Culture can be an afterthought in advancement. We hire mission-driven, self-motivated fundraisers for autonomous, competitive jobs and expect them to buy into our existing culture. Yet, in a post-pandemic workforce, culture matters more than ever. To attract, grow and retain top performers, we must build and rebuild a powerful, sticky culture. In this session, you'll learn how and why to foster trust, belonging and celebration to create a magnetic culture where top performers want to stay.

Do you find yourself looking at the same prospect names and wondering why they haven't made a gift or haven't been engaged in recent years? Capacity and affinity may exist with these prospects but a relationship that would lead to a major gift is lacking. "The Philanthropist Left Behind" addresses the critical importance of donor experience and shares examples of recent gifts that fostered a culture of philanthropy and launched transformational programs at an independent private school. The session will also highlight successful research, passion/project alignment, selecting the appropriate relationship manager, and stewardship.

Driving cultural transformation is not for the faint of heart. Developing a workforce that is committed to a set of core values who embrace vulnerability, open feedback, and accountability takes perseverance and passion to achieve your long-term goals. Join this lively conversation to learn how you too can create a paradigm shift in your organization to get back to the basics of a supportive and empowered team who achieve remarkable results

In this interactive event, two teams of experienced fundraisers will tackle a surprise fundraising challenge, live, in a cooking-show inspired competition! They'll accept your feedback as they "cook," and you'll determine their fate over three rounds of surprises. See it unfold live as the teams respond and share their perspectives on today's biggest advancement challenges. You’ll decide what happens each round and who will be crowned the Throwdown! champions. Be ready to offer your take on key topics, including organizing campaigns, balancing revenue and participation, and engaging an inclusive donor base. It's a CASE session like nothing you've seen before!

Session Description: At Owl Nation, we help new hires acclimate quickly to support Kennesaw State University’s (KSU) fundraising goals. The University Advancement onboarding process equips new fundraising hires and other Advancement employees with a 30-day checklist to help navigate the first month of employment (and beyond). Our efforts are focused on acclimating new hires to the KSU mission statement, brand, values, and our division's organizational structure, culture and goals. Through successful onboarding, new hires acclimate quickly so they can focus on metrics, moves management, donor research, and donors enhancing the office’s capacity to meet its fundraising goals.

Learn how UCF rebranded and refocused pipeline meetings from reporting and clean up to identifying untapped potential and increasing solicitations. This session will highlight the journey Prospect Development took to benchmark and reformat pipeline meetings to Unit Potential Power Hour Sessions. Hear from the Assistant Director of Prospect Management and the Executive Director for Advancement, College of Engineering and Computer Science on how this new approach has positively impacted the perception of pipeline meetings and major gift fundraising.

Despite the many benefits diverse voices and backgrounds bring to fundraising teams, universities often struggle finding talent that reflects the communities they serve. While leaders believe it’s critical to encourage diverse, young voices to become advancement professionals, they do not always know the best ways to recruit, retain, or evaluate employees whose lived experiences are different from their own. This session offers a blueprint to cultivate homegrown fundraising talent through fellows’ programs and apprenticeships and provides first-hand advice from young fundraisers on what works and what doesn’t to help them want to join and stay on your advancement team.

The Ask should be a creative experience and journey. We, as fundraisers, are representatives, advocates, researchers, storytellers, guides and connectors who navigate and help shape, mold a sandbox of options for a donor. Preparation and practice as a listener and creative partner, with your organization's priorities in mind, will allow you to a provide be a compass for a conversation about support. This also helps with an approachable and enjoyable solicitation experience. Participants will review the elements of an ask and explore an approach to acknowledge and build as a portion of fundraising through discussions and exercises.

Before legendary UNC Men’s Basketball Coach Roy Williams retired, he and his wife Wanda made their largest gift ever to Carolina by donating $3 million to three scholarship programs. Recognizing an opportunity to amplify the impact of their gift, the Carolina Development Office created Playing It Forward, a scholarship initiative designed to honor the Williamses by creating more opportunities for undergraduate students. In just two months, Carolina donors gave more than $3.6 million through an integrated, multi-channel marketing strategy that included email, social media, digital advertising, branded landing and giving pages, and printed/digital one-pagers. Stewardship included a money-can’t-buy book and a commemorative calendar featuring the Williamses' philanthropy and impact.

As fundraisers, we are on the precipice of the largest transfer of wealth in human history, with Baby Boomers accumulating over $35,000,000,000,000 in wealth that will be distributed over the coming years. As this population ages, the chances of cognitive impairment, such as Alzheimer's Disease or dementia, in donors also increases, which can create ethical and legal issues for fundraisers. Are you prepared to handle this inevitable scenario? This session will teach attendees about the prevalence of cognitive impairment in donor populations and present strategies on how best to handle these situations through an ethical and legal lens of best practices.