Live Session and Q&A  

November 5, 2020 | 1:00-2:30 PM ET  

Supporting and Leading Fundraising Volunteers

Skylar Beaver, Director of The Lawrenceville Fund, The Lawrenceville School 



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! Bring your questions as we will have ample time for Q&A.

Pre-Record Sessions:  

• Annual Giving Fundamentals: Core Functions, Industry Trends, Constituencies, and Metrics
  
  Elizabeth Keppel, Director of Strategic Priorities, Annual Giving, The Johns Hopkins University
  
  
  
  Annual giving programs have always been the main staple of higher education fundraising programs and continue to be a critical component of advancement. In our industry, annual giving programs have risen to sophisticated levels that were unimaginable just a decade ago. This session will provide an overview of annual giving and its core functions, industry trends, and annual giving constituencies and metrics.
• Revitalizing Your Phonathon Program
  
  Michael Adzovic, Director of the Northern Fund, Northern Illinois University
  
  Kyleigh Wallace, Assistant Director of the Northern Fund, Northern Illinois University
  
  
  
  The relevance of phonathon programs has been hotly debated in recent years. Some swear they are on death's door, while other contend they are still a vital component of any annual giving program. Which is it? Northern Illinois University (NIU) recognized that while its phonathon's production had fallen precipitously that it still had an important role to play within University Advancement. In this session, hear how NIU rebranded their Huskie Telefund into the Huskie Engagement Center. In doing so, the phone center pivoted from strictly "tele-fundaising" to full-blown engagement, including event recruitment calls, care calls for new grads, thank you calls, texting, and income-producing survey calls for university clients. The rebrand facilitated an increase in revenue while reducing its budget by over 30%.
• A Collaborative Paradigm for Increasing Alumni Giving
  
  Shaun Grahe, Director of Student and Young Alumni Engagement, Virginia Tech
  
  Heather Kopec, Director of Annual Giving, Virginia Tech
  
  
  
  At many institutions there is a goal to grow the number of alumni donors in order to increase the overall alumni participation rate, however, this is a challenge for any annual giving team to tackle alone. Instead, developing a new framework for solving the alumni giving math problem while also building a more collaborative approach with both fundraisers and engagement is the key. During this session you'll learn about a new way to approach alumni giving rooted in collaboration and multi-year planning.
• Using a Multi-Channel Approach to Leadership Annual Giving
  
  Astria Smith, Senior Executive Director for Annual Giving and Alumni Relations, Southern Methodist University
  
  
  
  Leadership annual giving plays a pivotal role in campaigns, but the majority of leadership annual giving donors start off supporting the university through direct marketing and phonathon efforts. This session will look at how to leverage your direct marketing efforts to acquire, upgrade, and steward leadership annual giving donors. We will also look at innovative ways to use direct marketing and other channels to get high capacity low propensity leadership annual giving donors engaged.