Many institutions have seen their phone programs come and go during these unprecedented times. We want to discuss the ins and outs of making these decisions and the repercussion of doing so. As the Phonathon as we know, it has involved into a full Digital Engagement effort, we want to dive into the importance of utilizing text, video, e-mail, in addition to the traditional phone call. We will explore all of these avenues during this session and encourage everyone to be involved in the discussion.

Creating a strong culture of philanthropy can help grow your organization's fundraising. In a philanthropic culture everyone in the organization is educated about the impact philanthropy has on achieving the mission. Improve your organization’s opportunity for success and growth by focusing on its culture of philanthropy.

Our institutions rely on volunteers in a wide variety of settings: as advocates, advisors, decision-makers, donors, and more. Whether you are working with governing boards or advisory councils, there are a number of basic, tried-and-true principles (plus a few crafty "pro-tips") that will help you when forming or managing these groups. Join an experienced and engaging veteran of creating, utilizing, and serving on numerous boards over a quarter-century career in advancement to discuss the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHY, and HOW of volunteer boards and committees and learn how to maximize their positive impact on your institution and your advancement programs.

Here’s what we know for sure: The more valuable, beautiful, useful content your organization puts into the world, the more supporters you’ll attract and retain. It’s a simple formula—but it’s easier said than done. In this lively, example-filled presentation, you’ll learn how to foster a culture of content within your organization—even if you’re strapped for time, money, and resources. Designed for any communications professional who believes in the power of free, helpful, audience-focused content to support your organizational goals, this session is a must.

Wonder what it really takes to be a truly successful fundraiser? In this session, you'll get practical advice and tactical steps you can start using right away to strengthen your skills, be more productive and raise more money. Whether you're new to fundraising, mid-career seeking growth, or a seasoned leader looking for clearer, more specific skills to hire for and measure beyond just the metrics, this session is for you.

As companies, organizations, and individuals compete to train, build, and model AI to do a number of different tasks. If we do not consider how to insert DEI objectives and check points into those processes, we will find that our own creations will exacerbate many of the issues we're trying to mitigate.

In late 2019, the Office of University Communications at Louisiana Tech University began preparation to launch a podcast tied to 1894: The Alumni Magazine. The podcast first focused on educating the University community on research, but it has grown into a way to create and grow relationships with external stakeholders. Using metrics like download numbers and engagement on social media, we have grown the podcast into a communication tool to advance our University's strategic focus on incorporating research, innovation, and partnership into the Louisiana Tech brand, as well as sharing stories of the Tech Family with the larger world.

In 2019, the Louisiana Tech University Foundation had ~1% of constituents assigned to a gift officer, leaving 99% without a 1:1 relationship with the institution. To increase the number of managed prospects and offer personalized experiences to more alums, they launched a Donor Experience Program.

The DXOs focus on building donor pipeline, managing portfolios of 1,000 of the next-best prospects, and consistently contacting everyone in their portfolio. The results? In FY21, DXOs 4x’d managed constituents at Louisiana Tech and discovered 1,500 new donors from high-net-worth households. Two DXOs reached more people in three months than in the previous fiscal year.

Recent cyber security incidents worldwide reveal that hackers know more about companies and foundations than previously thought. The leaders of the Texas A&M University Foundation and New Mexico State University Foundation will share specific lessons learned and insights from their experiences fielding an independent, executive-level, hacking risk management program. Their innovative and collaborative programs have become a model for enabling leaders to make better decisions and implement necessary programs to reduce the growing risk of disruptive hacking events for development organizations.

At the LSU Foundation, major gift officers meet with members of the Prospect Development and Donor Relations teams in Prospect Strategy meetings every four weeks. By varying the focus of these meetings throughout the year, they have helped strategically align unit-based and organizational priorities to meet and surpass our goals. Join us in this session as we discuss the strategic partnership built between Donor Relations, Prospect Development, and frontline fundraisers over the last two years.

Our Development and MarCom teams have developed a symbiotic and, we think, unusual working relationship with regard to current and potential donor relations.

We’re strategic in how we talk about donors and deliberate in our use of billboards, outreach, press releases and social media. Beyond direct donor recognition, we insure that all our messaging is donor-centric. Everything we do is tied to the impact we have on our community, and our donors know this. This approach has been very effective in moving potential donors to becoming new partners. Our presentation will explore the dynamics and outcomes of this approach.
 

