Development Whispering: Relationship Building with Donor Families
Tuesday, February 17, 2026 12:30 to 1:30 PM CST
Spertus faculty member Caren Yanis leads this session.
Caren Yanis is the principal of Croland Consulting, a philanthropic advisory firm where she helps families and foundations navigate the philanthropic landscape. She is a member of the Spertus faculty and the Private Wealth Management Program at the University of Chicago’s Booth School.
From 2009 to 2016, Yanis was President of Crown Family Philanthropies, guiding strategic initiatives and prior to that, from 2000 to 2009, she was Executive Director of Oprah Winfrey’s philanthropies when the Oprah Winfrey Show was on the air. She works closely with celebrities and athletes and is a frequent keynote speaker at wealth management and estate planning conferences.
Yanis is on the boards of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, The Women’s Philanthropy Institute, and Wise Giving Alliance, and she chairs the Poetry Foundation Board, which received a major bequest from Ruth Lilly in 2002. She was a founding director of Leading Edge, a group formed to build organizational strength in Jewish nonprofit agencies.
Presented by Spertus Institute and JPro Chicago, Connect & Learn is an online, community-building, professional development series.
Connect & Learn workshops offer participants around the world a chance to join Spertus students and alumni for lively sessions on topics key to Jewish professional life today.
Build skills you can apply immediately to your life and work. Become part of a network of learners and Jewish community leaders. Sessions are online, live, interactive, and collaborative. Each session includes time to connect, network, meet new colleagues, and strengthen relationships. Sessions are free of charge thanks to the generosity of our sponsors.
Programs take place via Zoom. Ticket holders will receive login instructions by email 24 hours in advance.
Connect & Learn is presented in partnership with JPro Chicago.
This series is presented under the auspices of Spertus Institute’s Center for Jewish Leadership, supported in part by a generous grant from the Crown Family
If you can, we encourage you to make a gift to support this free program and others like it!