Millions of professionals left their jobs monthly during the great resignation. While the trend has slowed drastically in 2023, companies are witnessing new challenges. Recent polls discovered that 50% of fundraisers are expecting to leave their job within the next couple of years. While not all staff members are exiting, employers are seeing less engagement and examples of quiet quitting. 

Our conversation with top executive search firm leaders will explore talent architecture and provide a starting point for advancement shops to avoid the pitfalls of talent engagement. Learn how you can be a champion for an engaging, functional and collaborative advancement team. 

Session Description: Creativity isn’t just for creative professionals or artists. Creative thinking is one of the most sought-after skills companies (and CEOs) look for. And yet, 75% of people think they're not living up to their creative potential. How, exactly, do you get more creative? In this session, you will: Learn the mechanics of creativity; Experience a mini-Creative Friday, an outrageous day of silliness used by the ASU Outreach Hub to increase creative thinking, teamwork, and professional development; Have some fun (without forced socialization); Leave with some creative thinking exercises you can do, anywhere and at any time.

Students are students for a fraction of the time that they will be alumni yet so little work is done with current students to teach them what it means to be engaged and involved as an alum. Most students-alumni-donor pipeline best practices currently in use were designed for a now-outdated constituency. The world has changed. The demographics of students have shifted, including more first-generation and students from underrepresented backgrounds. We now live in a digital world where online and hybrid opportunities for engagement are no longer outliers, they are practically required. A consumerist approach to education points to a more transactional experience rather than an immersive, developmental one. We must find ways to demonstrate the value of engaged alumni and donors and acknowledge that the student-alumni-donor paradigm has shifted. One-size-fits-all approaches are no longer acceptable. Drawing on findings from their research, Drs. Gilbert and Brinton have put together a toolkit that advancement professionals and campus partners can use to teach Alumni in Training not only the “how-to” but also the “why” of alumni engagement. This interactive session will provide opportunities for attendees to explore the toolkit in action and learn ways to jumpstart a student’s alumni role identity.

How can we create an innovative and positive environment of support, acceptance, collaboration and progress that fosters creativity and talent? How can be become better at what we do? How about with a little bit of humor? Explore a world of YES, AND – acceptance and building; active listening; collaboration; risk taking; failure embracing and inspiration. Through engaging activities and participant discussion, we will practice elevating our work and our play. Find the joy in what you do, and bring it to others. Let’s participate, learn and find the FUN in FUNdraising!

Learn from London School of Economics and Political Science how they created a framework to process and manage the data for our closest alumni and supporters, our VIPs in shorthand. We analysed the issues, delved deep into use cases and examined data structures that had evolved organically over time - without critical, strategic thought - and then implemented some significant changes to better manage this dataset.

In this session, attendees will learn why it is important to take an aggressive approach to developing and maintaining a coherent brand as it applies to enrollment marketing, social and digital media, and on-campus communications. Presenters will explain how Carson-Newman University tackled a murky identity and unveiled not only a new campaign, but new brand look and supporting elements in 8 months in an interactive session with Q+A opportunities.

We will share how a system of collaboration between Caltech’s Prospect Management and Research and Regional Major Gifts Teams has implemented analytics and strategy to measure output, mentor for success, and indicate promotion. This system helps avoid the pitfalls of unconscious bias to move away from anecdotal perception to measurable results. Clearly defined metrics and accessible reports are the basis for the collaboration enabling researchers to effectively support fundraisers’ progress toward goals, and managers to effectively mentor fundraisers. It maintains equity among peers by quantitatively reflecting achievements, highlighting areas of improvement, and indicating where promotion (or separation) is needed.

For advancement offices with small budgets and few staff, tackling the world of advancement can pose extra challenges. In this session you'll hear from Universidad Panamericana, a small private university in Mexico City about how changing their approach and partnering with other small universities helped them make better use of their limited resources.

Are you redefining your board management and engagement for meetings? Learn tactics that can be instituted in working with your board members to engage them at the meeting - from time with students to problem solving to executive sessions with your leadership. Learn ways to engage with them virtually and in person. Have your board members come out of the meeting feeling like they made a difference and impacted your institution.