Gen Z makes up the majority of college classrooms, and 30% have already donated to an organization they are passionate about. Engaging with Gen Z requires development professionals to think differently about the current college student and consider how each student can shift the narrative of philanthropic giving to support the university's mission. Combining five years of experience in student philanthropy, here are 10 things we wish we knew before working with students.

 Your giving day just broke another record. And...it's time to do it again. So, what’s next? How do you amplify engagement and excitement for something we’re all doing every year? Join us for this discussion of how to “level up” your giving day with social engagement, new giving methods, multi-tiered challenges, competitions, and elite level volunteers to keep excitement high. Hear how Oklahoma State took their $1M Give Orange day to the next level. Then, take a look at data on over $400M in results to see key benchmarks, metrics, and new tactics you craft your next record-breaking strategy.

Discover how to use data and feedback from alumni and non-alumni friends/donors to identify what motivates stakeholders and to find opportunities for action. Participants will not only learn about what alumni think, but will also see how to translate attitudinal findings into action. Learn how The University of New Mexico is strengthening their advancement team by creating relationships with campus partners, gathering alumni data, and translating alumni and non-alumni friend/donor feedback into tactical and strategic planning. Knowledge about stakeholder wants and desires can act as a lever to build campus-wide coalitions that are focused on alumni and non-alumni friend/donor engagement.

 A successful mid-level giving program can lead to greater donor retention and more major giving prospects. Similar to how our hearts provide us with nutrients and oxygen, a program of this nature can provide benefits to both annual giving and major giving teams. In this presentation, Katelyn Lofquist and Grier Bennett will share how their team at UAMS successfully implemented a mid-level giving program with the EverTrue Donor Experience team to open doors to new relationships with both alumni and grateful patients. They will highlight how their team reached 1,000 donors within 6 months along with recommendations for program implementation.

Deans and other academicians often confess to knowing little about “development” when they are appointed to leadership roles. Our new book, “Fundraising Principles for Faculty and Academic Leaders” is written for academicians, by academicians who are also longtime development practitioners.

As scholars, this audience requires data and evidence, not just advice based on observation and experience. The book’s case studies and donor scenarios are grounded in the growing body of research on philanthropy and motives for giving and volunteering. This gives advancement professionals a credible resource to explain why there’s so much more to “development” than just making the ask.

Do you have the gumption to say NO to donors? We think that by allowing the donor to restrict their funds, we are donor centered. In reality, allowing a donor to over-restrict their criteria backfires. It causes administrative issues, impacts the awarding experience, and sets unrealistic expectations with donors. We end up with unspent money, unhappy donors, and broken trust. How do we get ahead of this behavior and allow the donor to feel satisfied with their involvement while holding firm to our and legal boundaries? We will explore how to solve this problem for the long term.

Raising your organization's largest gifts often hinges on a successful principal gifts program. In this session, we will unpack the definition of a principal gift and explain how to build a program that catapults fundraising production. We will explain how principal gifts differ from major gifts and talk about the role that relationship builders play in creating joyful experiences for your organization's most important prospects. In the end, you will understand how to build a principal gifts program and why that is important for your organization.

Strategic planning across a complex Advancement organization is critical...and difficult. This session will present a framework that any organization can utilize to collaboratively define core values, mission statements, definitions and measures of success, prioritized focus areas, and individual S.M.A.R.T. goals.

The mind is a trickster. It leads us wherever it pleases—while we remain mostly unaware of its true motivations. But thanks to advances in psychology, fundraisers can better make the brain’s habits work for them. In this entertaining, interactive, example-filled workshop, we’ll explore our minds’ most surprising tendencies, biases, and shortcuts. Then we’ll dive into how to employ the brain’s habits to boost our donor base and fundraising numbers. You’ll leave with a new understanding of the subtle, predictable, and (often) irrational ways donors think. And you'll have concrete ways to apply these great "brain hacks" to your organization.

