In a constantly changing and global Advancement world, how can we lead our teams with meaning and with purpose to execute a comprehensive campaign? Especially a campaign that has never been attempted before, with ambitious goals that have never been tested? How can we take fundraising and alumni engagement to the next level when there is such a diversity of stakeholders involved? At Niagara College Canada, we have an incredibly large international student population (more than 50 percent of our overall 2023/2024 intake), and we are currently planning for the largest comprehensive campaign in College history (launching Spring 2024). Our two primary campaign goals? To raise $60 million+ and engage 50,000+ alumni over 5 years. This will involve a huge increase in active fundraising and trailblazing alumni outreach unlike anything seen before in our landscape. In this session, come explore key questions and issues with us as we share how the College is devising/executing our strategy while also building out its team resources and community connections to maximize success.

In University Advancement, some of your most underutilized fundraising partners are the students who pound the pavement each semester to raise money from companies to fund their organizations. They likely have a roster of donors they return to annually and an already-established stewardship plan to enrich the relationship, but how can you tap into this ecosystem to create major gift partners? In this session, you will hear stories of companies that went from making sporadic, one-off gifts to multi-year, $100K+ commitments, strategies for positioning yourself as the liaison between companies and student organizations, and proven methods for building your corporate fundraising collateral.

Lucille Tarin and Mary Ann Sigler Stanton, will present on two programs that have been built over the past two years within University Advancement (UA) to support the entire division - - People, Success and Operations (PSO) and Strategic Philanthropy Programs (SPP) and how we work together to strengthen our shared goals. Both PSO and SPP were created three years after a division-wide reorganization, and after COVID forced Advancement to look at our organization with fresh eyes and with a new awareness of what could be accomplish and how. While the university has a human resources department, it became clear that our division of just over one hundred would benefit from oversight and coordination at a more granular level.

PSO is responsible for:
• Talent Strategy
• UA Employee Engagement & Culture
• Professional Development & Performance Management
• Operations
• UA Success - Objectives & Key Results

Our fundraising arm moved into an individual top level strategic philanthropy team, with 3 regional teams focused on prospects at the 100K and up level, a principal gifts team, and a brand new team, the Strategic Philanthropy Programs, Education, and Corporate, Foundation and Government Relations team. This team serves as the "sherpa" for fundraisers and focuses on:
• Onboarding new and professional development of gift officers
• Building/Maintaining resources for fundraisers
• Liaising with the university leadership regarding fundraising priorities and proposals
• Providing philanthropic support to our top level affinity based deans’ councils
• Collaborating with university communications on all philanthropic communications
• Corporate, Foundation & Government Relations
• Affinity based fundraising when leadership level prospects are involved

We will review the hows and whys of these new departments, the impact on the division, and how we have staffed them. Ahead of the majority of the university, UA allows 100% of our staff to have hybrid work options, and a small percentage are entirely remote. UA served as a model for the rest of the university as they confronted alternative work arrangements. While walking attendees through our origination, we'll also share examples of projects upon which we have collaborated.

JHU recently completed a major CRM Project - a complete digital transformation of several data systems into one main fundraising CRM. How did they do it? How did their team and project thrive? Join the session to learn how the JHU team engaged with several partners to lead their team, their data and JHU through this change. Learn about the opportunities they took for business process improvement, staff development and overall operational efficiency.

Mindset impacts EVERYTHING from shaping your reality to influencing your decisions to determining your success. What’s going on in your head has a significant impact on your major gift closures. The positivity or negativity of your thoughts, emotions, and actions around money, philanthropy, prospects, and your institution form the mindset and lens through which you see and do your work.

In this session, we will investigate what makes up your Major Gift Mindset and how it influences your performance. You’ll identify your mindset, ways to recognize how your inner monologue supports or sabotages your work, and learn actions to align your mindset with your performance goals. The conversation will help you develop heightened self awareness by understanding where your relationship with money falls on the scarcity - abundance scale and how your perceptions of wealth influence your thoughts, emotions, and actions during your major gift work. By the end of the session, you’ll recognize the role your mindset plays in frontline fundraising, understand your feelings about money & wealth, and how your inner monologue supports or sabotages your outcomes.

As our sector struggles to retain advancement professionals, more organizations are following corporate America's lead by offering better professional development as a key element of retention planning. AJ Bauer and Dean Castaldo will share how they have benefited from the investment that the United States Naval Academy Foundation has made in their development, as well as how they are now carrying the torch for the organization as they step into new leadership roles.