JERRY F. SMITH, CFRE
President & CEO
J.F. Smith Group, Inc.
      Author, lecturer, teacher and fund-raising consultant Jerry F. Smith founded the J.F. Smith Group in 1991.
      Following a successful development career as Executive Director of Alumni and Development at Auburn University (including a $110 million dollar capital campaign, ending in 1985), Smith was asked to speak to the board of a large Christian school in Birmingham, to offer advice with regard to a possible capital campaign. At the end of the Board meeting, Smith was asked if he would take the job.
      Since then, the J.F. Smith Group has conducted feasibility studies and capital campaigns for over 100 clients all across the country - from Edmond, Oklahoma to Washington, D.C. and from Chicago, Illinois to Miami, Florida. Significantly, the company has conducted two and three campaigns for many of these same clients.
      Mr. Smith is a popular and respected convention presenter. He has conducted seminars on an assortment of fund-raising topics both here in the United States, for CASE, Association of Christian Schools International, Blackbaud, AFP, National Association of Athletic Development Directors, Association for Healthcare Philanthropy and in Germany for the Catholic Fundraising Institute. He has taught fund-raising courses at Troy University and is also the recipient of the 2000 NSFRE Award for Civic Philanthropy.
      Mr. Smith recently published the book, Cultivating and Sustaining an Annual Fund in Your Christian School. He is currently working on two other books on establishing a development office and an anecdotal book of 50 things learned in 10,000 days in fund-raising.

      Learn to Maximize your fund-raising efforts with these three simple steps. Find out successful ways to find and contact potential donors; cultivate their interest in your organization; and close a prospect, making him or her a donor.

Benefits and Learning Objectives

1. Understand how to pre-qualify prospects.
2. Understand the importance of cultivation and how to do so effectively to determine the 4 "Rights".
3. Understand the importance of the written proposal and how to create a compelling one.
4. Understand the JFSG 5- step solicitation process and effectively follow up.