NEDRACon 2025 Encore Session #1 - Coffee Meets Research: Building Genuine and Lasting Relationships with Your Gift Officers

NEDRACon 2025 Encore Session #1

Coffee Meets Research: Building Genuine and Lasting Relationships with Your Gift Officers

Tuesday, October 7 2025

1:00PM- 2:00PM  ET

Online 

Communication and trust are the foundation for any good relationship, including between prospect researchers and gift officers. But what happens when different personalities and communications style collide, and priorities become murky? With every development shop experiencing increasing pressure to raise more each year, how can prospect researchers become a trusted bridge between the art and the science of fundraising through cultivating authentic and lasting relationships with their gift officers? Sometimes, it can be as simple as starting with a cup of coffee.

Learning Objectives: In this session, we will explore misconceptions researchers may have about their gift officer partners, ways to overcome differences, and how to break through communication barriers to meet gift officers where they are, with insight from a senior leadership frontline fundraiser and their research counterparts. We will discuss examples from MGH (now the Mass General Brigham, Academic Medical Centers),  that showcase how strong trust between research and frontline officers makes room for honest conversation and authentic feedback, ultimately leading to a stronger fundraising program and genuine connection between researchers and gift officers.

PRESENTERS:

Cara Kennedy, Mass General Brigham, Academic Medical Centers
Cara M. Kennedy is a Director of Prospect Management and Research at the MGB Academic Medical Centers Office of Development. Cara joined Mass General in 2018 as part of the Prospect ID team and later transitioned to supporting the Transformational Philanthropic Strategies, Principal Gifts, and the Leadership Strategies teams. Before joining Mass General, Cara did frontline development work in annual giving, alumni affairs, and events at multiple educational and community organizations in the North Shore of Massachusetts. Cara has a BA from Merrimack College.

Krista McCabe Cruz, Mass General Brigham, Academic Medical Centers
Krista McCabe Cruz is a development professional with over 20 years of fundraising experience, most recently at MGB Academic Medical Centers Office of Development, where she oversees a fundraising team of over 80 development professionals focusing on Major Gifts, Leadership, Annual Giving, Principal Gifts, and capital fundraising. Krista has a BA from Bucknell University and an MA from Emerson College.

Jolene Crosby-Jones, Mass General Brigham, Academic Medical Centers Jolene Crosby-Jones is the Senior Director of Prospect Management and Research at MGB Academic Medical Centers Office of Development. Prior to joining MGH in 2017, she was a Senior Research Analyst at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and has held prospect development roles at Teach For America and Facing History & Ourselves.  Jolene joined the NEDRA board in 2020 and is the current NEDRA president.  She received a BA in economics and psychology from Wellesley College.

COST:

$25 Members

$50 Non-Members

LOCATION:

This program will be held as a Zoom meeting.  Attendees will receive a Zoom link a day before the event. The program will not be recorded.  

DEADLINES:

Deadline for registration will be Monday, October 6 at 3PM.