Judi Cantor

Judi Taylor Cantor is the Director of Planned Giving for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health where she has raised more than $20 million in four years and created a planned giving program for the 100 year old plus school. She was recruited to Harvard after a four-year consultancy teaching and coaching planned giving and campaign management. Her clients included New Repertory Theatre, The Boston Conservatory, Boston Baroque, EcoLogic, Mass Audubon, SUNY Stony Brook, and NYSARC and its 55 Chapters in New York, among others. Prior to her consultancy, she was Director of Planned Giving, American Museum of Natural History (New York); Executive Director of Planned Giving, WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute); and Director of Individual, Major and Planned Giving, Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Topic Discussed: Planned giving is a key component of a nonprofit organization’s fundraising strategy. Like major gifts, “the ask” is not a simple one. Planned giving is a sensitive topic for anyone and must be approached with sensitivity and diplomacy.  Because it requires the fundraiser to build a trusting relationship with a prospective donor, he/she must conduct a be prepared based on research and exhibit a great deal of patience over a long period of time. Judi Cantor has made a successful career out of building that trust and raising significant funds for her nonprofits. Based on her background and experience, she is able to take the legal and financial complexities of planned giving and simplify them for the individual donor in a way that allows that donor to feel engaged and informed about the gift about to be made.  Interspersing her presentation with humor and relatable case studies, she successfully engaged students in meaningful discussion and left them with a true appreciation of the skills and commitment required to be a major gifts officer.

BU Lecturer: Lew Karabatsos has been teaching Individual Fundraising at Boston University for more than 10 years. He brings an extensive background in philanthropy and nonprofit relations from his roles as the former Vice President of Philanthropy and Workplace Communications at Monster Worldwide and Director of Philanthropy at Hewlett Packard.