The Office of Gift Compliance at the University of Colorado Foundation is focused on tackling underutilized funds through a variety of approaches, encompassing an in-house developed gift compliance data set and report (Fund Purpose Report). This work has greatly improved the Foundation’s relationship with campus (controllers, fund managers, deans, etc.) and Advancement staff and has led to overall improvements in spending, transparency and communication surrounding gift funds.

Some of your greatest champions live outside the US, but it's harder to keep them involved. Don't let borders and time zones limit your alumni relations! Extend your reach to alumni living around the world through strategic events, outreach, and relationships. Join this session to learn about and discuss why, when, and how to implement an effective international alumni engagement plan. We'll talk data, resources, ideas, best practices, and opportunities to create and sustain a vibrant global alumni community.

Do you struggle to get fresh, impactful content from your organization's subject matter experts for your donor communications? Using UC Berkeley's faculty stewardship program as an example, learn best practices, strategies, and techniques to effectively and efficiently generate engaging content for your next solicitation, white paper, report, or proposal.

We’ve all heard the numbers on staff turnover in Advancement, but what we haven’t heard is how that turnover can result in positive outcomes for donors. Join us to hear directly from an Academic Dean, Development Officer, Donor Relations, and Development Communications on the unique interactions each has in cultivating a principal gift, and how their inclusion at different points of the donor’s experience help contribute to overall cultivation of prospect. We’ll flip the script on turnover and how you can use the inevitable changes to your team over time to your advantage.

Join CASE leaders from around the world to learn more about key legislative and advocacy issues facing education professionals.

It is often challenging to know exactly what data to pay attention to, how to measure effectively, and the best ways to communicate results. We can now track a plethora of information that can be overwhelming to know where to start. It is tempting to point to the highest number or most exciting result and celebrate that success, rather than building a comprehensive strategy to focus on the fundamentals. 

This session will highlight how to take the next step on your data journey (regardless of your starting point), stay current on today’s trends and opportunities, and build a strategy with more in-depth data and resources. It will also highlight key trends in philanthropy and alumni engagement by showcasing findings from CASE Insights benchmarking surveys. 

The internet is one of the best things that has ever happened to people with disabilities – as long as they can click a trackpad, see the content, and hear the audio. But what about when they can’t? Like the rest of us, university donors and alumni are increasingly dependent on technology in their daily lives. It’s more important than ever that we ensure our digital experiences are accessible to all people, regardless of their abilities.

Lessons learned from the University of Edinburgh as they look to adapt an existing philanthropic ethical due diligence process across all institutional income. The session will share insight with those with existing reputational due diligence processes and offer advice to those looking to establish one.

Learn how UC Berkeley embarked on the hard work of bringing a decentralized advancement community together to address its pipeline health needs. In the final chapter of our $6B Light the Way Campaign, we are turning our attention to the mid-level portion of the pipeline ($1k-$100k) and addressing how a DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) approach to our work can transform the future makeup of our donor pipeline. Through an innovative proof-of-concept, UC Berkeley has seen early wins with a scalable qualification program that brings together direct marketing strategies and frontline qualification best practices.

Love has everything to do with alumni and their healthy lifelong relationship to their alma mater. What happens though, when the love alumni have for the relationships developed in college, the professors who guided them through their academic work and the co-curricular activities stays casual and informal? This session explores how to identify, amplify and cultivate alumni experiences that align with their life cycle and that of the institution. The session will detail how strategic planning, processes and programming focused on alumni affinity; directly translates to annual, endowed and perpetual gifts.

About 15 percent of the world's population lives with a disability - including many of your alumni. The choices you make in engaging them can be the difference between inclusion and exclusion. In this session, we will explore major topics around accessibility, including breaking down why accessibility is so important in alumni programming. Participants will walk away from this presentation with a set of actionable tools and strategies to promote accessibility within event and engagement planning, on websites, and in digital communication. This presentation will be appropriate for both new and seasoned alumni engagement professionals.

The stakes have never been higher to find, grow and retain a high performing team. The rise of talent management has been key in developing strategies to address the challenges in the advancement market. However, talent management must have a seat at the table and strong support from the top of the organization to succeed. Please join Boston University’s Chief Advancement Officer and head of Talent Management to learn how a strong partnership from the President on down impacted unprecedented growth and success in fundraising. Topics include talent acquisition, compensation, onboarding, culture, recognition, engagement, training, DEIB, career progression and more.

