success, IVY+ Annual Giving Conference, 2010

  • Leadership Giving Programs, IVY+ Annual Giving Conference, 2010

  • Recruiting, Training and Managing Volunteers, CASE DII, 2008