AFP ICON Series : Bart Lillie - Building Community, Not Just Content

What makes a great fundraising conference? For Bart Lillie, it’s all about the people. In this special AFP ICON edition of From the Nest, host Charity Jen catches up with Bart—Vice President of Partner Engagement at Synergy—to talk about the true value of attending events like AFP ICON. Bart shares how community, not just content, keeps him coming back year after year, and how these shared moments spark opportunities, partnerships, and personal growth.

Recorded live from the buzz of Seattle’s convention center, Bart reflects on some of his favorite ICON takeaways, including a powerful keynote by astronaut José Hernández and the emerging role of AI in nonprofit work. Whether you’re new to fundraising or a seasoned pro, this conversation is a reminder that connection is at the heart of our sector—and that sometimes, the best breakthroughs start with a casual hallway hello.

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Here are some notable highlights:

00:00 – Jen kicks off the AFP ICON Series

01:25 – Bart shares what makes ICON special

03:38 – AI in fundraising and a must-read book

05:53 – Bart’s favorite keynote: Astronaut José Hernández

07:38 – Closing thoughts and gratitude

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:17):
Welcome to From the Nest, where fundraising ideas take flight.
I'm your host, Jen Newmeyer, also known as Charity Jen.
This episode is part of a special series recorded live
at AFP icon, which is the international conference of the
Association of Fundraising Professionals in Seattle. I had the chance
to connect with amazing nonprofit leaders, vendors and just visionaries

(00:41):
who are shaking things up in the sector. So whether
you're in fundraising, marketing, or just passionate about purpose driven work,
you're going to want to hear this episode with Bart Lilie,
the Vice President of Partner Engagement at synergy. Enjoy. Bart,
thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.

(01:02):
I'm glad that I could snag you.

S2 (01:03):
I saw you, I saw you walking by. And I
was like, come on, come on.

S3 (01:06):
I know I love that.

S2 (01:09):
So clearly we're here at Icon, a very large conference
five floors above us of sessions and more sessions and
more sessions. I would love to hear from you. Like what?
What do you enjoy most about this conference and how many?
How many of these icons have you been to?

S3 (01:28):
This is number three for me, okay. And, uh, I've
been in this industry for maybe almost eight years, almost
ten years now of this tech for good and helping
nonprofits really succeed. Um, I wish I would have started
coming earlier. Honestly. Yeah. Uh, there's a lot of, um.

(01:50):
And this is this is my take. To answer the
other question, I think it's the strength here is in
the community more so than the content.

S2 (02:00):
Oh, yes.

S3 (02:02):
So I think that, yeah, there's a ton of content,
but you can never you can't consume it all. It's
like overwhelming. Yeah. And it's true too, that there are
a couple thousand, two, 3000 people here. You can't meet
them all. That's also overwhelming. But what I've taken away
over the years, it's. I started making some friends in

(02:25):
this sector who have the same shared almost DNA of like,
how can we help nonprofits do really well from the sector?
And it's like, yeah, we're in it together.

S2 (02:36):
Right, right. I think talking about that community, I think
what I love about icon is like when you come back,
you know, it's like you see all of it's like
it's like a family reunion a little. Yeah. See all
of your friends that you met from, you know, previous years.
I was just telling someone earlier that I ran into, um,

(02:57):
a development director that I knew, like, 20 years ago.
I haven't seen her in forever. And she said, oh,
my gosh. What are you doing here?

S3 (03:03):
I know.

S2 (03:04):
Yeah. Yeah. I love it.

S3 (03:06):
It was last year in Toronto. I mean, a couple
people I ran into that I had never met in person.
And that happened again today, a few times, like, oh,
I know you from LinkedIn. I, you know, I follow
you or this or that or we I heard you
speak at this conference. Nice to meet you. You know. Yeah.
It happens. And so I think being present, it just

(03:31):
puts you in a spot where you're reachable.

S2 (03:33):
Yeah.

S3 (03:34):
And you're accessible to new opportunities and new invitations. You
never know what happens.

S2 (03:41):
Right, exactly. Yeah, exactly. What are a few of your
takeaways from this conference in particular? Are there are there
some things that you're very excited when you leave and
get back into the office?

