Explore the innovative tactics incorporated by The University of Texas at San Antonio as it prepared to publicly launch the largest comprehensive campaign in university history - Be Bold: A Campaign for Our Future. A collaborative and strategic communications plan is critical to the public launch of any capital campaign. Over 15 months, a committee comprised of staff from Advancement and Alumni Engagement and University Relations focused on eight strategic areas: E-Communications, Direct Mail, Branding and Design, Website Development, Videography and Photography, Advertising, Earned Media Relations, and Organic Social Media. As a result, the campaign yielded high visibility to millions of stakeholders across Texas and gained national media attention.

Determining new channels for stakeholder engagement is an evolving priority for many colleges and universities. In 2021, Southwestern University restructured campus career services, moving the Center for Career & Professional Development from Student Life to University Relations with a goal of increasing opportunities for campus stakeholders to contribute to student career readiness and development. In this session, SU representatives will discuss the genesis of this new model, its progress, and future plans.

Learn how you can apply strategy to your donor relations efforts that will positively affect donor retention rates as well as steward some of our more “at risk” donor populations. This is more important than ever as our industry sees declines in overall giving, staff and resources may be limited, and we must tie our donor relations efforts directly to the fundraising bottom line. We will explore strategies to explore retention in key populations, segmentation and messaging best practices, and shifting the organizational culture to a donor-centered retention mindset.

The session will focus on results from: The Voluntary Support of Education (VSE) and the Alumni Engagement Metrics (AEM) surveys. In addition to high-level findings, the session will cover some nuances of each survey.