Use this time to login and get settled for the day.
11:15–11:30
Welcome, Introductions and Setting the Stage
11:30–12:30 PM
Opening Plenary Session
Speaker: Dr. Herman J. Felton, Jr., President, Wiley College
12:30–12:45
Break
12:45–1:30
Elective Sessions: (choose one)
Diversifying Donor Bases - An Action Plan
Speakers: Roslyn Clarke and Misa Lobato
Our institutions are serving increasingly diverse constituents, yet this diversity is infrequently represented in our donor bases. In an age of "mega gifts", our most invested donors are serving as co-visionaries in creating the future of higher education. To truly serve diverse communities and position higher education as a promoter of social equity and justice, our philanthropic work must represent and elevate diverse voices. This session will explore how to quantify and track the diversity of your donor base (appropriately); how to identify donor diversification goals and measurements; and how to create a diverse pipeline of prospective donors. We will also explore how diversifying donor bases relies upon the diversification of other areas of our institutions. Join two career prospect research leaders as we dive into the specifics of diverse prospect identification and tracking.
Beyond the Gift: Steps for Stewarding Gifts in Collaboration with Campus Partners
Speakers: Lisa Pollard, Cynthia Weingard, and Ted Blackburn
Many higher education development teams grapple with how to steward gifts to ensure proper and timely implementation. After you receive the gift, who manages how and when the gift is directed to fund an initiative? Is the development team responsible for stewarding gift implementation? Who should communicate gift implementation to donors and how? Join, Lisa Pollard of UC Merced, Cynthia Weingard of Samuel Merritt University, and Ted Blackburn of CCS Fundraising to learn how your development team can cultivate campus partnerships, and engage key stakeholders early in the donor cultivation process, opening the door to smoother tracking and maximum donor impact.
1:30–1:45
Break
1:45–2:30
Elective Sessions: (choose one)
Maintaining Professional Relationships with Donors (in a #MeToo World)
Speakers: Mauria Brough and Tracy Ketchem
Relationships with donors are professional—but they often operate like a personal relationship, and that can lead to challenging and inappropriate situations. In this session, content will include critical skills for establishing and maintaining appropriate boundaries, a framework for assessing interactions with donors and potential donors, and best practices for building advancement professionals’ confidence in handling difficult and precarious situations (including gender and racial bias, political opposition, sexual harassment, and sexual misconduct). At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to: - Distinguish the factors that make maintaining professional relationships with donors particularly challenging in development work. - Recognize three levels of unprofessional behavior that can occur in a relationship between a donor and development professional. - Identify best practices for building advancement professionals’ confidence in handling difficult and precarious situations.
Implementing a Successful Day of Giving at HBCUs
Speaker: Marc Barnes
This session will examine the implementation of a successful Day of Giving at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Specifically, this session will examine the Day of Giving audience, planning process, goal setting, communication tools, cultivation and stewardship. The session will also pay special attention to volunteer management and examine how to engage volunteers and board members. Finally, this session will explore how to engage young and seasoned alumni throughout the Day of Giving campaign. Attendees will learn how to successfully implement a Day of Giving campaign at low-resourced institutions and will also learn how to calculate the return on investment of Day of Giving Campaigns by using data and metrics. Finally, attendees will learn how to engage the entire campus in their Day of Giving efforts.
2:30–2:45
Break
2:45–3:30
Elective Sessions: (choose one)
Building the Donor Pipeline in the Small Shop
Speakers: Eric Gustafson and Meghan Hallock
How do you build a lucrative major and planned giving program when your attention is divided, you are understaffed, and are operating on a shoestring budget? How do you find potential donors when you lack dedicated prospect research staff? How do you find time to cultivate prospects when you are also running the shop? Two successful small shop veterans will answer these questions and many more, sharing their tips for building a successful major and planned giving program with significant budgetary and staffing limitations. They will discuss the importance of metrics (and how to implement them with a small team), how to use your events more strategically, when to use volunteers (and when not to), how to secure meetings from a cold and disconnected donor base, and how to keep your development staff motivated when they are cold calling and consistently hearing "no."
Braving the Space: The Experience of African American Fundraisers
Speakers: Earl Granger and Anthony Heaven
African American frontline fundraisers are underrepresented in higher education and oftentimes have unique experiences connected to their racial identity. This presentation will explore some of those experiences and help to equip gift officers to advocate for themselves and think strategically on how they can promote equity and inclusion within advancement
3:30–3:45
Break
3:45–4:30
What Gives in Washington?
Speaker: Brian Flahaven
From the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to the CARES Act, Congress has been quite active on tax legislation with significant implications for charitable giving. But what can we expect over the next few months and in 2021? And what would a second Trump term or a first Biden term mean for philanthropy? Brian Flahaven will discuss the latest legislative and regulatory developments of particular interest and concern to fundraisers at educational institutions. Topics such as the universal charitable deduction, IRA charitable rollover, donor-advised funds, endowment tax, and foreign gift reporting will be discussed, along with some conversation on what could be on the congressional agenda next year.
