Today’s ever-changing landscape in Advancement can affect team success—especially when your teams are small. Balancing increased expectations and limited resources requires skillful juggling to keep programs on an upward trajectory. Join Lipscomb University’s Stephanie Carroll, assistant vice president for annual giving, alumni and parent engagement, and Rhonda Minton, director of strategic communications for advancement, to learn how they have revamped their work and maximized productivity to better position their teams for success. Flying solo or have fewer than five staff members? Join us for a discussion and leave with some ideas to help your small shop reach big potential.

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.

To ensure successful branding of an institution, capital campaign, recruitment initiative or athletics program, a strategic message, followed by relevant positioning, must be developed first. This vital step is called brand development. It’s the deep, strategic pre-work and planning often missed by educators and leadership—an inside-out process of discovering who you are, what’s different and why stakeholders should care. Such work should begin with the President or Head of School, not with communications and marketing, which is an outside-in approach. Brand development also considers the hidden aspects to make any initiative wildly effective—virtually eliminating the costliest pain points.