You are key strategic partners in inspiring generosity for your institution. Communicating effectively within a positive relationship with your fundraising partners creates big wins! You are key in creating messaging, conducting interviews, and covering project progress to inspire transformational generosity, respect major donors' preferences for how their story is told, creating urgency for key projects, sharing tangible results of generosity and fostering a spirit of success for the school. This session addresses this vital relationship and the "Must-Haves" you need to be a key for best fundraising/marketing success, obstacles to this partnership and how to foster the best results for your institution.

One of the challenges that marketing professionals in higher ed face is promoting faculty work to broad audiences. This work is critical in not only showcasing faculty research and scholarship, but also in helping to raise the brand awareness and profile of your institution. However, due to the esoteric nature of faculty scholarship, as well as the system of rewards and incentives that exists within academia, reaching—and penetrating—a wide audience of laypeople can be a hurdle. This presentation will ultimately provide marketing professionals with strategies and best practices for empowering faculty to package their work to reach broader audiences. Using the book, “The Engaged Scholar,” as the backdrop, I will cover how to help faculty determine the purpose of their work, enhance their publication strategy, adapt their communication style, and more

Since the first institution was founded, higher education in the United States has been viewed as political. But over the past decade, we’ve shifted from having our faculty experts comment during election years to having candidates use our work and missions as polarizing talking points. Regardless of your role in marketing or communications, your affiliation with a U.S. or an international university, or your role on campus, grasping the interconnected nature of higher education and politics will empower you to be more effective in your role. Teresa will provide vital tools for proactive, strategic, and thoughtful action. In addition, this session will provide data and national trends from the current election year to frame how we can help our leaders look around corners and return to strategically communicating with our internal and external stakeholders to remain true to our strategic foci and key messages. Teresa will share what works in a polarizing environment, what we need to plan for in the coming months, and how we should position our expertise for different stakeholders so we can have a leadership role in shaping our own narratives and our institutions’ reputations. Participants will leave the session with:

• Data and insights on where higher education is vulnerable politically
• Resources for communicating in a highly charged election year
• Multiple examples of guidelines and frameworks for deciding whether or not a statement is needed
• Communications, policy, and decision-making considerations and recommendations based on what other institutions have faced
• Recommendations for managing up