In the past year, the value of a college degree has faced scrutiny, tuition prices have climbed in reaction to inflated operational expenses, and Supreme Court rulings have shaken up the education sector. These challenges have exposed how critical endowments are to institutional sustainability, growth, and financial health. Our work as fundraising professionals in this sector has never been more important, and the need for a strong endowment has never been more significant. Join this panel discussion to hear development and advancement leaders from across District II weigh in on how they are making the case for endowment at their institutions. The group will discuss how their students, faculty, and communities have benefited from endowment-focused efforts and offer strategies to motivate, solicit, and steward endowment prospects.

Deans and Dollars: Maximizing Dean Partnerships for Fundraising Success In an academic setting, often times, the alignment between the dean and the fundraising team will often dictate its success or failure. Deans can thoughtfully articulate fundraising priorities, work to establish a culture of collaboration and inspire generosity ….BUT they can’t do it alone. In this session, we will share best practices for effectively partnering with your dean to achieve fundraising success.

In a year when Barbie is breaking major records at the box office, more women are holding the highest political positions globally, the female labor force rate is historically high, and entertainers like Taylor Swift and Beyonce have boosted economies worldwide, the collective power of women should not be underestimated. As the fastest-growing charitable group globally, women are earning more educational degrees than men, holding many leadership positions in the workplace, and making the majority of consumer decisions in the home. Yet, most universities have not revised their antiquated fundraising practices to reflect this new certainty. This presentation inclusive of facilitated discussion will focus on the different motivations and patterns for giving between genders. By not embracing these differences, advancement shops are leaving money on the table and losing out on valuable insights, passion, and power with those who identify as women, a critical market segment that all we should all be talking about. Schools large and small can learn valuable information, discuss strategy, and hear compelling case studies about women’s philanthropy while learning how to implement a new philanthropic paradigm that embraces women's authenticity, empowerment, leading to impressive increases in philanthropic investment.

This past year, members of Rochester Institute of Technology’s advancement team launched a highly innovative approach to building a comprehensive engagement plan with the ultimate goal of matching strategy across teams.
This divisional approach to understanding and prioritizing both individual and university fundraising priorities transformed a simple fiscal year calendar into a robust plan of dynamic and creative engagement strategies that extend beyond traditional events.
Learn how the realignment to shared goals and purposeful activity can propel your entire team through a year’s worth of high-value engagement opportunities that strengthen the donor pipeline and unite your organization within a shared strategy.

There’s nothing more exciting than receiving a big check from a donor. Or is there? Only 7 percent of household wealth is held as cash, yet 85 percent of charitable gifts are made in that form. Research shows that encouraging donors to make gifts of wealth (using non-cash assets) results in larger gifts to charities with greater benefits for the donor. In this session, we’ll look at three methods that leverage the power of shifting from disposable income: gifts of appreciated securities, qualified charitable distributions, and donor advised funds. Even small shops can benefit from incorporating these approaches into their work.

Come and learn from Ava Wills-Barksdale (VP University Advancement, Oakwood University) and Darrell Bell (VP Advancement-Nazareth University) as to how they partnered with Scott Lange (President) and Michael Shippam (Principal) of Visionary Philanthropic Consulting to best utilize advancement data analytics for enhanced prospect identification, portfolio balancing, campaign goal setting, gift officer work flow, budgeting rationales for new gift officers, and Board communication on Advancement objectives and Advancement ROI.

Join us for an insightful session as we delve into the transformative journey of The Hopkins Fund and learn directly from the leadership annual gift officer team who successfully developed and launched a midlevel giving circle program in support of our undergraduate annual fund.

Our presentation will offer a roadmap for institutions seeking to embark on a similar path and will emphasize how we championed The Hopkins Fund Leadership Giving Circles as a solicitation strategy framework and catalyst for expanding our undergraduate alumni donor pipeline.

Over the course of any advancement professional’s career, you likely will encounter difficult conversations or situations. What do you do when someone is inappropriate, you are in an uncomfortable situation, or a constituent's values are different from the institution's. As a manager, what are ways you can support your staff? In this interactive session, a panel of advancement professionals will discuss strategies to scenarios submitted by the audience.

We all know engaging prospective donors is a constant challenge. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Development team tackled this challenge head-on during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic through the implementation of a groundbreaking initiative – Pipeline Outreach Day (POD). The team has now executed this initiative multiple times, bringing together a diverse team of gift officers, administrative staff, stewardship, annual giving, alumni relations, and foundation relations colleagues, fostering an "all hands-on deck" atmosphere.

Logging over 2,000 outreach attempts, this proactive approach resulted in over 200 qualification conversations and visits with potential donors, and 50+ gifts and pledges. Leveraging various communication platforms with an eye ever toward innovative new strategies, including using LinkedIn and ThankView, this initiative has now become a regular fixture, serving as a valuable pipeline development and team-building activity for the Bloomberg School. Learn about some of the challenges we encountered in this approach and how we evolved to test new methods and continue to grow and deepen this work.

Fundraisers and DEI leaders are tasked with navigating the multifaceted world of philanthropy – a world influenced by both explicit and implicit biases. Implicit biases, often subconscious, can profoundly influence our decision-making processes and, in turn, the design of our data systems. This potentially results in the collection and interpretation of skewed or one-dimensional data. In this session will dive deep into:
• Understanding One-Dimensional Data: Recognizing its limitations in capturing the complexities of racial equity in philanthropy and the possible negative implications.
• The Power of Predictive Analytics: Exploring its pivotal role in recognizing and addressing racial dynamics, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and equitable philanthropic landscape.
• Practical Tools for Equitable Outcomes: Introducing Asset and Transformation Mapping as key methods to achieve sustainability and fairness in philanthropic impact.
Join us as we unravel the nuances of racial equity in fundraising and provide actionable insights for harnessing data for a just and equitable philanthropic future.