As budgets tighten and teams are stretched, finding resources and support can be tricky. During this session, obtain strategies for helping students become an extension of your front-line fundraising team. Learn how annual giving and communications teams can partner to educate students and leverage the power of a digital/social fundraising platform to achieve success. New donors are out there – work with students to identify and mobilize their networks to grow giving and your donor database.

This session delves into the crucial role of students and their voices in shaping Advancement, specifically fundraising. It will explore how students are the catalysts for change and innovation within institutions and how we in Advancement can utilize that. We will discuss topics such as philanthropy education, student-to-student fundraisers, donor relations utilization of students, real-world success stories, and much more.

Are you questioning the future of phonathon, rethinking the role of alumni participation rates, moving away from membership models, assessing campaign readiness, or "simply" realizing that you have data gaps in your donor pipeline? Evolve your annual giving and alumni engagement operation and build capacity through technology by launching constituent portfolios to strategically target and scale personalized outreach and outcomes. Using Gravyty’s Raise platform, learn how the University of Northern Colorado deepened its pipeline of donors and volunteers to achieve current and future campaign goals.

Navigating the intricacies of advancement can often be a daunting task for campus partners, leaving them uncertain about who to contact for collaboration and engagement. Such lack of clarity leads to missed opportunities, with events and initiatives unfolding without the valuable input and participation of the advancement office. Miami University’s Division of University Advancement confronted these issues head-on, cultivating a solution that is changing campus partnerships - the Certified Advancement Partner Program (CAPP).

In this session, explore the strategies and structures of CAPP, a pioneering credential program designed to demystify advancement processes and form a cohesive network of true campus partners across diverse campus sectors. Drawing from the practical experiences and challenges encountered at Miami University, this session will offer actionable insights to initiate and sustain a similar partnership-building program within your organization.

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.

The expansion of a team typically signals success, pointing to an innovative group in need of additional resources to further pursue and amplify their objectives. Growth on a team is exciting and also has its challenges, especially in the field of relationship management. In this session, we will offer insights on how a team can survive and thrive through changes and growth, while maintaining and enhancing strong internal and external relationships and partnerships. How do we transfer consistent relationships when we are still part of the team but in a different role or region? How do we encourage our new teammates to take the lead on a project or relationship that we formerly led? When do we decide the transition period is over? These questions, though easily answered during a team exit, appear more challenging as a team grows and relationships and partnerships evolve. We invite you to participate in this thought-provoking session on harnessing change and growth to augment your team's success and innovation quotient amid the fluidity of the higher education landscape!

Getting the attention of donors, alumni and other audiences is essential to meaningful engagement. This includes creating genuine connections to keep audiences engaged. So how to do you maximize these efforts without creating team burn-out?

This presentation will share how the University of Nebraska College of Business team capitalized on key event components to create on-going donor engagement, stewardship opportunities and educate future donors across multiple audiences. Discover more about how you can maximize events and event components to generate new funds, increase existing funds or garner new buy-in while stewarding current relationships and educating future donors. Gain insight about how to strategically capitalize on what you may already be doing to meaningfully impact donors, alumni and other stakeholders.

Are you growing tired of the same Giving Day messaging year after year? In an industry where the stakes are constantly evolving, it is important to keep your marketing and communications strategy fresh and innovative. In this interactive session, Wayne State University will share specific examples of how we reinvigorated our branding, messaging and visibility after many standard iterations. Bring questions and suggestions from your institution, and we'll have a lively discussion about how to lead with creativity for maximum results.

Reunion celebrations are the culmination of a year's worth of event planning, volunteer engagement, fundraising, and outreach. So why not start the festivities sooner? Join the University of Chicago team to gain insight into additional opportunities for reunion programming and team collaboration to build momentum for Reunion Weekend and class giving. This session will discuss spreading the magic of reunion milestones throughout the year with pre-reunion engagement, collaborating with signature events, and empowering your volunteers to connect the importance of philanthropy with their class milestone to make reunion a success.

In May 2019, the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference involuntarily removed the University of St. Thomas from the conference, citing "lack of competitive parity" based on St. Thomas' athletic success. This created a need to find a new athletics home. The St. Thomas Board of Trustees made the bold decision to seek unprecedented reclassification directly to D-I, and in July of 2020, St. Thomas received long-awaited news from the NCAA that it had been approved. This move made St. Thomas Minnesota’s first private D-I collegiate athletics program as well as the first university approved to transition directly to D-I from D-III in the modern history of the NCAA.

The transition has required significant fundraising and advancement support to fuel its success. In this session you’ll hear about the key strategies employed to raise historic philanthropy – more than $130M to date on a goal of more than $250M. In addition, you’ll hear about how the university has made the case to donors in the context of the university’s larger trajectory.