Fundraising and Development Specialization on Coursera

Online

Created by UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education and hosted on the Coursera platform, this is an online course consisting of pre-recorded video lectures, auto-graded and peer-reviewed assignments and community discussion forums. This specialization program is self-paced and designed to help you master a specific career skill in as little as 4 months.

Charitable giving is rebounding as the economy improves. Yet there is a shortage of qualified fundraising professionals to help organizations connect their needs with potential donors. Through four courses, you will gain the knowledge and skills to begin or advance your career in the high demand field of fundraising and development. This Specialization is designed to meet the rising demand for trained fundraising professionals.

Section Number

000FUN100

Instruction Method

Online class

Section Notes

Enrollments are accepted on a continuous basis. Complete this specialization at your own pace.

This specialization consists of 4 courses:

Fundraising and Development Foundations
Annual Campaigns: Building a Case for Support
Major and Principal Gifts
Planned Giving

Enrollments are accepted on a continuous basis. For more information on Coursera online courses, including enrollment policies and technical requirements, please visit: https://www.coursera.org/about/terms.

Enroll Now

Fee

Free and low-cost options available

Schedule

Enroll at any time and complete at your own pace.

Instructors

Brian Casey

Brian Casey is currently the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Planned Giving at UC Davis. In this role, he provides leadership for the Office of Planned Giving with a focus on building a proactive gift planning program. His strength is building relationships and utilizing planned giving strategies to help donors incorporate their philanthropic passion into their financial and estate planning goals. Prior to joining UC Davis, he served in a planned giving role at two land-grant institutions—first at Iowa State University and, most recently, Pennsylvania State University. During Brian’s twenty-year career, he has built effective relationships to advance strategic initiatives. At Iowa State University, he spent thirteen years taking on progressive levels of responsibility. He worked his way up from an accounting position into a lead development position within a college before joining the development staff in the Office of Gift Planning. At Pennsylvania State University, he enhanced his entrepreneurial approach to identifying unique and creative ways to incorporate gift planning. Over the past fifteen years, Brian has excelled at utilizing complex gift strategies to secure major and planned giving contributions. Gift planning has provided the perfect opportunity to combine his experience in accounting and fundraising. He is passionate about educating and advising individuals on the power of utilizing highly-technical gift planning tools to maximize giving. Helping them to think beyond the simple bequest to utilize charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts to fulfill their philanthropic, financial, and family objectives has resulted in larger gifts than donors originally believed possible. Brian has been successful in motivating donors and possesses a proven ability to work with a variety of people in diverse and complex situations. He has been involved with four major campaigns that have ranged from $458 million to $2 billion. These campaigns have allowed him the opportunity to close three gifts over $10 million. Brian earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Iowa State University.

Angela Joens

Angela Joens has gained extensive management, development and stewardship experience during her professional career. Currently, she is the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Development Outreach for the University of California Davis and in this role supervises annual giving, donor relations, research and prospect management, proposal services, marketing and communications, and development recruitment. Prior to UC Davis, Joens was Vice President of Development Operations for the Mercy Medical Center Foundation in Des Moines, Iowa. She also served as the Senior Director of Donor Relations for the Iowa State University Foundation and worked for RuffaloCODY a for-profit company that assists the non-profits with fundraising. Her career began as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Joens is also a non-profit consultant, an executive coach, and speaks nationally on topics related to stewardship, development and leadership. She has been featured in several industry publications including CASE Currents Magazine and the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Joens earned her BA from the University of Iowa, her MPA from Iowa State University, and her Professional Life and Work Coach Certificate from UC Davis. She is a proud volunteer for the Association of Donor Relations Professionals (ADRP) and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Michelle Poesy

Michelle Poesy joined Development and Alumni Relations at UC Davis as the Senior Director of Annual and Special Gifts in September of 2014. Prior to joining UC Davis, she was the Director of Annual and Special Gifts at Washington State University for four years. She has fifteen years of event management experience, including university events and community festivals and events. During that time, she also managed city and county tourism promotion and programs. Michelle received a B.S. in Communication-Advertising from the University of Idaho.

Jason Wohlman

Jason Wohlman has spent his entire career in higher education advancement, successfully leading both institutionally related foundations and public universities in their fundraising and alumni engagement efforts. Currently he is the Associate Vice Chancellor for University Development at the University of California Davis. In this role, which he has held since 2012, he provides senior leadership to the reporting units in principal giving, international development, planned giving, foundation and corporate giving, regional fundraising, intercollegiate athletic development, annual and special giving, donor relations, development communications, prospect research and development recruitment. In 2014, UC Davis announced the successful conclusion of its first comprehensive campaign raising in excess of $1.1 billion in gifts. Prior to his tenure at UC Davis, Jason served as the Associate Executive Director and Chief Development Officer for the North Dakota State University Development Foundation. At NDSU, he served in a leadership capacity assisting the campus in completing two comprehensive university-wide campaigns, growing endowed assets from under $10 million to over $100 million and facilitated the private funding of multiple stand-alone construction projects. He is a graduate of Minnesota State University which is where he started his development career as the Director of Annual Giving and facilitated both the establishment of a young alumni network and the coordination of athletic development efforts.