Traditional planned and blended giving have limited impact perceptions that are targeted for major and principal gift donors. FIU’s Pathway to Philanthropist program (P2P) is a non-traditional model that helps mid-level capacity donors realize they too can advance an institution today and in the future. P2P’s financially inclusive approach leverages donors’ capacity and passion- realizing their philanthropic goals and transforming their philanthropic experience. Through P2P, development professionals serve as philanthropic advisors empowering donors to grow endowment funding, meet current cash needs, as well establish a philanthropic legacy. P2P redefines charitable giving by creating inclusive philanthropic opportunities for first generation philanthropists.

Finding practical ways to effectively and intentionally build trust is at the core of building a meaningful relationship. This session will unpack the keys to building trust-based relationships with donors, with application as well to all types of personal and professional relationships. Though not a deep-dive into this enormous topic, this will help create simple tactics to create and manage trust-based relationships.

Learn how Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi created a postcard signing program from scratch, targeting recent graduates and admitted students. With over 100 volunteers registered in less than 24 hours of launch, get an inside look at the back-end logistics, hear tips and tricks for collaborating with campus units, and find out how the Island University is sending over 6,000 postcard per year and reaching over 50% of their admitted population with a hand-signed note from an Alumnus in just 12 months!

In late 2018, TAMUC began prioritizing the scholarship process. Philanthropy & Engagement, Financial Aid & Scholarships, Financial Services, Foundation Board, faculty, and administrators have been on a journey to understand, maximize, and improve our complex scholarship process. We suffered from funds not being awarded, rogue committees, donor frustration, and silos. We don’t have all the answers yet, but we have learned a lot about how to simplify, streamline, collaborate, and work more efficiently as an institution to improve the process for all involved. We’ll share our experience and offer some tips and best practices related to the donor perspective.

Historically Black & Colleges and Universities have produced many professionals in various careers especially Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEMS). It is imperative that graduates of these institutions support through scholastic efforts to ensure the future is as professional prominent for prospective college students.

Created as a campaign to engage not yet donors, Give.Love.Xavier.Day has grown into a University event that raised more than $1 million in 2021. The Xavier University of Louisiana Office of Alumni Relations will facilitate a discussion on successfully growing a Day of Giving that incorporates Greek and class competitions, team captains, school traditions, challenge grants and board participation.

Data - 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. Hello, my name is "Data" is the session for you if you're trying to: build data literacy, enhance data management, or learn how others have addressed these challenges.

Thinking about taking the plunge from print to digital? Always wondered if donors were actually reading the reports you mailed them? We have the session for you! We’ve been there, done that and can help you problem solve for the future. See how other organizations digitized reporting and how you can, too!

Join us as we step into the 21st century and help you gain knowledge about creating your own digitization process.

This session will share the findings of Christina Smith's doctoral research on compassion in the university advancement workplace and its effect on the high rate of turnover for major gift officers in development offices. This session will share the theory of compassion organizing and its practical application in university advancement organizations and offer data-driven examples for development professionals and leaders to promote and foster organizational cultures that seek to be positive, flourishing, and workplaces that retain the best gift officers.

Past success can often be a great tool in building your future. In this session, we will look at how you can use past accomplishments to build a pathway, a map if you will that you can use to find success moving forward. Whether the path looks familiar or is something entirely new, a map from past success can be very helpful. Yet, there are traps when people over rely on past success. This session will look at how to build a map from past success, identify possible traps, and strategies to navigate forward.

Treating your colleagues like donors will benefit organizational culture, create stronger teams, and promote happier work environments, all of which further mission advancement. This session will highlight the hallmarks of authenticity that form the foundation of trust with donors and are essential to major gift fundraising. Through that lens, explore how to apply the major gift mindset to conduct yourself in integrity, lean into vulnerability, and incorporate curiosity in building trusting professional relationships. This work isn’t reserved for fundraisers or managers; anyone can take an active leadership role in enhancing their institution’s future.

In an era of declining trust in big societal institutions, higher education is no exception – and you, as an advancement professional used to interacting with external audiences, are well-positioned as a countervailing force to this current negativity. CASE’s Discover the Next campaign builds off local successes and highlights research-tested approaches to showing the value of higher education through individual achievement, economic impact, innovation and scientific progress, and cultural vitality. Learn what tools and resources are available to help your institution connect with all stakeholders, from prospective students to alumni to community leaders.