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.

This session, led by two BIPOC leaders from McGill University's Advancement team, will facilitate a discussion around the reality of being BIPOC, and especially Black, in the fundraising field. Often we lack spaces to discuss how our perceived race changes how we engage with our donors and colleagues. Using prompts and guidance, this discussion with highlight the personal experiences of attendees as BIPOC fundraisers. We will also ask a basic but fundamental question: how have your respective organizations spearheaded DEI initiatives, and have they created palpable change? In addition to providing a safe space for personal discussions, we hope attendees will leave this session with concrete ways that workplaces can be authentically diverse while supporting their staff, and provide ways that we can all reflect on our positionality in the workplace and in society at large to ensure we are supporting are diverse workforce and creating more successful, engaged teams.