What motivates someone to include a charitable gift in their estate? Who are your strongest planned giving prospects, and how can you effectively reach them? How should you respond when someone “raises their hand” through marketing? This session explores the data, behavioral science, and messaging strategies that influence planned giving decisions. Whether you're building a program from the ground up or looking to enhance an already successful effort, you'll leave with practical tools and ideas that can be adapted to programs and budgets of all sizes. Members of the Virginia Gift Planning Council board will share marketing samples from their organizations, and attendees are encouraged to bring any samples they would like to share.
Pending approval for CFRE credit.
Ann A. Deppman, J.D., serves as Assistant Vice President, Planned Giving at Virginia Commonwealth University. At VCU Ann has been charged with building the university’s first comprehensive gift planning program with an emphasis on collaborative fundraising in a highly matrixed organization. Previously, Ann led gift planning efforts at the MCV Foundation on VCU’s medical campus and at Oberlin College. At Oberlin, Ann oversaw a program that was consistently recognized as an industry leader with one of the highest constituent participation rates in planned giving among peer institutions. Ann’s additional experience at Oberlin includes serving as a dean, program director, and pre-law advisor. Ann began her career as general practice attorney. Ann graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Middlebury College and received her J.D. from Vermont Law School. She is a member of the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners and past president of the Virginia Gift Planning Council.
Everyone’s chasing Baby Boomers for legacy gifts … but what happens when the Boomers are gone? If your legacy strategy doesn’t include Generation X, you’re already falling behind.
Gen Xers (born 1965–1980) are entering their peak wealth years, inheriting unprecedented assets, and making critical estate and financial planning decisions right now. This is a generation shaped by economic uncertainty, rapid technological change, and a skeptical view of institutions – yet they value authenticity, transparency, and tangible impact.
For fundraisers, that means building trust early, using personalized and digital-friendly engagement, and showing exactly how a legacy gift will make a difference. For professional advisors, it means understanding their desire for control, flexibility, and socially responsible investment options – and how charitable planning can align with those values.
This session unpacks what makes Gen Xers tick, how to communicate in ways that resonate with them, and how charities and advisors can work in tandem to inspire meaningful, lasting gifts. Because if you wait until they’re 70, the moment will have passed.
By the end of this session, participants will:
Ligia Peña, CFRE, is a trailblazer in legacy fundraising and the visionary behind GlobetrottingFundraiser. With expertise across 15 countries, she crafts innovative strategies that empower nonprofits to secure transformational gifts in wills. As a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Kent, Ligia’s research aims to uncover how impact reporting builds donor trust and deepens legacy conversations. A sought-after speaker and trainer, she’s energized thousands with her dynamic approach to legacy giving. Co-author of Excellence in Fundraising in Canada and featured in leading industry publications, Ligia blends data-driven insights with practical strategies to help charities create lasting impact through legacies.
As planned giving professionals and fundraisers, we are on the precipice of the largest transfer of wealth in human history, with an estimated $35,000,000,000,000 distributed over the coming years to individuals and charitable organizations. While this provides an unprecedented opportunity for philanthropic giving, it also comes with an increasing challenge to our industry. Cognitive impairment - such as Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia - in elderly donors is on the rise, which can create difficult ethical and legal issues for our professionals when discussing charitable gifts. Are you prepared for this inevitable scenario?
This session will teach attendees about cognitive impairment in donor populations, how to identify the top signs, and best practices on how best to handle these situations through an ethical and legal lens before applying what is learned to case studies pulled from the real experiences of fundraisers and planned giving professionals in the field today.
Tara Adams, Ed.M. JD, has spent her professional career dedicated to education, serving in roles within higher education administration at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, University of Illinois College of Law at Urbana-Champaign, and North Carolina State University. She also worked in the Judicial Education division at the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, assisting in the development and execution of continuing legal education for the state judiciary. In addition to working for half a decade in higher education fundraising, Tara also spent years raising funds as a member of the Auxiliary Board for the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois.
Tara received her B.S. in finance and international business from Illinois State University. She received her Ed.M. and JD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where Tara is also a current Ph.D. student focusing on Education Policy, Organization & Leadership. She is the co-founder of the Cognitive Empowerment Consulting Group, LLC and is dedicated to helping other professionals navigate ethical and legal issues in the development community.
As an experienced entrepreneur and Certified Fund Raising Executive, Anthony Pomonis has spent the last two-plus decades helping individuals and organizations achieve their goals. He has served as a major gift officer for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Illinois, a generalist at the University of Illinois Foundation, and team lead at the University of Central Florida. In his roles, Anthony developed strategies and initiatives that resulted in philanthropic support of the largest land-grant in the Big 10, the three Universities of the Illinois System, and the largest college at UCF, the second-largest university in the country.
Anthony graduated with his B.A. in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002, and began a 15-year journey as an entrepreneur, opening and running no fewer than 5 regional restaurants. He served on the Regional Executive Board of Big Brothers Big Sisters (2010–2015), the executive board of his local Greek Orthodox Church (2014-2022), and the Kirby Medical Foundation Board (2020-2022); he currently sits on the Orthodox Christian Fellowship National Board and is an at-large board member for the Charitable Gift Planners of Central Florida. Anthony considers himself to be a lifelong learner, and has finished his College for Financial Planning coursework to sit for the CFP exam. He is the co-founder of the Cognitive Empowerment Consulting Group, LLC.
Copyright 2025
VGPC, PO Box 6605, Richmond, VA 23230(804) 368-3397 x 2info@vagiftplanning.org
%20higher%20res.png)