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.

Recently completing the inaugural year of the Georgetown University Alumni Association Black Alumni Council, we are excited to share the story of how this inspired group came to be. The group was formed in response to a desire for a more meaningful and tailored approach to the engagement and empowerment of Black alumni. Join us as we share the Black alumni leaders’ vision, the partnership with university and alumni association leaders, and the integrated approach to affinity groups. The Black Alumni Council is the first alumni affinity group of Georgetown University and sets the precedent for all Georgetown University Alumni Association affinity groups moving forward.

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.

Embrace your leadership potential and navigate the exciting path to management at the CASE District II Annual Conference with this panel tailored for new and aspiring managers. Join Kathryn Van Sickle and a panel of advancement leaders from across institutions of all sizes to get inspired and gain insights from these industry leaders as they delve into critical leadership skills, navigating challenges, and building successful teams.

When launching your social media presence, you likely started by outlining a comprehensive strategy. But like any good strategy, you can’t just set it and forget it! Continued engagement and reach require that you regularly review and reevaluate your approach to meet the changing demands of your stakeholders, constituents and platform algorithms. Join this session to learn how the @VillanovaAlumni Social Media Working Group capitalized on the launch of their Instagram account to revisit overall goals for social media, enhance cross-departmental collaboration, create brand-aligned content themes, update workflows, define measurements for success and achieve results. Regardless of your experience level with social media or the size of your team, there are takeaways for everyone!

Taking on your first leadership role is a major milestone in your career. You are moving into a new position where you will be leading the work instead of doing the work - and this shift often brings with it a jumble of emotions: excitement, fear, anticipation, insecurity. Taking on a first leadership role is a huge step in anyone's career. You're entering unfamiliar territory, which can be scary. With the new role will come new responsibilities. As a new leader, you will want to make sure that you are navigating this transition smoothly. Authentic leadership is not granted by positional authority but is instead earned over time, and through specific behaviors. In higher education, where responsibility and authority do not always go hand in hand, we must cultivate a model of leadership that prizes building trust, collaborating with others, and leading with purpose. This session will help you tap into that with an interactive and engaging discussion outlining and demonstrating effective strategies that can be put to use as you navigate your leadership transition.

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.

What are you called to be? For Georgetown’s Advancement Communications team, they were called to be nimble and strategic amid a shifting landscape to launch the university’s new $3b campaign. With a digital-first rolling launch that spanned six months and culminated in an in-person celebration, the Georgetown team will share how they changed the traditional approach to campaigns for a post-pandemic world.

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.