One of our values at Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity is constantly seeking ways that we can learn and expand as an organization. Keri Asevedo, our Executive Director, was recently given an incredible educational opportunity that will undoubtedly equip RAHFH to grow: the chance to participate in a course through the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business.
This truly amazing course, which Keri recently completed, is a part of a project entitled New Strategies, and explored methods of increasing nonprofit organizations’ capacity for fundraising.
There were about 50 participants from across the nation, and all of them are responsible for elements of fundraising for various nonprofits. Keri was one of 10 Habitat executives who took the course, and all of them were generously sponsored by Thrivent. The other participants included leaders from groups of artists, activists, environmentalists, and more.
Throughout the course, Keri had the opportunity to learn about new strategies for everything from bolstering individual and corporate giving to utilizing data and making fundraising more equitable.
Keri said that the course helped her to think through ways that RAHFH’s fundraising strategies could expand and ultimately expand the organization as a whole. Her biggest takeaways were connected to engaging, thanking, and retaining donors, helping donors see the bigger picture of what giving to Habitat means, finding new ways to engage corporations in the Rockford community, and diversifying RAHFH’s income portfolio. All of these ideas and future initiatives will ultimately lead to more accessible, safe, and affordable housing in the Rockford Community.
“We want to grow our capacity in Rockford. In order to do that, we need the community to support us,” Keri said. “I want to grow in not being afraid to tell people that we want to be bigger. We want to be better… I need to ask for our dreams.”
It’s so exciting to think about how this course will springboard RAHFH and other nonprofits across the nation toward incredible things.
We’d like to thank Thrivent for sponsoring Keri’s participation in this course, and also the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business for educating nonprofit leaders through this program.
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