Jeff Bagel
JEFF BAGEL, CFRE
Jeff’s first book, "Annual Fundraising Plans Made Simple: A Road Map for Community Colleges and Small Development Shops,” was released in the fall of 2016 by CASE Publishing. It was CASE’s top-selling book in its category in 2017.
In 2017, Jeff was a contributing author for the annual giving module in the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ “Fundamentals of Fundraising Course” Participants Manual, which is distributed worldwide to students enrolled in the program.
Jeff is a Principal with eAdvancement, where he provides high quality counsel that helps not-for-profit organizations exceed their expectations through improved philanthropy. He is a sought after speaker for conferences, webinars and symposiums due to his informative and engaging sessions.
Jeff was honored as 2012’s Western New York Fundraising Executive of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), and has served as an adjunct faculty member in Canisius College’s Fundamentals of Fund Raising program. A graduate of the Executive Leadership Institute at the Center of Philanthropy at Indiana University, he was one of four people nationally selected to serve as a facilitator at the Executive Leadership Institute in 2000.
Jeff is involved in numerous community organizations and activities. Currently, he serves as Immediate Past President of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Western New York Chapter, and as Chairman of MusicalFare Theatre in Buffalo, NY.
Works

Annual Fundraising Plans Made Simple: A Roadmap for Community Colleges and Small Development Shops
Are you one of the many talented, dedicated people in an understaffed community college or small fundraising office who tends to rush from one urgent deadline to the next? If so, Jeff Bagel, Principal with eAdvancement has thrown you a lifeline.
Bagel’s new book Annual Fundraising Plans Made Simple: A Road Map for Community Colleges and Small Development Shops is your guide to carving out the time to pause, to think and to plan—in other words, to do the vision thing. It shows you how to create a meaningful strategy that frames your work, communicates your value and reassures institutional leadership that you are on the right track.
Drawing on his practical wisdom and experience as a fundraising executive, Bagel gives you permission to step away from the usual routines and last-minute requests. He makes a compelling case for developing a realistic annual fundraising plan that sets your agenda and motivates your staff. The book provides practical guidance and helpful templates adaptable to an institution of any size and facing any set of circumstances. Bagel shows how proper planning can optimize your performance and that of your fundraising operation as well as improve relationships with your president, foundation board members and campus colleagues. More specifically, this resource:
•Articulates the value and necessity of an annual fundraising plan
•Offers guidance on what things need to go in the AFP—and what things do not
•Shows how to frame the role of special events in the AFP
•Explains how the AFP strengthens relationships with leaders and board members
•Discusses how to decide which other development activities to include in the AFP to build stakeholders’ understanding of the scope of the development operation
•Provides sample fundraising policies and gift counting procedures for small shops