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.

Session Overview In today's rapidly changing landscape of alumni relations and advancement, institutions face the challenge of effectively engaging alumni who have demonstrated interest and possess significant wealth capacity. To address this challenge, we propose a session titled " Targeted Engagement for Meaningful Impact Strategic Engagement Pools (SEPs)" for the CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) conference. This presentation will showcase innovative strategies and best practices for creating and utilizing SEPs to empower engagement officers to focus their efforts on the most promising alumni prospects.

Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving share common values of building lasting, life-long constituent relationships to build affinity and a wide range of support for institutions. Strategic alignment, targeted approaches and outreach efforts to defined audience groups can yield greater effectiveness when these two areas of campus work together to achieve core KPI objectives. Through this panel discussion, you will hear how four institutions are approaching their work, the strategic considerations, and lessons learned.

At Indiana University, we have begun to move away from approaching programs solely with the goal of filling a room to strategically segmenting and considering our audience goals when designing and developing programs and events. This centering on the alumni experience drives to a more meaningful engagement/outcome, allowing us to focus more specifically on the needs and experiences of our diverse audience. This session will present a case study of how we began to do this work at Indiana University and the tools we have built to measure the impact. We will also discuss ways in which you can scale this model no matter the size of your shop.

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.

Metrics are ever-present in development shops around the country. But how do you make them simple, effective and powerful? How can you make sure your metrics also incentivize a development officer to stay at the institution? In this session, we will examine the metrics journey for both Vanderbilt University and Bellarmine University, two development offices on different scales, but utilizing the same fundamental framework to motivate their fundraisers to year over year success and retention. We will also cover: • Creating a cultural behavior around metrics, not a “gotcha” atmosphere • Balanced and custom metric designs for each individual development officer depending on experience, unit coverage, 3-year averages, and a variety of other factors • Formulaic financial incentive programs from a large budget operation to a small budget operation • Clear career ladders and performance expectations for each development officer We encourage you to attend what is sure to be an engaging and lively discussion.

Mapping out and understanding your long-term goals can help you chart out the right steps to help you achieve success. This interactive session will cover the ins and outs of developing a strategic plan to help you achieve your professional and personal goals. It will also allow you to stop doing things “just because we have always done them before” which is a common theme in advancement.

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.

So, your institution wants to launch a campaign – now what? This session will provide an overview of campaign structure and organization and will dive deeply into fundamentals of campaign goal setting. Learn how your institution can examine past performance, current pipeline, and future growth rates to set goals AND leave with a nifty, customizable campaign calculator tool. We’ll also share insights on how the University of Denver is translating academic priorities to compelling philanthropic goals. And finally, we will review case studies in campus stakeholder negotiations that lead to comprehensive campaign ownership, including how to use data to encourage leadership to raise sights in goal setting. This interactive session will equip you to approach campaign goal setting with confidence!