A pandemic and a campus shooting would be enough to stop most college programs in their tracks, but students in the health sciences rarely get a moment to rest. With state mandates on the number of clinical and lecture hours, students at the Michigan State University College of Nursing were required to carry on during two traumatic events within the past few years. See how the college community came together to encourage wellness and positivity for its students during some of its most difficult times.

Young alumni engagement is a puzzle that all institutions need to solve, but that's easier said than done. The 10 Under 10 Awards program has proven over the past six years that a simple awards concept can work to engage highly successful emerging leaders within the young alumni community while also creating connection opportunities for Admissions, Career Services, Marketing and Academics to that ultimately elevate the entire institution. Through campus partnerships, we've been able to use the program to not only elevate alumni success stories and engage recipients and their networks, but also create meaningful career networking opportunities for alumni and students alike. We'll spend time reviewing this award program and how it has evolved, provide examples of how it's been used to impact multiple departments, and then challenge attendees to think of ways their own campus could be positively affected by a similar program.

When was the last time a supervisor, colleague, or client asked for something that sent you down a big, complicated rabbit hole? 10 minutes ago? 5 minutes ago? We can spend ridiculous amounts of time researching, understanding, drafting, revising -- and wondering what we're missing. Artificial Intelligence can help take the pressure off by taking on some of your most mind-numbing tasks. Need a content strategy? ChatGPT can whip one up in seconds. Need to optimize a web page for search? Bard can crunch your Google Analytics and Search Console data and give you meaningful suggestions. Need to edit an image? Tools like Adobe Firefly make it easy. Find out how AI can be used to debug code, create reports, write proposals, generate web copy and so much more.

During the COVID pandemic, a group of alumni created a nostalgic environment via Facebook to stay connected to their alma mater. Excitement was apparent, and the CMU Alumni Engagement team worked with a dedicated group of volunteers to produce a fun-filled reunion weekend. We listened to their hopes and dreams, and partnered with the campus and Mt. Pleasant community to implement the three-day long event, all while empowering our volunteers to lead. Our commitment to this dedicated group of volunteers has ultimately led to increased alumni engagement via first-time attendees, donors, and contributed to overall economic growth during a “slow” weekend in Mt. Pleasant. The biggest hit of the weekend was the chance to truly relive their time at CMU and move BACK into the residence halls on campus. This was so successful that our Residence Life department has since opened up a recently retired hall to alumni for special events and occasions to accommodate steadily increasing demand. This new tradition continues to evolve as new ideas for alumni programming converge with growing interest from campus partners.

In 2021, the NIU Foundation launched its crowdfunding program: NIU Impact. Since then, we have been able to work with campus partners and stakeholders to conduct targeted and time-sensitive campaigns that harness the power of volunteers and their individual networks. To date, we have raised over $340,000 from more than 2,300 donations, and have partnered with units in every division of campus.
For FY24, the annual giving team crafted an internal marketing plan to help grow the number of crowdfunding projects, as well as increase the number of donors and dollars raised. The result? Our fall 2023 cohort of projects was the largest to date, with donors making over 450 gifts totaling more than $50,000, and we are on track to have the highest number of donors and dollars raised in a fiscal year.
In addition, for FY24 we shifted from group-based training sessions for crowdfunding partners, to a collection of asynchronous training videos. This change resulted in time-savings for both our staff and participants, and can be used again for futures cohorts.

This session goes behind the scenes to see how one institution created an alumni recognition program that goes far beyond just recognition and created an intentional pathway for alumni involvement, strategic engagement and philanthropic support. Participants will hear from Advancement staff as well as a recent alumni honoree and a Dean to learn how the positive results of cross campus collaboration pay big dividends down the road.