Your giving day just broke another record. 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 panel discussion of how to “level up” your giving day with things like social engagement, new giving methods, multi-tiered challenges, competitions, and elite level volunteers to keep excitement high. We will also share key pivots and changes institutions made during the pandemic- and what worked. And, we'll take a look at data on over $500M in results across higher education to see key benchmarks, metrics, and new tactics are as you take your giving day to the next level.

Movies have a way of bringing people together and broadening our perspectives which is why they can be an incredible tool to engage alumni, students, faculty and staff in important conversations. This presentation will outline how a movie club centered around DE&I and social justice topics can add value to any alumni strategy looking to reach disengaged alumni. By the end of the presentation, participants will learn how to implement an online social justice movie club with zero cost and only a few hours of staff time each month.

Your institution has great stories to tell. You might even be telling those stories. But chances are, your content isn’t getting the kind of exposure that it should be getting. This session will teach you the strategies that major institutions are using to get unprecedented exposure for their brand’s stories across multiple channels.

Can university fundraisers and donor relations officers adapt the goats and chickens model to scholarships and professorships? Okay, so we’re a university. We don’t have chickens. Or goats. Or cows. But you’ve probably heard or received those solicitations from other charities. Sure, you know your money may not actually be going to purchase THAT specific goat for THAT particular family, but the illusion is a great way to ask you for a gift, and it gives you an idea of its actual impact, whether large or small.

We are embarking on the largest transfer of wealth in human history. As baby boomers age, the number of elderly donors to higher education likewise increases. The need is great to develop an ethical framework of guidelines and best practices to support advancement staff when dealing with donors that may have cognitive impairment. Tony Pomonis, CFRE, from the University of Illinois Foundation and Tara Adams, Ed.M., JD, from the University of Illinois College of Law will share their odyssey of developing and implementing advancement guidelines for the cognitively impaired.

Alumni Volunteer is a cross-campus initiative connecting alumni with volunteer opportunities, hosted by University of Michigan affiliated groups, that honor alumni’s interdisciplinary expertise and general passion for volunteerism. Beginning with a vision to create a marketplace allowing campus partners and clubs to post opportunities, our business model has expanded to include community organizations that sometimes are run by U-M alumni. Since the launch of Alumni Volunteer in January 2021, we have received positive feedback and a growing number of alumni eager to support opportunities benefiting our University and the community.

We've all got important stories to tell in our publications: new presidents, new campaigns, new strategic plans, big anniversaries. But we might only be telling these stories once a decade. So how do we make sure we're making the most of these opportunities and ensuring that they're compelling to our audience? In this session, we'll talk about distilling these stories to their essence, using creative packaging techniques to draw your readers in, and finding the human elements that help make "must-do" stories into "must-read" stories. In addition to lots of real examples from schools across the country, we'll also go through one of these stories from concept to completion. I'll share some of the common pitfalls and challenges of these projects (including how to avoid them) as well as how to take advantage of unexpected opportunities.

Discover the latest trends that impact advancement within your district, across the country, and around the globe. The CASE AMAtlas team will share recent findings from our benchmarking surveys, including the Voluntary Support of Education and Alumni Engagement Metrics. You will also get a sneak peek at data from our Core Metrics pilot (focusing on creating global metrics) and new Campaign Survey.

A campaign can be a defining event in the life of your institution and in your career but keeping up with the many demands can be a challenge. A small college VP may not have the same resources as those at larger institutions. How do you keep all of the balls in the air when you are juggling the demands of a large campaign, managing staff, and maintaining your ongoing events and annual fund goals? We’ll discuss the challenges, share insights, and help you determine how to prioritize your time.

Traditional mentoring programs come with their fair share of challenges. Despite good intentions and best efforts, the matching process can be time-consuming and some pairs simply don’t connect. When COVID-19 forced The Ohio State University Alumni Association to reimagine the Young Alumni Academy experience, we embraced the idea of micro-mentorship, or short-term mentoring relationships. Using this model, alumni now make new connections each month based on industry, identity, and shared life experiences. Join us to learn about the research behind micro-mentorship and how to make it work for your organization!

In March 2021, the Eastern Michigan University Foundation publicly launched its Give Rise Campaign, a comprehensive campaign focused on raising over $100M for student, program, and beyond-the-classroom support. Our event set multiple institutional records in attendance, giving, and campus engagement. How did we do it? While public phase kickoff events have become commonplace in the advancement world, our approach was not. Rather than attempting to host an in-person event, we opted for one that was fully virtual.

This session will highlight how advancement leaders can use the power of data analytics to understand trends, changes, and areas of growth. Through data analytics, the Sinclair Foundation was able to harness hundreds of thousands of diverse data points, and organize them into a structure for trustees, leadership, and donors.

For most people, change is uncomfortable. In higher education, it sometimes seems as though we are distinctly structured to maintain the status quo. But change is inevitable -- whether it is caused by a global pandemic, the retirement of a president, budget cuts, or new leadership in your shop. Learn more about how to lead through change in a way that harnesses the superpowers of your team to create the best possible outcomes.

Recent alumni engagement is critical to keep this key group engaged with their alma mater. In this session, we'll share results of our national survey on how recent alumni expect to engage and discuss the link between involvement in student organizations and engagement after graduation. We'll then share examples of how Knox College engages students while on campus and connects with recent graduates to foster and grow their engagement and support. Participants will leave this session with data to inform their strategies and next steps to grow recent alumni engagement.

Donors and alumni see our institutions as one entity, not individual departments, which means our communication strategies need to be unified. Learn how St. Norbert College audited their decentralized communication efforts, aligned departmental objectives, and created department marketing plans that provide needed & impactful communication. Attendees will then partake in a workshop on how to develop their own influencer map and audience personas, a key tool to supplement their own marketing plans.

At its inception, the Purdue for Life Foundation in its efforts towards a full advancement model has implemented process improvements to support the development activity of our units including comprehensive quarterly business reviews (QBR) of major gift work, broad-based campaigns (annual giving), and stewardship. Applicable to institutions of all sizes, this session will detail the addition of QBRs across the organization and outcomes for fundraisers. The Purdue for Life Foundation is an integrated advancement organization launched with the merger of the University Development Office and the Purdue Alumni Association.

This interactive workshop will guide you through the strategy, steps and storytelling to coach faculty, researchers and other partners through the development of their ideal "elevator speeches" so that they can bring their life's work to life for any audience.