S3 (03:54):
Yeah. Well, I mean, outside of like partnerships and just
some of the good conversations I've had there. I am
excited to read that new book about nonprofit AI that should, uh,
Nathan Chapelle and Scott Rosenkranz has written. Yeah, it's like
officially comes out like next week, May 5th or May 6th.

(04:16):
You can get it on Amazon or any of the
places Barnes and Noble. But they're giving it away here.
Like there's ways you can get a copy. And so
I can't wait to get my hands on that, because
I do think that AI is a big piece of it.
And a lot of the the conversations and the sessions
and in the expo hall, it's people are talking about it. Yeah.

(04:38):
But it's one thing to just keep talking about it
like it's a little bit different thing to say. All right.
How are we going to make this happen? With my company,
with my team, with my nonprofit, with my board, whatever.
Like really using it. And I need to I need
more of it in my own personal life. And so

(04:59):
I'm interested in taking that home.

S2 (05:00):
Yes. Yeah. Yeah I, I love the mix of sort of,
you know, there is um, there there's, there are lots
of resources for the sort of the traditional kind kinds of, of,
of fundraising, you know, like, so, so someone who's new
in the industry can still learn a lot, but yet

(05:21):
others who have maybe been doing this work for a
couple of decades, um, are are they're talking about sort
of the cutting edge kinds of things. And, uh, and
I think like having that balance to meet the needs for,
you know, for fundraisers, wherever they are in their, you know,

(05:42):
in their, um, journey, um, is really something that I
find really valuable. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, what
has been one of your 1 or 2 of your favorite,
favorite moments so far here?

S3 (05:56):
You know, the keynote that, uh, that Josie did yesterday,
you know, telling his story as an astronaut and and
just kind of his journey was amazing. Like, I circled
that from the very beginning. I wanted to hear that. And, uh,
was not disappointed. Like, I won't say I had high,

(06:17):
high expectations, but I was like, I want to hear that.
And it just was great. Like, I think I love
it when you go to a conference and they're able
to pull an inspirational speaker that isn't maybe just a
talking head from within the industry like, I've done this,
you should do it too. That's great. There's room for that.

(06:40):
And and I've been that head as well. You know,
a lot of people have, but, uh, it's also great
when you get a storyteller who can really carry you
through his or her story. And Afpi kind of does that.
Like they bring in some amazing speakers and there are
other conferences that that do it to different degrees too.
But like, this one was like, that was a home

(07:02):
run yesterday. Yeah, it was really good.

S2 (07:04):
Yeah, I 100% agree. I was really blown away at
the perseverance. Yeah. The creativity that he had, you know,
like taking on all of these different, you know, education
and opportunities to get to his final goal which was
to go up into space. It was really inspirational. It

(07:26):
was a.

S3 (07:26):
Great. And there's a there's a movie too, if you
if you missed if you missed the keynote, you they
Amazon made a movie about his life a million miles from.

S2 (07:35):
I think it's a million miles.

S3 (07:36):
A million miles from here or from there or something
like that.

S2 (07:38):
Yeah. I can't wait to see it.

S3 (07:39):
Yeah. Same.

S2 (07:41):
Well, uh, so thank you again. And thank you for
being on the From the Nest podcast. Really delighted to
have you here.

S3 (07:50):
Oh, I appreciate it. Thanks for asking.

S4 (07:52):
Thank you.

S1 (07:58):
Thanks for listening to From the Nest where fundraising takes flight.
If you enjoyed this conversation, don't miss the rest of
the incredible voices we met at the AFP icon conference.
You can hear from all of the nonprofit professionals, innovators
and changemakers by visiting charity. And if you need more

(08:19):
tools and insights from the field, head to. Com to
explore the resources I've gathered from AFP icon and beyond,
including strategy, tips, templates and more. And if you haven't yet,
check out my latest book, Digital Fundraising Transformation The Insider's
Guide to Revolutionize Your Strategy and Raise More. It will

(08:41):
help you supercharge your nonprofit marketing and fundraising efforts. Until
next time, keep lifting each other up.