Archive for the ‘Portfolio’ Category

Elev8 Fall Learning Institute

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

November 14-16, 2011

Select teams of 25 individuals from each of Elev8’s four sites around the country –  Chicago, Oakland, Albuquerque and Baltimore – came together along with representatives from Public Interest Projects and The Atlantic Philanthropies for an unparalleled learning opportunity: to share experiences, to build partnerships across Elev8 sites, and to expand on the expertise of all Elev8 participants.  Ginger Donnan Events coordinated all arrangements for this convening, including registration, travel booking to Baltimore, communication with attendees, as well as on-site management of 2 ½ days of workshops, learning tours, and dine-arounds.

Human Rights Convenings

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

Public Interest Projects’ Convenings of the U.S. Human Rights Fund

November 7-9, 2011 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
June 14-17, 2010 in Los Angeles, California
January 11-14, 2009 in New Orleans, Louisiana

The 2011 convening “Using Human Rights to Achieve Racial Justice: We Shall Overcome,” hosted by the U.S. Human Rights Fund with support from The Overbrook Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Just and Fair Schools Fund, was attended by 150 advocates and funders. In addition to building the registration website, making travel reservations and communicating with attendees, Ginger Donnan Events coordinated arrangements for the course of events over the three-day convening.

The 2010 convening brought together 15 funders and 80 advocates working on three inter-related human rights campaigns to develop new campaign strategies and advocacy skills, and explore collaborations. Travel arrangements were made for the guests to attend the welcome reception:

USHRF10 Welcome Reception

2 ½ days of meetings:

USHRF10 Meeting

three site visits:

USHRF10 Site Visit

and two off-site dinners:

USHRF10 Dinner

The 2009 Global Strategy Exchange Convening was an opportunity for the organization’s grantees to meet and learn from key international human rights activists. The event included hotel and travel arrangements for 140 attendees, two days of meetings, two days of site visits around New Orleans and Mississippi and all food and beverage, including an off-site group dinner.

Working with Ginger Donnan is an experience unlike any other.  Convenings and special events are by nature a stressful experience for the hosts.  So many people’s needs to be addressed, so many details to consider. Ginger’s organizational skills expertly bring order to chaos.  She identifies a problem and is able to nip it before it has a chance to derail the process.  Ginger is a systems person.  She has event planning down to a science and navigates you through each bump and curve with grace and calm.  It has been more than a pleasure to have Ginger at the helm of our special events–she is magic.  – Sue Simon, Director, Human Rights, U.S. Human Rights Fund, June 2010

The Libra Foundation’s Grantee Convening

October 17-19, 2011

For three days in Chicago, all of The Libra Foundation’s grantees were brought together for the first time to network and get to know the work of grantee organizations from their three  priority areas: women’s rights, environmental sustainability, and social justice and drug policy reform, all working within a human rights framework.

We managed the budget, handled online registration and individual attendee communications, vendor coordination and meeting needs, transportation and travel booking, and on-site management, all while keeping the client fully informed through timely updates.

Photos credit: Hiroshi Landazuri

Light the Night Walks

Sunday, October 23rd, 2011

October 15 and 22, 2011
October 2 and 9, 2010

Light The Night Walk is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s fundraising event to pay tribute and bring hope to people battling cancer. Walkers carry illuminated balloons – white for survivors, red for supporters, and gold in memory of loved ones lost to cancer, and it makes for a very inspiring evening. Over the course of two Saturdays, Light The Night Walks were orchestrated at five locations in NJ – Princeton, Morristown, Camden, Red Bank and Verona. We were on hand throughout months of preparation, from managing the budget to coordination of all vendor relationships and communications,to booking entertainment on a volunteer basis, to helping the volunteer committees with organizing the 200+ volunteers needed to run the events. Our on-site involvement at all 5 locations managed the logistics of the events for more than 10,000 attendees.

