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.

Data Governance - Why is it so difficult? Learn about the processes, teams, and structures you can leverage to build a culture and organization that enhances and protects the currency of advancement operations - data. If you're trying to: build data literacy, enhance data management, or learn how others have addressed these challenges - this session is for you!

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.

Ever wondered how to get an internal DEIB committee started? Wonder if it is needed or how to get support for growing DEIB initiatives. Join us as we discuss the process of creating a DEIB committee, what is needed and if adding this professional development will impact your employee retention efforts.

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.

Power Proposals compel donors to see their gift realized. Through a variety of strategic approaches and final products, the proposal writer is a powerful player in development and communications. From initial strategizing to the finished delivery, the craft of a good proposal writer is invaluable. A veteran and a newcomer to advancement communications come together to share lessons learned and approaches tried and true and new and novel. With examples and an interactive element that allows session attendees to test their strategic skills, the Power Proposals session will appeal to both new and experienced communications and development team members.

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.

Hear from two universities that implemented a new strategy for increasing leadership annual gifts and major gifts. Donor Experience Officers manage portfolios of 1,000 prospects they primarily engage with digitally. They are responsibly for highly personal outreach to 50+ prospects every day. Western Kentucky University and the University of Memphis launched their DXO programs a couple of years apart and have implemented in ways both similar and different. Hear from staff at every level of the program - VPs, a program manager, and a practicing DXO about the program and the results.