Speaking

Bill is a frequent speaker on Raiser’s Edge and fundraising database technology:

  • Podcast interview by Dr. Patton McDowell on “Three Technology Traps All Nonprofit Leaders Must Avoid”; listen here
  • Webinar series in March and April of 2021 on Security in Raiser’s Edge in partnership with Blackbaud; recordings, slides, “handouts,” and FAQs here
  • bbcon, the Blackbaud Conference: Bill has spoken at all but three of the conferences since they began in 2000
    • 2023: Updating Addressees and Salutations for Today’s Cultural Environment: The Fundraising and Technical
    • 2022: Mastering Fundraising with the Raiser’s Edge NXT Web View (one of the “Top Sessions Watched This Year”); register and see the presentation here, and get the slides DOWNLOAD
    • 2021: Why Database Managers Should Use Raiser’s Edge NXT Web View DOWNLOAD
    • bbcon “Top 10 Speaker” for the 8 years the honor was announced and the “Top-Rated External Speaker” the year after
  • Blackbaud K-12 UC, the Blackbaud User Conference for K-12 Schools
    • 2019: Best Practices in the Use of Raiser’s Edge Constituent Codes DOWNLOAD
  • Other speaking engagements have included
    • Blackbaud conferences in Canada, the United Kingdom, and San Francisco and other Blackbaud events throughout North America and online
    • Association of Fundraising Professionals International Conference on Fundraising
    • Association of Advancement Services Professionals Summit (annual conference)
      • 2023: Implementing DEI in Your Fundraising Database: A Case Study Using Constituent Names (“Really relevant and thoughtfully done”)
      • 2022: Meeting the Challenges of Advancement Services for Small and Midsize Organizations (“Amazing session!”, “favorite session of the week”, “fantastic speaker”)
    • Association of Fundraising Professionals chapter events: San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Wine Country, Sacramento, and Hawaii
    • California Advancement Partnership for Schools Conference
    • Northern California Planned Giving Council
    • California Advancement Researcher’s Association Conference
    • APRA Houston, Texas, chapter
    • and numerous local Raiser’s Edge user groups around the United States
  • Attendee comments
    • “Your session on the reality of RE NXT was ‘worth the price of admission’ to the entire event, so thank you for that.”
    • “I attended your session at bbcon, and I have to say, your session (w/Ed, Wed. morning) was my absolute FAVORITE!!!!”
    • “Every. Year. Standing room only and EXCELLENT discussion. Lots of learning here.”
    • “My favorite session at the conference” and from another, “the most useful session at the conference”

Writing

In addition to the book Fundraising with The Raiser’s Edge, Bill has written the following articles:

  • “Making the Case for Technology: How to plan for a successful fundraising technology ‘ask.’” Advancing Philanthropy, May/June 2008: 35-37. (Advancing Philanthropy is the official bimonthly magazine of the international headquarters of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.)
  • “Being Good to Your Database.” Advancing Philanthropy, May/June 2007: 37.
  • “Tracking Diversity in Your Organization’s Data.” Advancing Philanthropy, March/April 2007: 14-16.
  • “Database Due Diligence.” Advancing Philanthropy, November/December 2006: 32-34.
  • “Implementing a Recurring Gift Program.” Blackbaud White Paper, January 2004.
  • and see the numerous whitepapers and other resources available on the Resources page of this site.

“There is honestly nobody I can recommend more highly than Bill Connors. He took us from a clumsy system to Raiser’s Edge. It seemed like nothing less than a miracle that he was able to convert our data, which was admittedly a mess (!), into Raiser’s Edge, and give us a working system that we all love. He is a Raiser’s Edge EXPERT, in the truest sense of the word. He has deep knowledge of every aspect of RE.

“In addition to knowing the system inside and out, he is a great person. We all enjoyed working with him, and we miss him! Bill is also extremely organized – doesn’t waste a minute of your time and money. Our CFO – a very tough customer – felt completely at ease that we were getting more than our money’s worth from Bill.

“I’ve worked with many consultants over my years in Development, and Bill is by far the best I’ve ever encountered.

“You’re lucky to have found him, and you’ll be smart to hire him!”

Director of Development
Public-Supported Television

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