“In today’s world we always hear the negative about someone or something. That isn’t true in this case. Amy is a pure gem and proved that repeatedly Saturday at the walk. From the moment I drove up until we left she was always there with a smile to help with whatever I asked her assistance with. Even when I was just walking around looking into each area to check if they had eaten or needed anything, if Amy saw me she would ask if we were ok or if she could help in any way. She single handedly got us into parking spots and made our deliveries an easy process. In this world where people sit back and watch others work, I commend her for her caring and efficient way. Thank you also for the guidance you gave her to know her job so well.” – Iris Gang, Verona Light The Night Walk Committee Chair, October 2011

“Working with Ginger and her team was an extraordinarily positive experience for myself and my staff. Knowing that Ginger was taking care of all the logistical details, the vendors, and the volunteers freed my staff to work with their donors and participants. With Ginger’s strong attention to our needs, our budget, and the overall timeline, we never had to worry about a detail falling by the wayside. Ginger went above and beyond by demonstrating a strong understanding of our mission and building a rapport with our volunteers. – Melissa Casafranca, Light The Night Campaign Director, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, October 2010

Photo credit (top): Michael Del Rossi
Video credit: Nadya Furnari

Autism Speaks

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

Fifth Annual Celebrity Chef Gala

October 3, 2011

The guest list and volunteers were organized for this successful evening at Cipriani Wall Street, where over 100 chefs cooked table-side, and helped to raise over $1.6 million.

Advanced Screening of Disney PIXAR’s “CARS 2″

June 11, 2011

In less than eight weeks, Ginger Donnan Events created the budget, drafted the invitation, and handled the gift distribution and all volunteer outreach for this exclusive screening of “CARS 2″ that was presented by John Ratzenberger. On-site, Ginger Donnan Events coordinated the volunteers and helped ensure the execution of the event went smoothly.

Tri-State Corporate Committee’s Inaugural Gala Dinner

April 15, 2011

For this event honoring David Penski, President of Zenith Media at Chelsea Piers in New York City, Ginger Donnan Events organized the guest list, drafted the invitation, program and auction package descriptions and executed the event planning timeline, including venue and production relations, on-site staffing and volunteer roles and auction check-out. This event opened doors into the corporate community to garner corporate support for the Walk Now for Autism Speaks program.

Ginger Donnan was the key person for organizing and executed our inaugural gala event for the Autism Speaks Tri-State Corporate Committee. She came on from the initial onset of the project and managed the event logistics and made it look so effortless so that the Corporate Committee members could focus on it’s goal to raise awareness in the NY Tri-State business community and raise over $400,000. In my opinion, she has been an tremendous asset to our Committee and I highly recommend her skills and services to others who want nothing less than a perfect event. – Salvatore A. Collemi, CPA – Chair, Autism Speaks Tri-State Corporate Committee, May 2011

Ginger Donnan was the key person for organizing and executed our inaugural gala event for the Autism Speaks Tri-State Corporate Committee. She came on from the initial onset of the project and managed the event logistics and made it look so effortless so that the Corporate Committee members could focus on it’s goal to raise awareness in the NY Tri-State business community and raise over $400,000. In my opinion, she has been an tremendous asset to our Committee and I highly recommend her skills and services to others who want nothing less than a perfect event. – Salvatore A. Collemi, CPA – Chair, Autism Speaks Tri-State Corporate Committee, April 2011

Face-Off for a Cure

March 21, 2011

The guest list and volunteers were organized for this evening to benefit Autism Speaks & The Gillen Brewer School. Guests were joined at their tables by current and former NHL players.

Fourth Annual Celebrity Chef Gala

October 4, 2010

The guest list and volunteers were organized for this event, where celebrity chefs cooked for guests table-side.

Tip-Off for a Cure

April 14, 2010

The guest list and volunteers were organized for this evening to benefit Autism Speaks & The Gillen Brewer School. Guests were joined at their tables by current and former NBA and WNBA players.

Concert for Autism Speaks Featuring Lionel Richie

March 30, 2008

This sold-out event, held at The Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, raised $1.8 million to benefit Autism Speaks. Host renowned journalist and author Tom Brokaw introduced speakers Donald Trump, an event co-chair along with wife Melania, followed by Florida Governor Charlie Crist, and Suzanne and Bob Wright, the co-founders of Autism Speaks. The audience was on their feet for much of the concert that featured Richie’s most beloved and acclaimed hits, both as a solo performer and as a member of the Commodores.

