2026 APRA Canada Conference Sessions

In celebration of Apra Canada's 25th anniversary, a panel of research leaders will discuss the evolution of the field, challenges and headwinds, and where they see our profession heading in the future. Stream: all Format: Panel Ideal Industries: Animal Welfare & the Environment; Arts & Museums; Community Services; Healthcare; Higher Education; International Aid; and Religious

In this session, we'll share how we developed SKonnect, an in-house app that enables campaign cabinet members to quickly review prospects, share relationship insights, and contribute directly to prospect management. Learn how a collaborative effort between fundraising, prospect research, and technology teams improved prospect qualification, accelerated decision-making, enhanced data quality, and created a more user-friendly experience for volunteer leaders. We'll also share key lessons on collaboration, data privacy, and using technology to strengthen - not replace - relationships. We will also demonstrate how to use the app the review prospects. Learning Outcomes: Stream: Relationship & Portfolio Management Format: Breakout Session...

Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how prospect researchers discover information, analyze data, and support fundraising strategy. While many organizations are exploring AI tools, far fewer have established clear guidelines for responsible use. This interactive workshop is designed for prospect research and prospect development professionals who want to create or strengthen AI governance within their own organizations. Using real-world fundraising and prospect research scenarios, and learning from an organization that has successfully written and adopted an AI Ethical Use Policy, participants will explore the opportunities, risks, and ethical considerations of AI in the nonprofit environment. This session will guide attendees through...

Organizations are rapidly adopting AI tools for prospect research, donor communications, reporting, and fundraising strategy, often without clear governance, workflows, or risk boundaries. This practical workshop explores how prospect development professionals can integrate AI into their daily operations responsibly, ethically, and effectively without overwhelming teams or compromising trust Participants will learn: * how to structure AI-assisted research workflows * practical prompting methods for prospect development * where human oversight is still essential * how to reduce reputational and ethical risks * common AI mistakes nonprofit teams are already making * lightweight governance approaches for small and mid-sized organizations This session...

This introductory workshop is designed for research development professionals interested in using Power BI to analyze prospect research and prospect management data and create effective visualizations. Participants will gain hands-on experience working with prospect portfolios, pipeline metrics, and fundraising intelligence data to build interactive reports and dashboards that support strategic prospect development and portfolio management. Participant Requirements Attendees are encouraged to bring their own laptop with Power BI Desktop installed. Hands-on exercises throughout the session will provide practical experience building reports and dashboards using prospect research and prospect management data. Learning Outcomes: Import and prepare prospect research and prospect management...

In the midst of a $1 billion campaign, the University of Montreal embarked on a journey of portfolio optimization to enhance efficiency, foster success and drive growth. Using data, research and prospect strategy, the Prospect Management team was able to optimize Principal giving, Major giving and Planned giving portfolios, giving development officers clarity and realigning their focus. Learning Outcomes Stream: Relationship & Portfolio Management Format: General Session Ideal Industries: Higher Education

As a Research Professional you're discovering strategies to turn unengaged qualified prospects to warm engaged donors, but fundraisers won't execute your strategies. This session will explore how to build trust amongst stakeholders and create a culture of accountability at your organization. Learning Outcomes: Stream: Prospect Research & Strategy Format: Breakout Session Ideal Industries: Healthcare and Community Services

This presentation will examine the process of identifying, evaluating, and securing corporate sponsors for a major community event. Will spend time looking at a recent project for a client. Learning Outcomes: Stream: Prospect Research & Strategy Format: Case Study Ideal Industries: Animal Welfare & the Environment; Arts & Museums; Community Services; Healthcare; Higher Education; International Aid; and Religious

Based on a national survey of 148 charities across Canada, the key takeaways and in particular their relevance for prospect research & manarement. See full study: https://kciphilanthropy.com/fundraising-campaigns-in-canada-2026/ Learning Outcomes Attendees will gain an understanding of the major trends shaping today’s campaigns and what those trends mean for prospect research and prospect development teams. Attendees will leave with practical insight into how research can better support campaign readiness, pipeline development, gift table planning, and fundraising strategy. Attendees will explore how campaign benchmarks can be translated into more focused research priorities, stronger donor intelligence, and more effective collaboration with frontline fundraisers. Stream...

Prospect research teams are increasingly expected to do more than provide profiles, ratings, and reactive support. As advancement organizations become more data-informed and portfolio-driven, researchers are often helping shape qualification strategy, portfolio decisions, fundraiser prioritization, and institutional understanding of donor readiness. At the same time, the role of the prospect researcher continues to evolve from information gatherer to strategic interpreter and analyst, while also creating growing opportunities and expectations for specialization across areas such as analytics, portfolio strategy, prospect management, and relationship intelligence. Emerging AI tools are further accelerating this shift by expanding the scale and speed of information gathering...

Prospect development professionals are increasingly expected to do more than identify qualified prospects. As the role becomes more connected to strategy, aspiring leaders need to explain the value of their work in ways that resonate with executive teams and boards. This session introduces the ARC framework (accountability, risk, and competency) as a practical tool for strengthening leadership conversations and supporting better-informed fundraising decisions. It also addresses why this matters now: organizations are facing greater scrutiny around alignment, ethics, and long-term sustainability, and leaders need clearer decision support that goes beyond prospect qualification alone. Key takeaways: Attendees will leave with a...

