Jesse R. Shafer
Vice President, University Advancement, Rowan University

“When I arrived at Rowan University in 2021, I was encouraged by the year-over-year steady growth and ever-improving performance of its Advancement program. However, one measure didn’t seem to make sense for an ascending university with 20,000 students, 100,000 alumni, and plans to achieve Research 1 status within the next five years: It’s Day of Giving was only raising about $100,000 per year.

I learned that this was because Advancement had never fully integrated Day of Giving into its yearly strategic plan, and only began ramping up for it a few weeks ahead of the day itself. We realized we needed an expert to get us on the road to the Day of Giving we knew we were capable of having.

Enter Elona Deprez and Allied Executive Solutions. We quickly learned that Elona isn’t just a consultant; she’s a true partner and she’s fully invested in and committed to her clients’ success. She worked closely with our Team for several months – on site and virtually – to create what we desperately needed: A plan. All of us appreciated the way Elona didn’t simply just say, “Here’s your plan.” Rather, she worked with us to develop a plan – incorporating what she identified were vital fundamentals – that fit who and where we were. She seemed to know that in doing so, we’d start to own the plan and become confident that it would work.

The results spoke for themselves. We more than doubled our dollars raised and gifts received compared to our previous most successful Day of Giving! Elona let us know that we’d be able to apply the strategies and tactics she taught us to future Day of Giving celebrations and encouraged us to believe that our success would only grow; that’s exactly what happened!”