This creative and high energy interactive session will address key leadership strategies that are critical in positioning your team for success!
Barbara and Joy's unique blend of leadership styles incorporate relationship strategies, ethics and storytelling techniques that have helped position fundraisers for success in closing major and principal gifts.

Over the past 18 months, court decisions and public policy has drastically changed how higher education can approach DEIB. While academicians and student affairs personnel prepare for their work, advancement practitioners face our own unique challenges. This workshop is designed for all members of an advancement organization – from alumni engagement to development to Marketing and Communications. Participants will be taken through a framework that will allow them to examine their own organizations’ readiness to be nimble in this contemporary environment, ultimately to support a culture that will keep all stakeholders engaged. Additionally, participants will come away with tools to structure DEIB work in a way that is mission-centric and supportive of all communities.

Telling the story of the women who helped build your community is a crucial part of a comprehensive giving strategy. Whether you’re honoring family, staff, or alumnae, centering women in your campaigns means giving a historically ignored group a chance to guide the present and future of your institution.

In this session, you'll learn how, in honor of the 50th anniversary of their school embracing co-education, Western Reserve Academy blew past their initial goal of $1 million with their 50 Brilliant Years of Women campaign. Western Reserve Academy achieved this by centering their fundraising strategy around continuously recognizing and honoring the inspiring women of their community, past, present, and future. You'll also learn specific strategies you can use to do the same no matter the group you want to spotlight. From hosting strategic events to utilizing alumni awards, and using data to guide your fundraising decisions, you’ll have all the tools you need to tell the whole story of your institution.

Are you ready to engage your next generation of major donors?

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.

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.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has undergone a few hype cycles— neural networks, expert systems, and deep learning. But the latest advancements in large language models have sparked everyone's imagination, and the possibilities seem limitless. In the past 15 years, the nonprofit industry benefitted from prospect identification using statistical models and machine learning. What does the next 15 years look like when AI touches every aspect of fundraising? While we can't predict the future, we can explore the possibilities. In this session, you will understand how Artificial Intelligence started and how it has evolved, its current applications, and three ways it might impact fundraising with examples. Let's dive into the world of AI and fundraising together!

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!

Portfolio management approaches are constantly evolving. From utilizing analytics to track portfolio performance to consulting with Prospect Development for routine portfolio reviews to determining the most helpful key performance indicators for leaders to stay up-to-date with their fundraisers' portfolios, today's fundraising climate requires a customized approach to portfolio management. Fundraisers contribute expertise about donors and prospects. Prospect development staff provide expertise with new ways to look at portfolios.

Join us as we discuss a unique hybrid approach to evolving portfolio management. This approach can be applied in large and small shops as a winning partnership with advancement services and development teams.

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.