Are they your alumni, or ours? Is their gift in support of athletics or the university as a whole? Is that an athletic event or an alumni event? Managing partnerships across campus that impact the alumni experience are tricky at best. Understanding the relationships that student athletes have with their coaches, teammates, and through their affinities are the foundation to their future relationship with the institution and with the institution's teams. We will explore the different approaches to managing these relationships while they are students and will help to identify how to steward them as volunteers, donors, and engage them as alumni. As potentially your most engaged alumni population, this session will highlight the wins and losses when both advancement and athletics don't have a clear playbook for athletic alumni in their portfolio.

Break out of the silos and join us for "Stronger Together: Uniting Alumni Relations & Annual Giving for Enhanced Engagement," a session focused on maximizing the impact of collaboration between alumni relations and annual giving. Explore successful initiatives like our annual day of giving, reunion program, student and young alumni engagement, integrated communication strategies through e-newsletters and new websites, and the power of personalized outreach driven by data. Discover how leveraging alumni networks and fostering a culture of philanthropy deepen engagement, and learn how metrics and key performance indicators can help measure and refine these strategies. Gain actionable insights into creating a cohesive and dynamic alumni experience that drives both involvement and support.

The #1 way to ensure your institution's success & your future success as a fundraiser is ambitious, consistent discovery now. But discovery is one of the hardest parts of fundraising! When you're getting in the door with amazing new potential donors, discovery can feel like an adventure. When you're slogging through names in your database and getting zero responses, discovery can feel overwhelming and oppressive. Join this session for tactical discovery tips from sending better emails to cold calling to turning the conversation to money in that first visit.

Babson College prioritizes the importance of affinity groups in our alumni engagement and annual giving. This workshop will focus on Babson’s career and identity-based affinity groups: identifying alumni volunteer partners, the role of passive programming, and how Babson leverages milestone anniversaries to engage alumni.

Every institution has interesting stories to tell from their history and we'll share real-time example of how we are telling our story at the University of Vermont. We found a dusty old scrapbook in the basement of our building from 1924 and spun it into a year-long storytelling project (with a $0 budget). We'll share how we planned the project; how we developed strategies for creating content; and how we are tying it into our alumni engagement and fundraising goals. If you are out of ideas for how communications and/or marketing can help with your alumni engagement and fundraising, this session is for you.

The number one way alumni wish to reconnect with their alma mater is through career ready programing, yet most campuses have a difficult time getting alumni affairs and career services to work together and support each other’s missions. The University of Hartford made a bold decision to merge the office of career services with the offices of alumni engagement and fundraising…. The result: hundreds of alumni volunteering annually and interacting with students while being cultivated towards giving. We also saw improved experiences for students, and enhanced levels of partnership with industry thanks to alumni employees.



Join this session to learn more about how career services, alumni engagement teams, and development officers can work together and achieve multiple goals. Learn about events and programs we have successfully brought to fruition at the University of Hartford and hear about lessons learned along the way.

The road of philanthropy is not always straight. We have all left donor conversations feeling confused and unsure of the next steps needed to advance the relationship and gift discussion. In this interactive session, we will share examples of how internal and external partnerships can be instrumental in designing multi-step donor strategies and learn from one another how best to navigate the conversations that leave you saying “ok, now what?”

Clark University is embarking on a bold new campaign that integrates cutting-edge technology with a deep commitment to its philanthropic mission. Joe Manok will share how the university’s strategic plan, which includes a fourfold increase in campaign goals, is not just a response to the changing landscape but a proactive effort to redefine what’s possible in higher education fundraising. Central to this strategy is the development of the Clark-EverTrue Advancement Lab, an innovative initiative focused on harnessing artificial intelligence to revolutionize donor engagement and campaign execution. This session will detail how the lab is driving advancements in data analytics, personalizing donor outreach, and optimizing campaign outcomes. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for designing ambitious campaigns that resonate with modern donors while staying true to institutional values, and insights on how to leverage AI to future-proof their advancement efforts.

We’re all familiar with the donor cycle, but what about the volunteer cycle? Learn how to successfully recruit, onboard, activate, and steward your young alumni volunteers. This session is applicable to all volunteers, whether they focus on fundraising, engagement, or both. Maybe you have a longstanding GOLD committee, or you are just trying to build up your young alumni network; either way, you’ll leave this session with actionable ideas to not only cultivate your most recent grads, but to build the pipeline for a lifelong relationship with your institution.