Penelope Burk @PenelopeBurk | session: #AFPTechKnowBurk

Penelope Burk is one of the foremost authorities on fundraising and among the best-known educators in her field. She has an uncanny ability to articulate what donors want and backs that up with solid and compelling research. At the same time, her witty and disarming presentation style makes delegates want to rise to the challenge of bringing fundraising practice in line with donors’ modern-day sensibilities.

Penelope and her company, Cygnus Applied Research, Inc., are known for their leading-edge research with donors and their evidence-based solutions for raising money in the twenty-first century. She first came to the attention of senior fundraisers with her revolutionary, best-selling book, Donor-Centered Fundraising, which remains the only statistically-based philosophy ever published on the effect of meaningful communication on donor retention and gift value.

Penelope Burk’s training sessions and forums are widely acclaimed as unique, engaging and among the most effective in the third sector. In addition to her books and national research studies on donor behavior, she is also the author of more than sixty seminars, training programs, and dramatic plays, all written specifically for not-for-profit organizations. Penelope’s latest book, Donor-Centered Leadership , offers a research-based model to Boards of Directors, CEOs and Development Chiefs for building and sustaining a high performance fundraising team.

Penelope Burk is an author, researcher and mentor celebrated for some of the most important innovations in modern-day fundraising.

In 2000, Penelope introduced the not-for-profit industry to the concept of Donor-Centered Fundraising®, transforming the way the sector communicates with donors and bringing fundraising in line with donors’ needs. Today, Penelope’s groundbreaking research continues to gain international recognition for challenging long-standing but ineffective fundraising practices and showcasing evidence-based methods that raise mor