Autism Speaks to Wall Street: 1st Annual Chef Gala

October 24, 2007

The first chefs’ tasting in NYC to offer table-side cooking to over 370 people, this event raised over $1.1 million for Autism Speaks. In addition to preparing and executing the run-of-show, arrangements for entertainers Darrell Hammond and Lisa Loeb were made and production was implemented $100,000 under budget.

Ginger Donnan was a go-to person for Autism Speaks during an important time of transition in our events department. One month before our first Chef Gala, she came on board to project manage the event logistics so that the committee could focus on it’s goal to raise over $1 million. Ginger then came on board to oversee the staff roles, timeline and logistics for the $1.8 million Concert for Autism Speaks featuring Lionel Richie and was instrumental in making the entire process flow smoothly. She has been an asset to our organization and I recommend her skills and services to others. – Glenn Tringali, Former Executive Vice President, Autism Speaks, April 2008

Nantucket Walk Now for Autism

August 25, 2007

Approximately 1,000 attendees experienced this $350,000 fundraiser for Autism Speaks at Jetties Beach, which included a performance by the Nantucket Theatre Workshop and speeches by Walk Chairs Suzanne and Bob Wright and Chris and Heather Kennedy. Refreshments were served and children’s activities continued during the course of the morning before the crowd enjoyed the 1.85 mile walk.

Your professionalism, skill expertise and hard work have made our foundation a better place.  – Mark Roithmayr, Autism Speaks President, June 2007

Law Firm Events

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

September 22, 2011

We helped a law firm client with the on-site management of their breakfast seminar at the Harvard Club for 200 clients and prospects on the topic of capital markets.

April 6-9, 2011

We helped a client with the on-site management of their 3-day partner retreat in New York City. Over 200 law firm partners and their spouses came together for two nights of client open houses showcasing the firm’s new offices, a dine-around New York City and a gala retirement dinner at Cipriani 42nd Street.

We knew how challenging it would be to execute this series of events and that we would need a short-term but dedicated extra set of hands that could do more than just administrative work. Ginger was the perfect answer! We could not have accomplished it all without her support the week before to help get the loose ends tied down. It was invaluable to have another event-focused thinker on our team. Ginger quickly understood what we needed her to do and, without much explanation, accomplished those tasks perfectly. – Events Manager, New York Law Firm, April 2011

June 10-11, 2010

Special events were held at GILT Restaurant and The Bowery Hotel to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the law firm Richards Kibbe & Orbe LLP. In addition to site selection and contracts, budgets and a timeline were drafted and kept up-to-date, invitations, decor, music and photography were arranged and on-site staff was provided for greeting and check-in of the 600 guests in total.

March 4-6, 2010

We helped a client with the on-site management of their 3-day partner retreat in Florida. Over 200 law firm partners came together for the first time in three years to collaborate and get to know each other better.

We had less than four months to plan our partner retreat in Florida. Our first question was “can we bring Ginger?” She brings her wisdom, professionalism and sense of calm to every event on which she helps us. As we walked her through our plan, she helped us make sure all details were in place (without making us feel she was taking over). She was invested in our success and took responsibility for certain tasks that let us focus on other priorities. Ginger Donnan Events is our secret weapon to making a huge event look easy! – Events Manager, New York Law Firm, March 2010

February 5-10, 2008

In 3 months time, 6 days of events were organized for a large corporate law firm that included registration, hotel, car service and other arrangements for 550 people, as well as a 50-person dinner, two 550-person receptions, a 400-person all-day meeting and a 670-person black tie dinner/dance.

I was given a 3 month window to plan a major international partner meeting in New York to be attended by over 400 individuals. In addition I needed to plan a formal Black Tie dinner dance on the following evening to be attended by 700 people. We had to coordinate transportation for guests arriving from over 26 countries and also hosted a series of smaller events around these two major events. I called upon Ginger Donnan to assist me with this mammoth project and was not disappointed. Ginger stayed on top of the planning and coordination, even when she was being pulled in 100 directions at once. She is organized, thorough and always pleasant to work with. I would invite her to be on my team anytime. – Rick McKenna, Chief Administrative Officer, February 2008

Photo credit: Steven Harris