In today's ever evolving tax landscape it is important to understand how to properly assess gifts and pledges with appropriate tax implications for gift acceptance and gift processing standards. We will navigate through the matrix of rules that are set for gifts-in-kind, cryptocurrency and other complex donations. We will also explore IRS requirements as well as ethical questions that can arise in the acceptance and processing of gifts and pledges. We will discuss how to handle tax questions while maintaining ethical and common-sense practices that ensure accurate processing for the IRS and your auditors.

Have you ever implemented a new strategy for your giving day and found its results lacking? Us, too! In an industry that demands constant improvement to remain relevant, sometimes “best practices” do not look their best at our own institutions. In this interactive session, Ohio Wesleyan University will share specific examples of how we have troubleshooted our giving day strategy over more than 10 years of iterations. Come prepared with questions about your own giving day and walk away with crowdsourced solutions. While no single institution has all the answers, our collective wisdom provides the expertise our giving days need.

In today's digital era, your website is your most critical recruitment tool. Google Analytics 4 has a treasure trove of actionable data you can use today to improve your conversion rates. In this session, we will uncover how to identify key recruitment gaps within your web strategy. Additionally, we will learn how to adapt to the emerging cookieless world of web analytics.

More than 95% of US assets are held outside of cash. In order to strengthen our fundraising success, institutions and individual fundraisers must understand cryptocurrency and be comfortable soliciting and closing gifts of crypto. This presentation seeks to demystify crypto and the blockchain, so that institutions understand why they should entertain these kinds of gifts and individual fundraisers can close gifts of crypto that benefit their institution EVEN if their institution doesn't currently accept gifts of crypto.

The way we approach DEI in Advancement is changing. We’re moving beyond education and training. Many of us are getting past the “why” and moving toward the “how” phase of our DEI journeys; we’re starting to form best practices and share results. As we seek more equitable ways to operate, engage with stakeholders, and communicate, we’re stepping closer to truly living our values. At the University of Washington, we’ve taken action, working towards our values of equity and belonging in meaningful ways. At the University of Washington Advancement, we have been calculated in establishing meaningful cross-team, cross-unit committees and groups dedicated to culture, practice, and policy change. Our committee structure is unique, and we can share how this work shapes our organization. We have also developed our DEI strategic plan and lead with a set of DEI values, all created in partnership with one of our committees. Our session will focus on how our leadership invested in DEI in UA and how we’ve moved from “why” with our vision and values, to planning and action.

Fund management is an essential component of providing financial transparency to our donors which ensures our fiduciary responsibilities are met. In this session we will discuss endowed fund reporting as well as processes to ensure endowment spend allocations and current-use funds are being spent in a timely manner and how the donor intended. We will also discuss fund management best practices to ensure donor's wishes are being fulfilled. Foundation project Administration was established within University Advancement as a resource for campus partners. As fiduciaries of donor funds, Foundation Project Admin offers support, guidance, education, and training on the use of Foundation funds. We perform financial compliance reviews for departmental spending of restricted funds ensuring they are spent timely and according to donor intent. As donors are inspired to give, we have a shared responsibility to ensure their support is spent as intended. We strengthen our donor's relationship with the university through financial transparency with impact reporting for future contributions.

Each of us (easily) receives over one hundred emails each day. With all of this competition, how can you ensure your communication is cutting through the noise and getting in front of your readers? In this session, you’ll see email examples from Cornell University’s advancement communication team, which boasts industry leading open and click rates. Learn how to curate quality content for your newsletter and boost engagement for each of your constituent emails.

Professional development conferences provide a catalyst for growth and connection. How do you create and maintain momentum post-conference once you are back in the office? This session will explore how we can foster unique connections, stay energized, nurture new habits and practices, and bring all this back to your teams and workplaces. These experiences can help you foster inclusiveness, recognize your institution’s investment in you, and grow your own leadership.

In an era of declining  public trust in big societal institutions, higher education is no exception. Join CASE's CEO for a discussion of public perceptions, what it all means and what we can do about it.