Talks and workshops that end with a plan.
Mary-Ellen Lavigne speaks and leads workshops for nonprofit and independent-school audiences: development teams, heads of school, executive directors, and the trustees who sit beside them. Her subject is the everyday work of advancement, from the trustee who dreads the ask to the database nobody trusts.
Every session is built for your audience and the problem in front of them. People should leave with something to do the following week, not a burst of enthusiasm that fades by Friday.
Meet Mary-Ellen
Mary-Ellen Lavigne is the Founder and Principal of TRANSCEND Advancement, a consulting practice for small and mid-sized nonprofits and independent schools. She has spent about two decades in nonprofit advancement, much of it in independent schools. She has led capital campaigns that finished past their goals and helped client organizations grow annual giving by as much as 40 percent year over year.
She came to fundraising by way of theater and mathematics at Wesleyan University, and both show up at the podium. The theater keeps a room listening. The math keeps the advice honest.
Her point of view is easy to say and harder to practice. Fundraising is about people and relationships. Equity belongs in the foundation, not in an add-on session at the end of the day. Good data serves the human story instead of replacing it. And she still says diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging out loud, on purpose.
Based in Los Angeles, she works with organizations across the country, on site and online.
Mary-Ellen Lavigne, Founder and Principal, TRANSCEND Advancement
Topics
Each topic comes straight from our consulting work, and each one can become a keynote, a workshop, or a session at your board retreat.
Boards that raise money
Most trustees would sooner sit through the audit than make a phone call. This session explains the board’s whole job in plain words, then practices the hard part: the first sentence of the ask, the pause after the number, and the follow-up that doesn’t feel like hovering.
Campaigns and major gifts
What a campaign needs before it goes public: a case for support people can repeat, a gift range chart grounded in your real prospects, and leaders who make their own commitments first. Drawn from campaigns that finished past their goals.
Annual giving that lasts
Why so many donors give once and drift away, and the habits that bring them back: a prompt thank-you, real contact between appeals, and an annual fund that counts participation as well as dollars.
Inclusive philanthropy
Equity sits at the center of fundraising, not in a separate workshop at the end. We look at who gets invited in, who gets counted in the database, and who gets thanked, and at what to change first in your own office.
Telling your story
A clear case for why your work matters, told the same way in the appeal letter, on the website, and at the podium. Plus what to say, and who says it, when something goes wrong.
Data with heart
Your database can tell you whom to call first. It can’t tell you what to say when they pick up. A practical session on the handful of numbers worth tracking and on keeping the people behind them in view.
Who We Speak To
Nonprofit conferences and summits
Independent school conferences and associations
Board retreats and board meetings
Development and advancement teams
Leadership teams and staff retreats
Events focused on DEIJB
Formats
Keynote
A talk built around one idea your audience can carry out of the room, written for your program and the people in the seats.
Panel
A seat on your panel, prepared ahead of time with the moderator so the conversation gets past the obvious questions.
Workshop
A hands-on session for staff, volunteers, or leadership teams, with practice built in: drafting the case, rehearsing the ask, or reading a gift report together.
Board retreat session
A working session inside your board retreat on fundraising roles, governance, or campaign readiness, planned in advance with your board chair and chief executive.
Tell us about your event.
Share your audience, your date, and what you hope people will do differently afterward. We’ll suggest a topic and a format and shape the session with you. The people in that room raise the money that keeps missions running, and they deserve an hour that earns its place on the agenda.