Over 500 Crescendo friends attended our 8th Annual Practical Planned Giving Conference on September 26 – 27 at the Paradise Point Resort & Spa on Mission Bay in San Diego. It was a great opportunity to hear leading presenters on the most relevant, cutting-edge topics in planned giving. With two full days, six tracks and 48 sessions, this event was another great success!

The theme of the conference this year was Bequest Boom! with numerous sessions covering bequest marketing, administration and donor stewardship strategies. Keynote speaker, author and charitable consultant Kay Sprinkel Grace, presented a moving presentation on how to raise gifts in the current economy to a packed luncheon audience.

Many attended sessions in the Art of the Ask track to learn new ways to ask for gifts with proven ask strategies from Phil Purcell, Jackie Franey and Claudia Sangster. Our Property MegaGifts track featured legal experts David Wheeler Newman, Lynda Sands, Chris Hoyt and Steve Chidester. The Bequest Boom! track included charitable experts Lynn Archer, Andrew Fussner, Kristen Dugdale, Rod Zeeb and Glenn Pittsford. We also brought back the popular sessions on eMarketing, Fundamentals and Gift Annuities with faculty including Kathryn Miree, Rebecca Locke, Laurie Valentine, Winton Smith, Jim Soft and more.

In addition to the great line-up of PPGC speakers and presentations, the 2011 GiftLegacy award winners were named. The Best 3.0 Website award was presented to the Arts and Education Council of St. Louis. The Best Literature award went to Messiah College.

The top award for 2011 eMarketer of the Year was accepted by Bill Yeager of The Citadel Foundation, who raised over $33 Million using Crescendo's GiftLegacy eMarketing System.

We look forward to seeing you at next year's conference. Please mark your calendar and plan to join us for PPGC 2012 September 17 – 18 at the Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando Florida.