4:30–5:30
Networking Reception
5:30
Conference Adjourns for the Day
11:00–11:15
Day 2 Check-In
11:15–NOON
Roundtable Discussions
Bring your breakfast or lunch and connect with attendees in small groups. Each group will receive discussion prompts and will be encouraged to participate in the conversation on timely topics affecting our industry. This is a great time to connect with peers to share best practices, ideas and support.
NOON–12:15 PM
Break
12:15–1:00
Elective Sessions: (choose one)
Community College Showcase - Educational Fundraising
Moderator: Marc Westenburg
Listen to a panel of the most recent Educational Fundraising Award recipients of Community College development professionals discuss fundraising successes, challenges and their plans for the coming year
Panelists: Kristen Bennett, Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Executive Director of the Trinity Valley Community College Foundation; Pam Clark, Executive Director of Institutional Advancement, Delta College; and Lisa Gibert, President and CEO, Clark College Foundation (WA)
Building Exceptional Teams
Speaker: Pam Say
Determining the best characteristics of a fundraiser can be a challenge. Although development professionals are typically assessed through output measurements and key performance indicators, managing a diverse team, working with board/volunteers, and building sustainable donor engagement requires more than simply meeting numerical goals. During this session, we’ll explore how intangible characteristics and emotional intelligence should be identified and cultivated alongside traditional metrics to ensure you are recruiting the right talent and building an exceptional and diverse fundraising team.
1:00–1:15
Break
1:15–2:00
Elective Sessions: (choose one)
How to Plan a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
Speakers: Linnie Carter and John Sygielski
Development and communications professionals will learn how to plan successful crowdfunding campaigns. They will learn best practices related to:
Determining the best crowdfunding platform to use
Planning a campaign
Determining the spokesperson, purpose and fundraising goal of a campaign
Publicizing the campaign – before, during and after
Maintaining relationships with first-time donors who contributed via the campaign
The session attendees will receive access to several materials, including marketing materials, website, videos, post-campaign stewardship strategies and post-campaign solicitations.
Supporting and Leading Fundraising Volunteers
Speaker: Skylar Beaver
Peer to peer solicitation is one of the top strategic priorities for the most successful annual giving programs. When managed effectively, fundraising volunteers can be great partners in increasing participation while raising dollars for your institution. Identification, recruitment, training, management and stewardship are critical components of successful volunteer management. Hear about best practices across the industry to start a volunteer fundraising program or to take your program to the next level!
2:00–2:15
Break
2:15–3:00
Elective Sessions: (choose one)
We’re Bringing Stewardship Back (YEAH!)
Speakers: Victoria Bennett and Elizabeth Gray
The University of West Florida brought stewardship back during the 2018-19 academic year, and it was a game changer! Learn how to rejuvenate your stewardship program with a small shop (more like two people) in this interactive session. Participants will experience how to create a stewardship plan and matrix that over-delivers proper stewardship for annual and major donors. After years of not having a proper stewardship program, UWF has analyzed and focused on how to thank donors properly by following best practices. Being in development for over five years and realizing the importance of donor retention (and love), I decided to bring back UWF's stewardship program. The program has one coordinator who has one year of experience. With low budgets and a small shop, we had to get smart but think big!
Mentorship: How to Build and Maximize a Robust Program for Your Team
Speakers: Kaitlin Colleary and Jessie Muhm
The Individual Giving Team within UW College of Engineering Advancement employs a formal mentor program between major gift officers and junior gift officers. The program, which has been running for eight years, enables focused professional coaching for junior gift officers, and management training for major gift officers.
In this session, you will learn about the program while hearing from two of their team members, Jessie Muhm (Director of Advancement) and Kaitlin Colleary (Associate Director of Advancement). From 2016-2018, Jessie and Kaitlin partnered as mentor and mentee. Since then, both have been promoted and have new mentor/mentee partnerships. After Jessie and Kaitlin overview UW engineering’s mentoring model, including the considerations that went into its creation and launch, they will share important lessons learned and considerations for organizations looking to adopt a similar structure for their teams. Their talk will also include the case study of their own mentor/mentee relationship and how it has uniquely empowered each of their individual career paths
3:00–4:00
Diversifying Voices: An Executive Panel on Driving Systemic Change
Four members of D’Youville’s executive team including the President share how one university has taken on the task of systemic change both before and in light of a greater call toward racial justice in America. D’Youville – a nationally ranked university headquartered in Buffalo, NY – serves students in-seat and online throughout the world. Rooted in its foundresses’ mission to “never refuse to serve,” D’Youville is known for “building healthy, thriving communities in its midst” with a focus on shared prosperity. From hosting a high school on its campus, to expansive community partnerships and unlimited Say Yes Scholarships, to constructing a multi-million dollar health clinic in one of New York State’s poorest zip codes – social responsibility is in D’Youville’s DNA. In fact, U.S. News and World Report ranked D’Youville in the top 100 colleges and universities in the country for social mobility, for successfully enrolling, graduating and improving the economic circumstances of marginalized populations. Nevertheless, creating change for all marginalized populations can be wrought with challenges from internal resistance to external pressures from alumni and donors from all walks of life. The panelists will discuss the tools and ideas they have used – as a highly diverse team, representing women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community – to create change that lasts. Audience members will also have an opportunity for Q&A. The panel will be moderated by VPIA for D’Youville Pamela Say and VPIA for Dillard University Marc Barnes.