Most fundraising analytics functions don't fail because the tools are wrong. They stall because sustaining them gets treated as a one-time project rather than an ongoing operational commitment. This session shows how small and mid-sized Canadian charities can build durable analytical visibility using systems they already own. This session presents practical, low-budget models for building an in-house analytics function using Raiser's Edge NXT, Power BI, Power Automate, Excel, and low-cost AI tools such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. Organised around two staffing models — an RE DBA with roughly 20% BI time, and a dedicated 0.5–1 FTE analyst with Power...

At SickKids Foundation we launched a Data Literacy training program called First Responders to reign in data chaos and build a culture of data stewardship across the organization. Our approach has been collaborative: we partner with diverse stakeholders across business units to design education and outreach that meet people where they are and support a range of learning styles and preferences. Learning Outcomes Share the tools and methods we used to design and roll out the program, including both technology and communication strategies Facilitate a workshop exercise to help participants envision how similar initiatives could be tailored to their own...

This presentation offers APRA attendees a focused look at how Canada’s ultra-high-net-worth families approach philanthropy: what motivates their giving, how they set priorities and which strategies are shaping major gifts today. As the only media outlet in Canada dedicated to covering family offices and the families they support, Canadian Family Offices regularly reports on leading philanthropists, their advisors and the institutions they support. Drawing on the outlet’s latest annual philanthropy survey of donors, family office advisors and foundation board members, Managing Editor Joe Chidley shares insights from five years of Canadian Family Offices’ reporting on the priorities, strategies and motivations...

Direct response programme budgets at most Canadian charities are set the same way every year: last year's results, adjusted for optimism. This session replaces that approach with a rigorous, reproducible forecasting workflow built entirely on tools most shops already hold — Excel Solver, free AI assistants, and Raiser's Edge NXT gift data. In twenty focused minutes, attendees work through a complete annual revenue scenario model: extracting the right gift history and constituent signals from RE NXT; building a four-stream revenue model covering renewals, upgrades, new donor acquisition, and mid-level giving; and configuring Excel Solver — a free add-in included in...

If you're the only prospect development professional in a small or mid-sized fundraising team, you’re likely balancing research requests, portfolio management, pipeline strategy, fundraiser support, and data oversight. And, you’re doing it all at once. This interactive session is designed specifically for solo PD practitioners. We'll explore practical approaches to portfolio review, pipeline management, and building productive relationships with fundraisers. We'll discuss common challenges, learn to create meaningful meeting agendas, navigate differing expectations of gift officers, and find ways to influence fundraising outcomes without direct authority. Following a brief presentation, participants will work through challenges together. This session will provide...

A case study of how a collaborative relationship between Prospect Research and Community Relations at Upper Canada College has led to engagement records, fundraising records, and has made for an Advancement Department that works incredibly well as a team. Prospect Research can sometimes be too focused in its own silo, focusing more on profiles and online research, when sometimes the best information, the best relationship building is actually a collaborative approach with community relations. A prospect can have all the wealth in the world but if they don’t have affinity towards your organization they won’t give. Community Relations can be...

Most prospect research workflows are built around wealth: capacity scores, real estate holdings, investment assets. These are useful. They do not tell you how to get a meeting. Relationship mapping answers a different question. Not whether someone can give; whether someone you already know can introduce you to someone who can. In Canada, three publicly available data sources (T3010s, SEDAR+, and public sector salary disclosures) are particularly well suited to answering that question. This session teaches researchers how to use them. The session opens with a scenario most researchers in the room will recognize. A prospect your organization has been...

This session introduces prospect researchers to the basics of startup wealth, from venture financing and equity ownership to exits, liquidity, and dilution. Using practical signals rather than hype, it shows how founder and early-employee wealth can be assessed before it becomes fully visible as cash or public assets. Attendees will leave with a clearer way to interpret startup milestones, calibrate major gift capacity over time, and decide when a prospect warrants deeper monitoring. Learning Outcomes Explain how startup financing, equity ownership, dilution, and exit pathways shape founder and early-employee wealth. Identify the public signals that matter most when evaluating current...

This session cuts through the hype to focus on how AI can be used practically, ethically, and credibly as part of a modern prospect research toolkit. Designed for researchers at all experience levels, we will demonstrate how tools like Claude and ChatGPT can support core prospect research activities such as prospect identification and relationship mapping without replacing professional judgment or violating data governance standards. In addition, the session will address where AI tools fail. Ethical considerations, confidentiality boundaries, and internal policy alignment will be discussed throughout. Learning Outcomes: How to recognize common risks including hallucinations, overconfidence, bias, and misattribution How...

Leading change under pressure without burnout or silent failure When capable, committed professionals resist change, the issue is rarely motivation or mindset. Under sustained pressure, overload triggers neurological threat responses that degrade judgment, learning, and decision quality. This session reframes resistance and burnout as predictable outcomes of how change is designed and led. Grounded in neuroscience and leadership under pressure, it explains why smart people resist logical change, how stress quietly undermines execution, and why burnout has become a systemic risk. Leaders leave with practical insight into recognizing overload early and redesigning change environments before resistance turns into disengagement or...

With the current economy, major gifts portfolios can be both bloated and less effective than they need to be. A clear system for identifying those who will make that gift now and for splitting the pool into their best segments, such as visit-now prospects, filler visit prospects, and prospects better served by annual giving. Techniques discussed include adapting inventory management theory for use in portfolio management along with using the donor behavior chain and other sifting methods for both identification and timing/readiness. Learning Outcomes: Stream: Relationship & Portfolio Management Format: Breakout session Ideal Industries: Animal Welfare & the Environment; Arts...